Garry Kasparov: "Trump’s Reputation Can Never Be Repaired, But America’s Reputation Must Be

Trump and his crime family have been in bed with the Russian Mafia for decades and everyone knows he's also Putin's bitch. But there are some Russians he'd like to do without and one is chess grandmaster-- and political activist-- Garry Kasparov, a Putin for. He's also a Trump foe. In 2011, following the death of former Czech president Václav Havel, Kasparov, was named chairman of the Human Rights Foundation. Appropriately enough, during the 2016 election he described Trump as "a celebrity showman with racist leanings and authoritarian tendencies."

Yesterday, the NY Daily News published a Kasparov OpEd, asserting that Trump is devising America. "No matter how low your opinion may be of President Trump," be began, "he’ll always find a way to lower it. On Wednesday, he outdid himself, breaking even the laws of physics by reaching new depths in two places at once. In Washington, Trump was revealed to be even more traitorous, venal and outright criminal than already assumed thanks to the congressional testimony of his long-time attorney and fixer Michael Cohen. Just hours later, in Hanoi, Trump was forced to walk away from his latest love-fest summit with one of the world’s bloodiest dictators, North Korea’s Kim Jong Un."

Cohen was as convincing as a confessed crook can be. It’s impossible to find an honest man to testify against Trump since he tends to surround himself with people as corrupt as he is. So we are forced to rely on their self-interest and the renowned lack of honor among thieves.

Unlike Trump’s convicted campaign chief Paul Manafort, who continued to lie and conspire against his own interest, Cohen is more worried about American justice than Russian killers. This is another reason I believe Cohen when he says he doesn’t know much about Trump’s Russia connections beyond the Trump Tower Moscow deal (in which the would-be American President’s company considered offering Russian dictator Vladimir Putin the building’s $50 million penthouse, free of charge).

If Cohen knew more, he’d say less.

Russia appeared elsewhere in Cohen’s testimony, if mostly indirectly. He confirmed that Trump heard from Roger Stone that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange would release emails that would damage Hillary Clinton. Assange and WikiLeaks have been lockstep collaborators with Russian intelligence services for years and cannot be considered to act independently from Putin’s wishes.

Additionally, Deutsche Bank lent Trump hundreds of millions of dollars when no other institution would give him a dime. This is the same bank that was fined for laundering billions in Russian cash and was described by expert reporter Luke Harding as facilitating a “shuffle of money” between its business with Russians and its business with Trump. From Trump Tower to the hacked emails to the fishy loans to the polling data Manafort handed over to a Russian agent, the list of contacts and likely quid pro quos between Trump and Russia is long and growing. I believe the English term is “collusion.”

Cohen’s credibility was enhanced by his Republican interrogators, who debased themselves, their offices and Congress as an institution with their eagerness to attack one of the few people who can shed light on the threat Trump represents to the country. It is vital to understand what Putin extracted from Trump in exchange for keeping quiet about the Trump Tower arrangement and the Trumps’ many lies about it. But it was clear from the start that the Republicans weren’t interested in the truth, only in defending their Dear Leader.

They attempted to do this by calling Trump’s right-hand man a liar and a crook, as if those characteristics aren’t exactly why Trump relied on him for so many years. The GOP questioners didn’t even try to exculpate Trump, conceding that his actions are indefensible so the only hope is discrediting the messenger. The GOP isn’t angry with Cohen for lying to Congress in 2017 when he was doing it to defend Trump. They’re angry that he stopped.

In the U.S., lawmakers take an oath to defend the Constitution, not whoever happens to be sitting in the Oval Office. Unfortunately, this was only the latest confirmation that the GOP is the party of Trump, not of conservatives and certainly not of the people. Just a day earlier, only 13 of 197 Republican members of Congress voted to block Trump’s spurious national emergency declaration. Democratic control of the House guaranteed its passage there regardless, but it remains to be seen if the GOP-controlled Senate has any interest in reasserting the legislature as the first branch of government, as the Founders designed.

The President has greater discretion in the foreign policy realm, power that Trump has used to weaken American alliances and empower autocrats around the globe. From kowtowing to Putin to downplaying the murder of a Saudi-American journalist, Trump hasn’t met an authoritarian he doesn’t like. (His administration’s laudable pressure on Venezuela’s Maduro is the exception that proves the rule. One can only assume that there are millions of barrels of ulterior motive involved.)

