OPINION | ‘Crazy talk’ threatens war, praises Putin, attacks McConnell

If the Senate had been in session this week, imagine the talk in the Republican cloakroom when President Trump thanked Russian strongman Vladimir Putin for throwing more than 700 Americans serving in our embassy in Russia out of the country, threatened to pressure Senate Republicans to throw Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) out of the GOP leadership and used ghoulish rhetoric to threaten nuclear war with North Korea.

Crazy talk from Trump is scaring the hell out of Republicans, Democrats and our allies around the world. Besides thanking Putin and attacking McConnell, Trump again praised his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, after his home was subject to a pre-dawn raid by the FBI seeking evidence for a potential criminal case. 

{mosads}In another example of crazy talk, this time from a Republican other than Trump, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) first suggested, then retracted, the ludicrous notion that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) voted against the healthcare bill because of his own healthcare challenge. Has he no shame?

In more Trump-related crazy talk, some in his camp, including the Breitbart organization, are waging a war of personal destruction against Trump’s national security advisor, H.R. McMaster, while McMaster is trying to normalize and professionalize the National Security Council by inviting the departure of certain staff whose judgment he rightly considers reckless and unwise.

Meanwhile, on the subject of crazy talk, Trump’s former communications chief for a few days, Anthony Scaramucci, is apparently making his return to center stage in the media over the weekend. Will the man known as “Mooch” rally Trump’s declining base to his defense, or criticize the commander-in-chief’s thank you to the Russian strongman who was a key Trump supporter in his campaign for the presidency?

It gets worse. In what reasonable people may debate constitutes crazy talk or not, a former Republican senator from New Hampshire, Gordon Humphrey, said the president is seriously sick and should be removed from office.

Then, after Trump uttered his ghoulish words about “fire and fury” against North Korea “the likes of which the world has never seen” (which made him sound like Dr. Strangelove in the famous 1964 film about nuclear war that did not have a happy ending), cabinet members tried to clarify what the president actually meant. He then repeated his words and said they weren’t strong enough.

In the craziest example of the crazy talk that Trump has brought to the center of American politics, a recent poll reported in the Washington Post found that roughly half of Republicans would favor postponing the 2020 presidential election, which sounds more like dictatorship in Russia than democracy in America.

Joe Scarborough is right. Those who hold this view should hang their heads in shame. 

Which is most crazy: Trump’s praise of Putin for throwing American diplomats out of Russia? Trump’s attack on McConnell for not passing a healthcare bill that may have been the most unpopular and detested major bill in the modern history of the Senate? Trump instructing one of his attorneys to send a warm and friendly note to the special counsel? Or Trump sounding like Dr. Strangelove in his commander-in-chief commentary about nuclear war and Korea?

Regarding Russia, what accounts for the almost hypnotic hold that Putin has over Trump, which leads the American president to often praise and never criticize the Russian dictator?  

Regarding McConnell, why does Trump act like a man with no understanding of his own self-interest by insulting and threatening the Republican Senate leader whose support is essential to reversing the dismal failure of Trump’s legislative agenda in the first 200 days of his presidency?

The hard and bitter truth is that, when Gordon Humphrey made his comments this week questioning Trump’s sanity, there are some Republicans and many Democrats who privately share the horror that the former GOP senator from New Hampshire ultimately may be proven right.

Brent Budowsky was an aide to former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas) and Rep. Bill Alexander (D-Ark.), then-chief deputy majority whip of the House. He holds an LL.M. in international financial law from the London School of Economics. He can be read on The Hill’s Contributors and reached atbrentbbi@webtv.net.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the views of The Hill.