Russia's display of military might is what Donald Trump always dreamed of: experts
Russia's Victory Day celebration was a display of elderly military leaders, tanks, missiles, and marching soldiers, commemorating those who gave their lives to defeat the Nazis in World War II.
However, Russia is already being ridiculed for a slide show in which they used a photo of Bonnie and Clyde, intimating the crime spree killers were Russian victims of World War II. The show aired on the state television network Channel One.
The heavy military display was comparable to those often seen in North Korea when Kim Jong Un conducts a defense exhibition to display the country's perceived force.
Speaking to MSNBC on Monday, Russia experts and foreign policy analysts noted that the parade was part of Vladimir Putin's effort to appear just as strong as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Julia Ioffe, a Russian-born American journalist, explained that Zelensky is producing videos of himself marching through the damaged streets of Ukraine in a flack jacket. He's part of the military, serving in the trenches.
Vladimir Putin, however, "has never once gone to the front, much the same way Joseph Stalin never once went" there, she said.
"You know, you could take out Vladimir Putin and the west and replace it with Donald Trump and The New York Times, and it was the same thing, even though Fox News fawned all over Donald Trump every single night of his candidacy and presidency and still, and that, to Julia's point, is what I watch so none of you have to," said Nicolle Wallace.
She noted that it's the same kind of psychological profile as Putin, who also enjoys local popularity but is still yearns for international legitimacy.
"I mean, Donald Trump had plenty of adoring fans. He had 30 percent to 40 percent of the country at any given time, and he had an entire highly watched cable network devoted to basically propaganda about his presidency," Wallace continued. "It wasn't enough. He was always tweeting at my colleagues, Joe and Mika, obsessed with New York Times Maggie Haberman. It is the same psychological profile that Julia is describing Putin and the west."
The former assistant U.S. Attorney for the Second District of New York, Daniel Goldman, noted Trump's degree of insecurity "is stunning."
"And it's part of the reason why he projects so much, and he accuses his opponents and antagonists of doing exactly what he does all the time," he continued. "And his need for adoration from his cabinet members. I mean, it became a running joke that just like Vladimir Putin would have, he would sit there with his cabinet and they would go around the table and everyone would—"
"Dear leader," Wallace noted, citing the moniker for Kim Jong Un.
"Exactly," Goldman agreed. "Would pay homage to the wonderful leader that Donald Trump is. And what we're now seeing coming out from folks in his administration, some degree of reputation laundering, but that they were, many of them, and they don't get off the hook so easily — but many of them were just startled at the degree to which even three, four years into his presidency, he had no understanding of policy, of national security, of strategy. It was just all about him, primarily about his re-election, and that that was his sole focus."
He explained it's similar to Putin and it could be an indication of why Trump admires Putin so much and why he catered to him.
"He chose to believe Vladimir Putin over his own intelligence agencies in Helsinki in 2018," Goldman recalled. "It is so similar and so parallel, and the danger that we are in right now is that it's not just that there's 30 percent or 40 percent of the country that still supports him. It's that the vast majority of Republicans who are elected officials are still bowing down to him."
See the segment below or at this link.
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