Benedict Donald

How Trump Just Exposed Himself as America’s True Enemy Within

Insider threat? Meet the guy doing deals with the worst of enemies.

Opinion

Donald Trump is Vladimir Putin’s Шестёрка.

The word means “lackey” or “underling.” Pronounced shes-TYOR-kah, it comes from the name for the lowest value card in a Russian deck.

Americans might use other terms. Stooge. Tool. Poodle. Flunkey. B--ch.

Semantic nuances aside, the meanings are roughly the same. The president of the United States is a puppet of the war criminal and thug who rules Russia.

That is not news. Trump’s spineless, morality-free effort to ingratiate himself to the former KGB officer dates back many years and has been evident since Trump first invited Putin to attend the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. Putin declined.

But Trump kept trying. He openly sought Russian help with his 2016 presidential campaign, offered improved relations and concessions to Russia even before taking office in 2017, said he trusted Putin more than American intelligence when the two met in Helsinki in 2018 and has more recently literally rolled out the red carpet for Putin when he visited Alaska in August 2025 or when he invited Putin to join the G20 meeting this coming December.

Trump can whine about a “Russia hoax” all he wants. The evidence is clear and the world knows the truth. Time after time during both of his terms in office, Trump has placed Russian interests ahead of America’s in ways both great and small.

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We can debate the why of it. We can continue the public questioning of whether Trump is just a useful idiot or a more active, deliberate agent of the Kremlin.

But those questions now pale in significance to a new set of concerns. In what ways and to what degree, in his long and on-going service to the dictator in Moscow, has Trump damaged the United States and our allies?

Events of the past few days have made the stakes associated with this second set of issues crystal clear even to those who may have been in denial about why Trump’s puckered kisser has been attached to Putin’s netherparts like a that of a hungry lamprey hitching a ride on the hindquarters of a particularly menacing shark.

Trump’s decision to pump money into cash-strapped Russia by purchasing Russian diesel oil for import into the U.S. market is one of his most overt and grotesque betrayals of the United States ever.

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Should the purchases be delivered—and the first shipment of the fuel was apparently sent underway weeks ago, indicating this deal was done long before the U.S. public knew about it—they will do very little if anything to reduce diesel prices in the U.S. They will amount to only a tiny fraction of the roughly four million metric tons of diesel the U.S. consumes weekly. The first shipment of 300,000 metric tons is estimated to be the equivalent of roughly a half a day of U.S. consumption.

But the problem with the deal is not just that it is inadequate. Or that the U.S. will be overpaying what we might have spent with reliable suppliers such as Canada. Or that Russian diesel production is under severe strain and barely able to meet Russian needs and therefore whether the output can actually be delivered is under question. Or even that the deal represents a reversal of policy and a lifting of US sanctions on Russia.

What the deal does is put the U.S. in the position of pumping cash into an economically strapped Russia—cash that Russia can use to help fund its war with Ukraine, help fund its war crimes, help fund its slaughter of civilians, help fund its illegal aggression against a democracy that has bravely served as a bulwark repelling a genuine threat against Europe and U.S. interests.

Trump’s response to questions about this only makes it clearer—as if it were not already clear—whose side he is now openly on. He asserted that Ukraine, not Russia, was responsible for the war (“Zelensky could’ve stopped this war many times, and he chose not to…”) and that Ukraine should get rid of president Zelensky, presumably to find one more inclined to submit to Russian terms for a ceasefire.

Betraying Ukraine is one thing. It is appalling but it is not shocking. Trump has been hostile to Ukraine since his first term in office and has actively reversed most Biden-era policies supporting Ukraine against the Russians since he returned to the presidency in January of last year.

His aides responsible for negotiating with the Russians and Ukrainians, notably Trump golf-buddy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner, have shown a clear bias toward Russia, have also curried favor with the Russians and have apparently been more focused on developing incentives to help Russia’s economy than in dealing with the reality that Russia has illegally and brutally violated Ukraine’s sovereignty and sought to steal its land and resources.