Trump’s wooing of murderous North Korean dictator would be inexcusable even if it achieved results. It hasn’t. Instead, Kim has received the global elevation all dictators crave by being treated as an equal by the leader of the most powerful free country in the world and given up nothing he cares about. His country is still a concentration camp of 25 million souls, and he knows the only reason he is receiving first-class treatment is because of the nuclear weapons he will never relinquish.

Just as Russia loomed over the Cohen hearing, Putin’s shadow was also present in Hanoi, with foreign minister Sergei Lavrov appearing right on time to claim that the “Americans are seeking our advice” on the negotiations. To be fair, if Kim listens to anyone, it’s likely Putin, who helped turn the North Korean missile program into a global threat in record time. As also seen in Afghanistan, Georgia, Ukraine and Syria, there is little Putin likes better than to create or stoke a conflict and then offer to assist in defusing it. It keeps him on the global stage and makes for good propaganda at home in Russia.

Putin has no real interest in de-escalation on the Korean Peninsula. He sells tech and fuel to North Korea against sanctions and gets slave labor and influence in return. Trump and Kim acting out a futile pantomime also strengthens Putin’s message that the United States has become a laughingstock, a paper tiger. It’s increasingly difficult to disagree. This latest American debacle in Vietnam couldn’t have ended in a more pathetic fashion without Trump clinging to the last helicopter out.

I suppose it’s true that Trump leaving Hanoi with no deal was better than making a bad one, but this is saying that drinking half a glass of poison is better than drinking a full glass. North Korea quickly disputed Trump’s reasons for abandoning the deal, and it is tragic that the words of a Stalinist dictatorship sound more credible than those of the U.S. President. Trump then added insult to injury by saying he took Kim “at his word” when he denied, preposterously, that he knew about the torture of American prisoner Otto Warmbier, who died soon after returning to the U.S. in 2017.

This revolting statement stung me especially hard, coming as it did on Feb. 27, the date my friend Boris Nemtsov was assassinated in Moscow four years ago. The likelihood that an American prisoner was abused without Kim’s knowledge is the same as the assassinations of Nemtsov or Jamal Khashoggi happening without the approval of Putin or Muhammed Bin Salman, respectively.

In none of these cases would anyone risk such a move without the leader’s sanction, if not direct instruction. This is the mafioso-style “code” Cohen spoke of in his testimony regarding Trump’s oblique instructions to lie and threaten. “Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?” from the top boss is as clear as a signed death warrant.

But Trump always believes what dictators tell him because he wants the same autocratic standard to apply to him. If it’s good, they want all the credit. If it’s bad, they knew nothing about it. The buck stops nowhere.

The message Trump is sending to the rest of the world is clear: The United States is an unreliable ally and an unworthy enemy. Hostile actors are tempted to act while allies are forced to consider their own plans instead of relying on collective defense. Such a trend foretells a return to the uncertainty and regional power struggles that turned the 20th century into a bloodbath.

Days that live in infamy are usually the result of attacks from abroad. Pearl Harbor and 9/11 were met by unprecedented unity among Americans and their political representatives. The attacks today are largely internal, and self-inflicted. The greatest political scandal in American history is being met with denial and obstruction from Republicans, whose party once championed the rule of law. If asked what they stand for today, they can say only that they stand for whatever Trump says-- and that they’ll sit and roll over for him, too.

Trump has been exposed for what he is, a thuggish con-man with no regard for decency or the law. He has declared moral bankruptcy nearly as often as financial bankruptcy. Yet the damage he is doing to the presidency, the standing of the United States, and the global world order is of greater consequence. The free world still requires U.S. leadership and strength against its many enemies. Trump’s reputation can never be repaired, but America’s reputation must be.

Have You Ever Considered That Trump Isn't Normal?

I had to change planes in Philly on my way back to L.A. from Berniepalooza Sunday. A psychology of organizations professor from Trump's alma mater sat next to me. I asked her for an analysis of how he governs based on how he ran his business. She talked about malignant narcissism and summed up by explaining that for Trump everything is about Trump. Sounds about right. He doesn't care-- not even a little-- about the laws, the country, our people... anything. Just his own insane, greed-obsessed self. Look at those 4 crackpot tweets up top. What is wrong with this psychopath? (That's a rhetorical question.)

I'm old enough to remember when presidents didn't comment on on-going investigations for fear of influencing juries, judges... Justice. Trump is the polar opposite. Influencing is exactly what he hopes to do when he howls into the wind, eschewing presidential responsibilities and duties-- the presidency itself. He's more concerned about what his longtime fixer and personal attorney is testifying about than anything to do with the rapidly deteriorating state of our country, domestically, economically, on the world stage...

Garry Kasparov is widely considered the greatest chess champion of all time. Since retiring in 2005 he's devoted himself to political activism, primarily to opposing Putin. He lives in New York now and his 2015 book, Winter Is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped compares Putin to Hitler and warns the west to oppose Putin sooner, rather than appeasing him and postponing the eventual confrontation. The following year, during the U.S. election, he described Trump as "a celebrity showman with racist leanings and authoritarian tendencies" and criticized his posture towards Putin. Sunday he published an OpEd in the New York Daily News, Trump first: U.S. foreign policy is now in the service of one man. "Trump’s body," he wrote, "flew to Argentina for the G20 meeting of national leaders on Friday, but his mind was clearly elsewhere. If Trump’s Twitter account is a Fitbit of his mental health, his latest flurry of panicky tweets about the Mueller investigation looked like nervous breakdown."

Trump was so agitated that he first confirmed, then canceled, his planned reunion with Vladimir Putin in Buenos Aires, ostensibly because he disapproved of Russia’s attack on Ukrainian ships in the international waters near Russian-occupied Crimea last week. Trump had previously shrugged off the Russian attack, so it seems unlikely that the Azov Sea is much on his mind these days.

Putin’s turn to piracy cannot compete with the ongoing White House spectacle, which now stars Trump’s long-time personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. His guilty plea is further proof of my assertion that Trump’s team has a far higher crime rate than any of the immigrant or refugee groups he demonizes.

Among other things, Cohen revealed that, despite their many denials, Trump and his family were still heavily involved in a Moscow Trump Tower project in 2016, when his campaign was receiving Russian assistance. This points to new avenues for perjury charges and exposes yet another conflict of interest. During the campaign, the real Trump motto was apparently Trump First, not America First. The open question is if that has changed at all during his two years as President.

A few weeks after Trump’s inauguration, I said in an interview that Trump’s ability to generate attention and chaos was what Putin liked most about him. “There will be a crisis every day” was my assessment, which has turned out to be far too conservative. Every hour brings a new scandalous statement, indictment or revelation about Trump or a member of his administration.

It’s too much for the media and the public to keep up with, and whether that’s by design or not (it’s not), it’s an effective way of keeping the spotlight on Trump all the time. This may not matter in 2020 if the Mueller “witch hunt” continues to collect scalps, but it’s good to remember how Trump exploited this method to dominate his rivals for the Republican primary.

Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this stream of new crimes and misdemeanors regarding Trump’s Russia connections is that Putin has known it all the entire time. It’s impossible to imagine that the former KGB colonel hasn’t used this damning knowledge of Trump and his family’s many lies for leverage.

Regardless of the motive for the cancellation, I’m glad we have been spared, for now, another Putin-Trump photo-op. What legitimate business do they have to talk about face-to-face at this point? Congress and the White House have applied significant sanctions to Russia for its belligerence against Ukraine and for attacking the U.S. election, but Trump himself has remained steadfast in his refusal to criticize the one man entirely responsible for it all.

Meanwhile, Putin needs these summits to legitimize his status as a big boss, a vital task for any dictator. His supporters don’t like the penalties Putin’s leadership has brought down on them, but they are also convinced that he is the only one who can ever hope to rescue them. They might lose that hope and turn against him should Putin ever be effectively isolated and condemned on the world stage, as he should be. But Putin will never be treated like a pariah while nearly everyone believes he has the U.S. President in his pocket at least until Jan. 20, 2021.

Foreign policy is the traditional siren song of an American President embattled domestically, a chance to wield unmatched prestige and power as global statesman and commander-in-chief. Certainly, there are plenty of areas where American leadership is much needed at the moment, including Putin’s war on Ukraine and the Saudi-led war in Yemen.

Instead, Trump has continued to abdicate the fading tradition of American moral leadership on matters large and small. He and his administration have continued to defend the Saudi crown prince, Mohammad Bin Salman, despite the CIA’s assessment that he gave the order to murder journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a U.S. resident.

Trump siding with a brutal dictatorship against his own intelligence services should sound quite familiar since it matches exactly how he responded to the news of Russia’s election hacking.

“Who are you going to believe,” Trump tells his followers over and over, “me or the facts?”

