Donald Trump caught in new Russia bait-and-switch

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Russian President Vladimir Putin caused himself quite a problem when his decision to poison a Russian spy in the United Kingdom led to several British nationals being poisoned in the process. As the UK and other nations began retaliating against Putin, Palmer Report predicted that Donald Trump would feel compelled to make a symbolic anti-Putin move that didn’t add up to much. He ended up “expelling” sixty Russian diplomats from the United States. Now it turns out that was not what it seemed.

A high level representative of the Russian government is now publicly asserting that Trump told him that Russia could simply send sixty other diplomats to take the place of the ones who have been expelled. This was first uncovered by Julia Davis of Russia Media Monitor, who uncovered video of this being announced on Russian television and translated it accordingly. Of course there’s no way to know if Trump actually told the Russians this, or if the Russians are simply making it up. But either way, it exposes Trump’s latest antics as a fraud.

Diplomatic personnel are moved around all the time, so if Trump really did tell Russia that it can send replacement diplomats, then this was no punishment at all. And if Russia is making up this claim, it means that at the least, Trump presented this move to the Russians in such deferential fashion that they simply decided they’re going to send replacements, and they know Trump won’t bother saying “boo” to them about it.

So now we know that even under the ugliest of circumstances, and mounting international pressure, Donald Trump is as unwilling as ever to do anything that might offend Vladimir Putin. Considering that Trump generally spends all day lashing out at pretty much everyone on Twitter, including close U.S. allies, the only logical explanation for his mortal fear of Russia is that Putin is indeed blackmailing him.

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