It appears those pesky accusations of being in Putin’s pocket just won’t leave Trump alone, with none other than the Portuguese President branding our man in the White House as a “Russian Asset” earlier this week.
It’s nothing new for Trump to be described as Putin’s puppet or plaything, but just lately, the inference that the Russian leader has something quite dark and damning on Trump is growing like a malignant growth.
It has to be said that Trump does appear to go into his shell a little and become a little less alpha when the Russian leader is on the scene.
Trump’s king of the locker room demeanour seems to shrivel up and die when Putin enters the room and smiles like a sociopath who not only has all the cards but is a clairvoyant as well.
It’s not gone unnoticed, and even the Portuguese President has begun to sit up and take notice.
The Huff Post reports that speaking at the PSD Summer University, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said, “With one peculiar and complex thing — the supreme leader of the world’s greatest superpower is, objectively, a Soviet or Russian asset. He functions as an asset.”
Ouch! That’s harsh! And it’s gotta hurt! No one likes being accused of being in bed with the Russians. Especially not the President of the United States.
It gets worse!
The Portuguese President added, just in case we were missing the point he was making with all the nuance of sledgehammer, “Objectively, the new US leadership has strategically favoured the Russian Federation.”
Yikes! What would Rambo say?
But hold on a red hot minute. What do the facts say?
Well, although he was investigated by a special counsel investigation during his first term as President, they found no evidence that Trump had ever been in the pay of the Russian security services.
Yet that made not a bit of difference to the Portuguese President, who pointed towards Trump’s lack of support for Ukraine and inaction towards Russia as evidence of Putin’s vice-like hold of him.
Although he admitted Trump was good at making “terrible threats” to hit Russia with sanctions, he was all bark and no bite, and had failed miserably to make good on any of his big dog style warnings.
The Portuguese President is not alone in voicing his fear that when Putin says dance, Trump won’t dare stop until the music’s finished playing.
Former UK defence secretary Grant Shapps has gone on record as saying that Trump “has had the wool pulled over his eyes by Putin.”
He went on to add that Trump has been “incredibly naive about Putin’s intentions, which have always been to continue this war”.
Shapps then went on to question why Trump thought it was “OK to deal with a dictator invading a democracy in the same way – or perhaps giving him more – actually a lot more respect than he gave to the democratic country.”
“I think that should worry us all,” he said.
Is Trump simply a monkey dancing for his organ grinder? Or is his relationship with Putin more a game of chess than a simple dance between master and servant?
