Comrade Trump and the 2020 Elections

“The President's defensive response to a new Russia interference drama, colored by his belief that all such revelations are a 'Deep State' assault on his own legitimacy, already appears to be exacerbating the damage caused by Moscow's meddling.”

– Stephen Collinson, White House reporter

FBI Director Christopher Wray told the Senate Judiciary Committee last month that Moscow was continuing to "engage in malign foreign influence" online with the goal of sowing division and discord, "and to generate controversy, to generate distrust in our democratic institutions in our electoral process."

Just last week, Intelligence officials warned House lawmakers that Russia was interfering in the 2020 campaign to try to get President Trump re-elected. Five people familiar with the matter stated this disclosure to Congress – a matter that angered Trump, who complained that Democrats would use it against him.

The day after the Feb. 13 briefing to lawmakers, the president berated Joseph Maguire, the outgoing acting director of national intelligence, for allowing it to take place, people familiar with the exchange said. Mr. Trump was particularly irritated that Representative Adam B. Schiff, Democrat of California and the leader of the impeachment proceedings, was at the briefing.

Trump has fixated on Mr. Schiff since the impeachment saga began, pummeling him publicly with insults and unfounded accusations of corruption.

In a tweet, Schiff said that it appeared that Mr. Trump was “again jeopardizing our efforts to stop foreign meddling” with his objections to the briefing.

Now, Trump is working to place loyalists inside the intelligence agencies. He dismissed the assessment that Russia wants to see him reelected as a “misinformation campaign” being driven by Democrats, as fallout continued from that classified congressional briefing last week. Trump tweeted …

“Another misinformation campaign is being launched by Democrats in Congress saying that Russia prefers me to any of the Do Nothing Democrat candidates who still have been unable to, after two weeks, count their votes in Iowa. Hoax number 7!”

On February 19, the president announced that he was replacing Mr. Maguire with Richard Grenell, the ambassador to Germany and an aggressively vocal Donald Trump supporter – in fact, such a supporter that his views have angered many in Germany.

Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden expressed doubt that Grenell meets the DNI’s basic job requirements for expertise in intelligence – even if he’s only on the job in an “acting” capacity. Wyden says …

“If there was any doubt that Donald Trump values unquestioning obedience over the safety of the American people, this appointment settles the question. Senators who take their oath of office seriously must oppose Trump's practice of dodging Senate confirmation practices to place unqualified individuals into highly sensitive national security posts.”

Der Spiegel, German weekly news magazine published a profile of Grenell on January 11, 2019, using interviews with 30 “American and German diplomats, cabinet members, lawmakers, high-ranking officials, lobbyists and think tank experts.” The magazine claimed …

"Almost all of these sources paint an unflattering portrait of the ambassador, one remarkably similar to Donald Trump, the man who sent him to Berlin. A majority of them describe Grenell as a vain, narcissistic person who dishes out aggressively, but can barely handle criticism."

The profile claimed that Grenell is politically isolated in Berlin because of his association with the far-right Alternative for Germany Party, causing the leaders of the mainstream German parties, including the Chancellor herself, to avoid contact with him. The sources claimed that Grenell "knows little about Germany and Europe, that he ignores most of the dossiers his colleagues at the embassy write for him, and that his knowledge of the subject matter is superficial."

In March 2019, Wolfgang Kubicki, deputy chairman of the Free Democratic Party, called for Grenell to be expelled from Germany, stating, "Any U.S. diplomat who acts like a high commissioner of an occupying power must learn that our tolerance also knows its limits."

The way the news of the latest Russian meddling allegations emerged raises new doubts about Trump's sincerity to defend the election or to put his own political interests to one side.

Rep. Kathleen Rice, a Democrat of New York, says …

"The really disturbing part of this is that it is so important for us as lawmakers who are privy to this information, this intelligence, to get it openly and honestly, then figure out what to do about it.”

Russia is in the business of interference to splinter U.S. influence and to undermine the West. Trump's reelection assures them of four more years of this goal. Consider how Trump has already withdrawn from Syria; claimed that Ukraine, not Moscow, interfered in the 2016 election; and frequently attacked NATO and Western unity. Russia will continue to attempt to dismantle democracy, and Trump – both willingly and unwittingly – is among the most useful tools for their destructive work.

Nathan Hodge, Moscow bureau chief of The Wall Street Journal, says, “Trump is an open admirer of Putin, even publicly expressing the hope on Twitter that the Kremlin leader would become his new best friend.” And Hodge continues, “Trump's response to the Russia investigations – heaping scorn on intelligence and law enforcement bodies – also plays into Russia's strategy, undermining Americans' faith in the rule of law and stoking mistrust of government.”