It seems that just about every irony you can invent dogs the Presidency of Donald Trump—the latest being that on the same day Trump was ranting about how the whole world was laughing at us, Vladimir Putin was admitting, in his characteristically oblique fashion, that Russia really was behind the hacking of the DNC and revelation of yet more Hillary Clinton emails.
This after months of Putin allowing Trump, flailing about with indignation, to speculate publicly about how many other possibilities for election tampering there were besides Russians—despite the agreement among several U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia was indeed behind the hacking.
(A Trump realization: Oops! So it was the Russians, after all? You mean, maybe they’re the ones who got me elected?)
So if any foreign country’s leaders are laughing at us, it would be the Russians.
You gotta admit, Vladimir Putin is a master of dissembling, on everything from the invasion of Ukraine to war crimes in Syria to alleging he has no designs on the Baltic states. I watched the video of him identifying the hackers as most likely non-governmental Russian “patriots”—and there was virtually no sign of emotion besides a momentary sly smile. (That smile was for YOU, Donald, you sucker!)
You don’t need late-night comedians to make a fool of Donald Trump, all you need is another leader with a similarly thuggish mentality who is always a step or two ahead of him. Stay tuned for more of the same in months to come.