Overlooked in the days since Trump's celebration of Putin's invasion of Ukraine is how wrong Trump was about the man he claims to know “very, very well,” writes JonahDispatch. (via latimesopinion)
“I went in yesterday and there was a television screen, and I said, ‘This is genius.’ Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine, of Ukraine, Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful,” Trumpon a radio show the day after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
“So Putin is now saying, ‘It’s independent,’ a large section of Ukraine. I said, ‘How smart is that?’ And he’s going to go in and be a peacekeeper. That’s the strongest peace force,” Trump“We could use that on our southern border. That’s the strongest peace force I’ve ever seen.... Here’s a guy who’s very savvy.... I know him very well. Very, very well.”
In the days that followed, Trump’s comments generated a lot of justified condemnation. But it bothered me that most of the criticism seemed to center on Trump’s use of the terms “savvy” and “genius,” and not “wonderful.” The former are descriptive terms while the latter is normative. After all, one can believe that Putin is brilliant while also being evil. But saying that the initiation of lawless slaughter is “wonderful” is morally grotesque.