America Has Switched Sides. Is That What You Voted For?

Donald Trump is incessantly irate at Democrats and liberal media for probing his ties and flattering deference to Vladimir Putin, calling it a “Russia, Russia, Russia” obsession and a hoax. In office a little over a month, let’s see what transpired:

  Vice President JD Vance went to the Munich Security Conference to tell European governments that their greatest threat was not Russia but “from within” – their migrant problem and curtailment of free speech that shuts out extremist rightwing parties such as AfD.

  Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told a Brussels meeting of almost 50 of
Rob Dobi, Washington Post.

Ukraine’s Western backers that a return to Ukraine’s pre-war borders was “unrealistic,” that NATO membership for Kyiv was off the table, and that…

"We're also here today to directly and unambiguously express that stark strategic realities prevent the United States of America from being primarily focused on the security of Europe.”

It was a thunderclap, a reversal of 80 years of American policy in a single stroke.

  Hegseth further announced the halt of offensive cyberoperations against Russia by U.S. Cyber Command, notwithstanding Russia’s continuing cyber activity against the U.S.

  Trump called Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “a dictator” and said it was Ukraine that started the war.

  The U.S. delegation to the United Nations followed up by voting against a resolution condemning Russia for its aggression against Ukraine. America thus took Russia’s side and joined North Korea, Belarus, Israel (yes, Israel), fourteen other countries in Russia’s orbit, and of course Russia.

  In an Oval Office meeting that played like the ambush it surely was, Trump and Vance attacked Zelenskyy, accusing him of not being sufficiently grateful for U.S. support.

  For Zelenskyy’s not being respectful enough, Trump “paused” any further shipments of weapons to Ukraine, creating an opening for Russia to gain more ground.

  In a deadly betrayal, Trump then denied the intel we've always provided to help Ukraine down incoming Russian missiles, resulting in Putin going all out to kill the civilian population.

So it’s finally out in the open. In actions he has directed, Trump has confirmed that it really was and continues to be Russia, Russia, Russia. On his own, without any referendum or “mandate” from the American people, he has switched sides, aligning with Russia, all but abandoning our European allies, and dragging all of a stunned America with him.

Putin probably cannot believe his good fortune. On Russian state television, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said of Trump’s actions,

"The new administration is rapidly changing all foreign policy configurations. This largely aligns with our vision."

In his speech before a joint session of Congress Tuesday night, Trump said,

“We've had serious discussions with Russia and have received strong signals that they are ready for peace.”

He’s being played. Given this new lease, why would Putin settle for only the territory he has gained so far? Just as when Trump withdrew our troops from Syria, Trump has left Russia in the best possible position, clearing the way for Putin to keep going. And not just to overwhelm Ukraine. Moldova, up against Ukraine, would be next and the worry is that, in his dream of rebuilding the Soviet empire, Putin will move on the Baltic states: Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia.

That was the stage Mr. Trump had set in the whirlwind opening days as president before he spoke to Congress where, in his opening sentences, he prejudged his presidency to be “the greatest and most successful era in the history of our country”. He told the assembled lawmakers that he “accomplished more in 43 days than most administrations accomplished in four or eight years.” Whereupon he would repeat to the 535 members one of his persistent lies, that “we've spent perhaps $350 billion” in support of Ukraine whereas, referring to the European Union countries, “they've spent $100 billion. What a difference it is”.

In fact the difference is small and the opposite. The Kiel Institute for the World Economy, a research group based in Germany that keeps track, says that the U.S. has approved roughly $185 billion, but much of that unallocated, billions expended on replenishing U.S. ordnance stocks, still more of it assistance to other countries affected by the war. The amount given directly to Ukraine, and most of it weapons, is $119 billion. And Europe? The equivalent – direct support to Ukraine by E.U. nations is higher than the U.S. — $138 billion.

In the days preceding his talk at the Capitol, he compounded that lie. Unlike U.S. support of outright gifts of weapons and money, Trump said European Union contributions to Ukraine are loans. They will be paid back somehow. So in return for its no-strings magnanimity, it’s only fair for the U.S. to recoup some of its costs by Ukraine signing the minerals deal, squeezing a beleaguered nation that, if ever there is peace, will desperately need the full value of its own resources to reconstruct its shattered country.

Sitting beside him in the Oval Office to hear that lie was French President Emmanuel Macron, who reached across to grasp Trump’s arm to put a stop to this new fabrication, but that didn’t stop Trump. He would say the same the next day, this time with Britain’s Prime Minister Kier Starmer sitting alongside. The press has grown sheepish and no longer challenges this or other lies and exaggerations. He will go on saying it.