But this deal has an even darker side hard to envision though that may be. It comes as reports circulate that Russia is replenishing Iranian missile stockpiles and that it is continuing to offer intelligence to Iran, intelligence that will be used to target U.S. military, and our allies.

This means that Trump is planning to pump billions of dollars into Russia that it may use not just against a vital U.S. ally and important U.S. interests in Ukraine, but it may use to help support Iran in its war with… the United States.

Trump is funding an enemy to help an enemy.

It is hard to imagine a more direct or greater betrayal of the United States. If we had actually declared war on Iran or Russia, the charge might well be treason. Legal technicalities aside, it is certainly traitorous.

American soldiers and sailors, already at risk because Trump launched an illegal war and failed to support our troops with adequate strategy or materiel, now may actually die or be wounded or come under attack thanks to the reckless actions of that same president.

For reference, the last person to be executed for treason by the United States was a Confederate loyalist named William Mumford in June 1862. His crime? He tore down and destroyed a US flag flying over the U.S. Mint in New Orleans. Since World War II, almost all those convicted of treason by the U.S. were convicted for crimes like spreading propaganda, defecting, or providing aid and comfort.

Make no mistake, with this indefensible policy (that provides no benefit to the U.S.) Trump is providing more aid and comfort to not one but two enemies than any American in history. In a time of war.

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But the very real question we must ask is: Is that the worst of it? What more has been done in Trump’s efforts to curry favor with Putin and to directly and indirectly satisfy Russian interests at the expense of those of the United States that could have even greater negative consequences.

Certainly seeking the intervention of Russia to support his candidacy for the presidency in 2016 and since has had devastating negative effects on the U.S. So too have Trump’s efforts to undermine and weaken our alliances, notably NATO.

He stands ready, apparently, to further weaken the alliance by withdrawing more troops from Europe. He has attacked and threatened allies.

He describes friends, like Canada, as enemies and treats enemies, like Russia, like friends.

Trump has blocked U.S. participation in key war games including most recently those with the Republic of Korea (that has left all our Asian allies unnerved and angry). He has decapitated our military, put an incompetent in charge of the Department of Defense, promoted wasteful spending and allowed our munitions stockpiles to be depleted in ways that dangerously reduce our readiness. He has shifted assets away from protecting us against Russian crime, spying and interference in our elections.

He has gutted our economy. He has weakened the institutions of our government. He has undermined our standing in the world. He has fostered division and conflict within the United States (going so far as to actually foment race war with Somalis in Minnesota last week).

This is to say nothing of the ways that his corruption has served Russian interests, those of Russian oligarchs, and indirectly aided Putin. (Remember who helped underwrite Don Jr.’s wedding just a few weeks ago. Look at the number of Trump team members who have sought to cash in on relationships in Russia or with Russia-friendly governments in Europe (like Serbia or Orban’s Hungary.)

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And we don’t know what is in store. We don’t know what side agreements may be linked to Trump’s cash lifeline to the Kremlin? Will there be further Russian interference in upcoming elections? Further weakening of our democracy? What is the reason for the recent trip to Russia of the CIA Director and the upcoming trip of the FBI Director? What goes on in Trump’s calls with Putin? What further betrayals of Ukraine and the Western Alliance await?

(Trump announced an “energy ceasefire” on Sunday morning and within minutes it was broken by the Russians. Another element of our doubt about what will happen next has to be related to the degree to which Trump is losing his grip and others are taking advantage of that.)

What we have seen is stunning and, indeed, nauseating. But we have not seen everything yet. We do not know what has gone on in the shadows. We do not know what is yet to come. We only know that this president has, with this most recent act, come, unbelievably, even more fully out of the closet and declared himself to be working for Russia at the expense of the people of the United States.

It is a profoundly dangerous development, made all the more precarious by the willingness of so many in Trump’s party to go along with his unprecedented shift in U.S. foreign policy priorities (a complete reversal of our policies since the Second World War).

We can only hope that the people of the United States, with an election just days away, recognize that there is no greater enemy to this country than its own president and seek to do all in their power to reject him, his enablers, and to reverse the profound damage he has done.

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David RothkopfChief Global Affairs Columnist

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