A terrifying thought experiment

As we watch Russian dictator Putin murder thousands of Ukrainians while the Ukraine military valiantly and inspiringly kicks Russia's ass, let's all ponder what things would be like on the international stage right now if Trump had been re-elected.

After laying out the executive "virtues" the Constitution and our system require of the President, as well as the checks and balances on Presidential power, Law Professor Alan Z. Rozenshtein, says:

From this perspective, it is sobering, if not downright terrifying, to think of how Trump would have handled this current crisis, had he won in 2020. Consider first the question of loyalty. Trump’s infamous phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in which he responded to the Ukrainian president’s request for more Javelin anti-tank missiles (which have proved vital for the Ukrainian defense) by asking for Ukrainian help in digging up dirt on his main political rival, betrays a disloyalty to the national interest whose geopolitical implications are now all too clear.

Nor is it clear that Trump would even feel that it was his responsibility to rally the world to confront Russia, as the Biden administration has skillfully done. After all, Trump’s response to criticisms of his administration’s early missteps in handling the coronavirus pandemic was to say “I don’t take responsibility at all.” Why expect that he would feel different about a war half a world away, or that he wouldn’t simply have delegated weighty foreign policy decisions to informal advisors, thereby maintaining distance and plausible deniability, as when Rudolph Giuliani effectively ran the White House’s Ukraine policy. Even worse, given Trump’s personal affinity for Vladimir Putin, which he reiterated even as Russian forces entered Ukraine, is the very real possibility that Trump would have supported Russia’s invasion.

That sounds right to me.

Professor Rozenshtein concludes by warning of what happens if Trump is re-elected in 2024 and the catastrophic implications to us all. 

2024 is still a couple of years away, but it shouldn't slip your mind for one day that the only way to prevent a future where an incompetent, ignorant, grifting, wanna-be-dictator is in charge of US foreign policy, is to vote Democratic.