Trump would lie to Congress often that night, but none tops his standard lie about tariffs. When he first floated his tariff lie, it seemed like he might not actually know how they work. But it proved to be deliberate, and he began repeating it whenever tariffs were the subject. He said foreign countries exporting their products to the U.S. would pay into the Treasury “hundreds of billions” of dollars. “We're going to be taking in trillions of dollars” he told the Economic Club of New York last September. The claim grew still larger by the time he stood in front of Congress:

"We will take in trillions and trillions of dollars and create jobs like we’ve never seen before."

The bravado invariably brought Republican members seated on the right side of the chamber to their feet, clapping, and whooping as they did all night through Trump's hour-and-forty-minute address as if Trump’s saying it had already made it so. In contrast, former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers concluded that,

”I have never seen as irrational a consequential policy put in place by an American administration.”

Trump warned the world,

“If you don’t make your product in America…under the Trump administration, you will pay a tariff, and in some cases, a rather large one.”

No you won’t. In fact and of course, foreign exporters don’t pay U.S. tariffs. American importers do, and the tariff costs are passed along on every step of the supply chain until they are ultimately paid by the U.S. consumer in the form of higher prices. Tariffs have the same effect as a sales tax.

To that New York audience, Trump had also said, “I look forward to having no deficits within a fairly short period of time”. It reveals he is counting on tariffs to offset the huge deficits arising from the further tax cuts he wants, shortly to be proposed by Congress, and in addition to retaining the expiring 2017 tax cuts act.

This is a cruel subterfuge that shows Trump gives not a damn about the voters who elected him. Those of lower income tend to spend all their earnings on life’s necessities and that’s where the tariffs wind up, whereas the wealthy have vast surplus income beyond what they spend unaffected by tariffs. His voters will pay for the tax cuts through the higher costs of living brought about by tariffs, tax cuts that, if like his of 2017, vastly favor the wealthiest 10% far more than the token amounts given to the bottom 90% to distract them from realizing they've been fleeced. It is a cynical betrayal of his supporters. Will they ever wake up?

That’s the new phrase Republicans are repeating — that this will be the common sense administration. And yet the president in his address said,

"And in the near future I want to do what has not been done in 24 years: balance the federal budget. We’re going to balance it.”

This preposterousness was met with delirious applause. Our previous article — ”House’s ‘Big Beautiful’ Bill for Trump Will Take U.S. Over the Cliff“ — laid out the trillions that would be added to the nation's debt by retaining the 2017 tax cuts, passing still more tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, and a slew of new giveaways that Trump wants:

"I’m calling for no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and no tax on Social Security benefits for our great seniors. And I also want to make interest payments on car loans tax deductible — but only if the car is made in America."

Nevertheless, with a tax program that promises ever less money to pay for them, Trump told lawmakers of his big plans:

  "As commander in chief, my focus is on building the most powerful military of the future. As a first step, I am asking Congress to fund a state-of-the-art golden dome missile defense shield to protect our homeland — all made in the U.S.A."

  "We are going to protect our citizens like never before. To boost our defense industrial base we are also going to resurrect the American shipbuilding industry, including commercial shipbuilding and military shipbuilding."

That last is a vital necessity which should cause him to forget tax cuts and let the 2017 cuts expire in order to make that happen. We’ve been on this subject since as far back as 2018, most recently this excerpt from a year ago March:

”China can build ships at quintuple the rate of America. As with many U.S. industries, shipbuilding began moving offshore to lower-cost nations such as South Korea decades ago. The downsizing of the Navy after the end of the Cold War eviscerated the industry.”

But we’ve heard this from Trump before. While campaigning in 2016, he vowed to bring the U.S. Navy up to 355 warships, a level that the Navy had been urging for years; four years later he had done nothing.

  Mr. Trump also plans a quick war with Panama: "To enhance our national security, my administration will be reclaiming the Panama Canal and we’ve already started doing it…The Panama Canal was built for Americans, not for others….We gave it to Panama and we’re taking it back."

  And we’ll take Greenland from our once ally Denmark: "I think we’re gonna get it. One way or the other we’re gonna get it."

  And to diminish our national security, he asked Congress to repeal the bipartisan CHIPS Act, which brings the manufacture of the most sophisticated semiconductors to this country, calling it “a horrible, horrible thing" for its being a Biden administration accomplishment.

As he drew toward a close, his messianic notions sprouted once again:

" I believe that my life was saved that day in Butler for a very good reason. I was saved by God to Make America Great Again — I believe that. I do."