Putin’s Man in Washington

Trump as the Real-life Manchurian Candidate

"There will be no peace and security anywhere if aggressions are rewarded and if the law of the jungle wins." - French Ambassador to the UN Nicolas de Rivière, following the decision by the United States to vote with North Korea in supporting Russian aggression in Ukraine

In the dark 1962 political thriller The Manchurian Candidate, a sleeper agent from the Kremlin is ready to steal the presidency. His name is Senator John Yerkes Iselin, a dim-witted boob whose only chance to take power is a planned assassination where Iselin, covered in blood, would stand up and do a "fight, fight, fight" speech to inspire and deceive a nation.

Thank God Frank Sinatra was there to put a stop to it.

Trump is a real-life John Yerkes Iselin. He is Putin's man in the White House. No doubt his willingness to repeat Kremlin talking points will feed into the scurrilous rumours about what Putin has on Trump.

I am less interested in why the Kremlin is manipulating Trump and more concerned about the willingness of the American media and political class to go along with him. The betrayal of American values and geo-political interests is just so glaringly obvious.

Their silence or muted criticism is nothing less than collusion with the crimes being perpetrated.

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Consider yesterday's vote at the United Nations on a vote condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine and calling for the world to respect Ukraine's territorial integrity. The United States voted against its traditional Western allies and stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Russia, North Korea and Israel.

There would have been a time when an American politician openly promoting Russian and North Korean interests would have been rightfully denounced as a traitor. The best CNN could come up with was to call the United States action an "unorthodox approach." They followed up with a lot of blah, blah, blah about Trump being a high-stakes deal-maker.

Thankfully, the French succinctly called out the United States for reverting back to the law of the jungle.

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Trump's move at the UN comes as he is restarting his threats of massive trade retaliation against Canada.

In January, Trump was huffing and puffing about fentanyl and the chimera of hordes of people sneaking across the northern border. But it was never about these issues. Trump was determined to destroy the economy of the United States' closest ally and key economic partner.

Trump backed down when Prime Minister Trudeau made it clear that Canada would hit back with a massive $155 billion trade war that would cause economic chaos in the United States.

Since then, he has insulted our nation, belittled the Prime Minister and turned what would have been a fun hockey game between two rivals (Canada and the US) into a hate fest.

Trump's team lost, so here we go again.

Is anyone surprised?

Canadians haven't let down our guard - this is why the boycott against American products and vacation spots has continued growing in size and determination.

We know that a trade war will be devastating for Canada, but we also know that this trade war will cause massive job losses south of the border and likely plunge the United States into a serious recession.

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To what end?

Trump 2.0 isn't about making America "great again." It is about making America isolated, undermined and hated on the world stage. Instead of relying on traditional allies like Canada, the UK, Germany and France, Trump is telling Americans their new friends are the Russian oligarchs and North Korea.

He is undermining international intelligence gathering by trying to kick Canada out of the “Five Eyes” security group.

He is weakening America's international trading relationships and undermining democratic allies. With the trashing of USAID, Trump has given China and Russia a free hand to extend their powerful influence in Africa and Asia. Taiwan, the United States' main source of semiconductors, is now dangerously undermined. None of this is good for long-term American diplomatic or economic interests.

But most Americans are too busy scrambling to deal with the chaos of DOGE and Project 2025 to notice. Meanwhile in the Kremlin and Beijing, they are popping the champagne corks.