I’m not neutral on the war in Ukraine. I wrote about it in my early days here at First Draft and my feelings haven’t changed. And I know that Trump has been a Putin puppet for at least the last decade, and probably over the last 2. Nothing he does in the service of his BFF Vova, or in service to keeping whatever his BFF has on him buried, should surprise any of us.

And yet Trump’s servile behavior has gotten worse over the last week or so. Some news that broke late Tuesday:

And this was on top of Trump saying he had no idea who gave the order—as if any sentient being on Earth doesn’t know he did it to appease Putin.

And on top of drastically cutting back on aid to Ukraine:

Now the Trump administration is withholding weapons that other countries have paid for:

Now yes these are not legal examples of treason as set out in the Constitution. But on a moral level they are definitely treason. It’s helpful to step back from the flood of bullshit the administration is desperately putting out and looking at what Trump is saying:

And to that point, David Rothkopf has this excellent analogy:

It is starting to feel like all the history we learned was wrong.

We were taught we won the Cold War. But today, the president of the United States openly serves the interests of Russia. We have become, in fact, in crucial economic and security matters, a satellite of Moscow. The U.S. chief executive has publicly and repeatedly declared his loyalty to Russia’s head of state. For more than a decade he has openly and covertly been advancing Russian foreign policy, often at the expense of the national security of the United States, the laws of the United States, and the interests of the US and our allies.

He’s absolutely correct. First, he agrees with Marcy Wheeler (Emptywheel)’s point:

Trump asserts that Russia is doing little to help Iran—although there is plenty of reporting to the contrary and he almost certainly seems to be lying. He reveals the weakness of his argument by then acknowledging they are helping to some degree by asserting it was less than what they could be doing…and seeming to threaten that if people don’t go along with him, Russia will do more to help Iran. Which, of course, means helping Iran target and attack U.S. troops, ships, and bases.

He corroborates Michael McFaul’s graph:

The current situation has led others to be clear that what is happening now is newsworthy but not necessarily new. In the words of Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski, “The US no longer finances this war since January of last year. In other words, for more than a year and a half. The US has not contributed a single cent to the defense of Ukraine. We are doing it. Europe.”

I agree with his concluding points, starting with this:

Donald Trump is not just the most corrupt president in our history, although he is certainly that. He is not just the most incompetent to ever serve as chief executive, although no one can contest his status in that regard either.

He is something worse and especially disturbing. He is anti-historical.

He is seeking to reverse history.

And I’ve also written about Trump’s desire to hurt people who don’t worship him:

But there is something, I feel, that is darker and more ominous beneath this all. I feel that Trump, desperate to assert his power, deeply angry at a world that has rejected him no matter what level of business success he feels he may have achieved, has a darkly destructive streak. It smacks of the nihilism of a narcissist who wants nothing good for a world that rejects him or soon will be done with him.

He is working to erase history to reject that which those who rejected him valued. It is the thinking of a sociopath. I will destroy all that you loved as a way to get at you.

And I agree that he’s going to hurt us if he loses:

And I will be honest with you: I fear that following a defeat at the polls in November (if we have free and fair elections) and in his last years in office, all this makes Trump more dangerous. I expect him to embrace his anti-historical, anti-American views more tightly and translate them into actions that harm our country and aid and abet our enemies.

And that might become legal treason in addition to moral treason.

I’ll leave you with this: