As Charlie Pierce asks, what does this man have to do to prove to the world he’s a Russian agent, puppet, asset, – put on a fur hat and dance the chechotka on the Truman Balconey? It appears that Donald Trump cannot even put America ahead of Russia when signing an American national defense budget. Six hours after all the pomp and circumstances associated with signing the actual bill – those circumstances in which we all focused upon the fact that his lowness did not once mention McCain’s name, six hours later, Trump added a signing statement – basically stapling it onto the back of the bill. And it’s a whopper.
The bill itself contained a ban – mandated by Congress – on spending military funds on “any activity that recognizes the sovereignty of the Russian Federation over Crimea,” the Ukrainian region annexed by Moscow in 2014 in an incursion considered illegal by the United States.
That sounds reasonable, since we do not support this illegal act, and Congress does not trust this president’s power over the military to act in a manner that recognizes the “sovereignty” of the Russian Federation over Crimea.”
Trump’s signing statements asserts that he would treat the provision and similar ones as “consistent with the president’s exclusive constitutional authorities as commander in chief and as the sole representative of the nation in foreign affairs.” I guess it doesn’t apply because only he gets to decide how to act with respect to foreign affairs, or something to that effect. He could’ve just written, “I’m gonna do what I want.”
Or, as Pierce puts it:
In other words, the president* doesn’t have to enforce the provision in the JSMNDAA of 2019 that denies the legitimacy of Vladimir Putin’s land grab in the Ukraine. It also leaves open the option to spend United States military funds to help Putin maintain control in Crimea if the president* so desires to do so.
Could it possibly be more plainly obvious that we have a Russian puppet as president and it might be time to do something about that fact?