The two main beneficiaries of Trump’s endless good faith, Bin Salman and Putin, had good reason to laugh and smile when they shook hands in Buenos Aires on Friday. Their wars are progressing, their critics are dead, and they are welcomed among the leaders of the free world without a care.

That may be changing thanks to the American people, who awoke from their traditional midterm slumber to overwhelmingly deliver the House of Representatives to the Democrats. The Republicans kept narrow control of the Senate thanks to a favorable election slate, but rest assured that everyone up for reelection in 2020 now knows the dangers of being seen as too closely allied with Trump.

I am a member of no party, I hasten to say, although I was especially glad to witness the departure of Putin’s favorite Congressman, Orange County Republican Dana Rohrabacher. He was defending Putin long before Trump made it fashionable in the GOP, and there is no doubt he finally paid a political price for these connections.

Most importantly, some balance has been restored to the U.S. government, and the impact is being felt even before the new blue House has convened. Last Wednesday, the Senate voted to end U.S. military support for the Saudi’s genocidal campaign in Yemen. Despite Trump’s initial waffling, the White House felt obliged to put out a strong statement supporting Ukraine’s territorial integrity and condemning Russian aggression, although it was missing the only part Putin cares about-- what the consequences will be if he continues.

Ukraine and Yemen are far away from the United States, as are Taiwan, South Korea, Israel and other nations that are threatened by authoritarian regimes or terrorist groups. The U.S. has defended them for decades not just out of the goodness of American hearts-- although there is much to be said in favor of that American love of an underdog, especially from this former Soviet citizen.

Aiding Ukraine against Putin’s aggression isn’t charity, it’s an investment in the stability of Europe and all economic benefits stability produces. Standing up to a homicidal Saudi prince isn’t gallantry; it puts his regime and those of his neighbors on notice that their actions will have consequences-- and those actions include murdering journalists and sponsoring terrorist groups who always have the U.S. and Israel at the top of their list of targets.

Democracy isn’t just some abstract concept, it’s your own way of life. When the nations of the free world fail to defend and promote democracy and human rights abroad, that indifference inevitably comes home to roost. There is also the pragmatic motive, since democracies, for all their debates and differences, do not make war on one another. As well-understood by past Presidents of both parties, from Harry Truman to Ronald Reagan, the best long-term security plan for the United States is the global spread of democracy and prosperity.

When the U.S. shrugs its mighty shoulders at the murder of thousands, as in Ukraine, Syria and Yemen, or the assassination of one brave man like Khashoggi, the message to dictators and thugs is to do as they like. The idea that the U.S. should only care, or act, when its own vital interests are directly attacked is based on the perilous delusion that it’s best to wait until the pot boils over before turning off the fire.

Failing to protect innocent lives abroad makes Americans less safe. Failing to defend human rights in other places puts those same rights at risk at home. It’s also a vicious cycle, as autocratic leaders in turn use Trump’s attacks on refugees and journalists to justify their own.

As Truman explained in 1951, when the U.S. was getting involved in Korea, you stand up in small conflicts so you don’t have to fight bigger ones. Making it clear that aggression is unacceptable is not escalation, it’s deterrence, the foundation of Truman’s successful Cold War strategy that saved South Korea from Communist slavery and that eventually brought down the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union.

Even the humblest leader cares about his legacy, often to a fault, and it’s not necessarily unhealthy for a President to occasionally wonder how the history books will treat him. The strength of the democratic world order is its continuity, the ability to pass principles and policy to the next administration, the next generation. Today’s hyperpartisanship is wrecking that strategic strength as each side pushes further to the extremes, undoing the work of the previous administration and overcompensating toward the other extreme.

Trump not only doesn’t care about the next generation, he doesn’t seem to care about anything other than his personal image in the present day. President Obama fulfilled his mandate to begin America’s retreat from the world after the costly overreach of his predecessor. Both George W. Bush and Obama are decent men who loved their country, even if they had very different views of what America’s role in the world should be.

It is fair to say we are paying the price of both of their views going too far-- Bush’s interventionism causing chaos and Obama’s hurried retrenchment creating power vacuums filled by the likes of Russia, China, Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Mistakes were made. They were mistakes, however, made with the best interests of the country and the world in mind. Today we are seeing all too well what happens when the world’s most powerful nation is instead led by a man who cares only for his personal interests. Instead of being guided by the values of the Founding Fathers, Trump has the moral compass of a YouTube comments section. America First is bad enough, Trump First is a catastrophe.