Reagan 2.0: Trump tells his pal Putin to hold off releasing US hostage

Donald Trump would no doubt tell you he was a better president than Ronald Reagan … and Abraham Lincoln … and George Washington. But, as we all know, Trump just says things, and if they’re even tangentially connected to the truth, it’s usually just an accident.

That said, in at least one significant way, Trump is hoping to seriously one-up the Gipper, who—not for nothing—led us down the faux-patriotic primrose path to the front gate of the abattoir. 

Wednesday night, after a long day putting the finishing touches on his health care, infrastructure, and reproductive rights plans (all available in two weeks!), Trump promised that Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who’s currently being detained in Russia and has been jailed for a year, would be released “almost immediately” after the November election—but only if Trump wins.

“Evan Gershkovich, the Reporter from The Wall Street Journal, who is being held by Russia, will be released almost immediately after the Election, but definitely before I assume Office,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “He will be HOME, SAFE, AND WITH HIS FAMILY. Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, will do that for me, but not for anyone else, and WE WILL BE PAYING NOTHING!”

Of course, there are two possible conclusions to be drawn here: Trump is lying and blowing hot air (by far the most-likely scenario) or, in (yet another) outrageous violation of the Logan Act, he’s conducting shadow diplomacy behind the current administration’s back. Though according to no less an authority than Russian President Vladimir Putin—who, to be fair, lies at least as often and as viciously as Trump—everything Trump said overnight is nonsense.

The Daily Beast:

The Kremlin also quickly denied that Putin has had any contact with Trump about the case. “Putin, naturally, does not have any contacts with Donald Trump here,” Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters Thursday, according to Russia’s Interfax news agency.

Peskov nevertheless appeared to take a swipe at Trump’s confident, public assertion. On the subject of freeing prisoners, Peskov said, “We can say that these contacts should be carried out in complete silence and absolutely discreetly.” He added that discretion is “the only way” such talks “can be effective.”

Of course, the other thing that’s likely happening here is that he’s deliberately undermining the Biden administration’s efforts to secure Gershkovich’s release by telegraphing to Putin that there’s a deal to be made. And that the guy who took Putin’s word over that of our own intelligence community is the one to make it. A single hostage—and maybe a long-anticipated Moscow tower—seems like a fair swap for Ukraine’s freedom and independence. 

In other words, he didn’t say “Russia, if you’re listening” this time, but the subtext is there. And while it’s probably not necessary to prod Putin into screwing our elections on Trump’s behalf for a third consecutive cycle—because he loves to do it for free—Trump’s overtures are certain to alert Putin that Donald is primed on Day One to deliver a sweet, big-ass blini to the dictator’s doorstep. 

But back to Reagan, the dude who ruined everything. Political junkies of a certain age will recall how central the Iranian hostage crisis was to the 1980 presidential campaign and Jimmy Carter’s chances of reelection. It was such a salient issue, in fact, that Reagan presumably felt it was vitally important to betray his country so he’d be in a better position to lead it … into a ditch.

Last March, The New York Times confirmed what had long been suspected in political circles—that Reagan, in the run-up to the 1980 election, sabotaged the Carter administration’s efforts to secure the hostages’ release before Americans cast their votes for president.

The Times recounted how former Texas Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes traveled to the Middle East with former Texas Gov. John Connally, who, according to Barnes, “resolved to help Mr. Reagan beat Mr. Carter and in the process ... make his own case for becoming secretary of state or defense in a new administration.”

What happened next Mr. Barnes has largely kept secret for nearly 43 years. Mr. Connally, he said, took him to one Middle Eastern capital after another that summer, meeting with a host of regional leaders to deliver a blunt message to be passed to Iran: Don’t release the hostages before the election. Mr. Reagan will win and give you a better deal.

Then shortly after returning home, Mr. Barnes said, Mr. Connally reported to William J. Casey, the chairman of Mr. Reagan’s campaign and later director of the Central Intelligence Agency, briefing him about the trip in an airport lounge.

Mr. Carter’s camp has long suspected that Mr. Casey or someone else in Mr. Reagan’s orbit sought to secretly torpedo efforts to liberate the hostages before the election, and books have been written on what came to be called the October surprise. But congressional investigations debunked previous theories of what happened.

In a weird way, it’s kind of satisfying when a news story confirms that Republicans are exactly as awful as we always suspected. Unfortunately, it’s also really horrifying. 

Of course, even Reagan wasn’t foolish enough to publicly undermine a sitting president. His approach was more “cloak-and-dagger” than “clueless danger to democracy.” And by making such an outlandish promise—which is sadly reminiscent of other Trump promises, like that he’d eliminate the entire national debt in eight years and immediately replace Obamacare with something way better—Trump is painting himself into a political corner and handing Russia considerable leverage. Why would Russia negotiate in good faith with Biden now when they know Trump is so eager to make a deal—and to look like a miracle man—that he’d likely give Putin the world? Or, if not the world, at the very least the part that Ukraine sits on.

And even if we believe Trump is the only person who can secure Gershkovich’s release, why would he make empty promises that he will likely only be able to fulfill by giving Putin way more than he expects or deserves?

Also, isn’t suggesting that Putin will do this favor for him—in exchange for “NOTHING”—a dead giveaway that Trump has a somewhat too-cozy relationship with a murderous war criminal? That’s not a great starting point for a negotiation with a hostile, hostage-taking world power. 

Of course, this is just another example of the GOP’s wholesale abandonment of tradition, decorum, democracy, common decency, and the rule of law. What Reagan apparently did in secret—because he knew it was an outrageous betrayal of our country and our fellow citizens in harm’s way—Trump is now doing out in the open. And far from condemning him, most Republicans are clamoring to follow him down the hellmouth. Nikki Haley is just the latest GOPster to abdicate her responsibility to Western values and American democracy in exchange for … um, an extra slab of suet in the mandatory birdbrain reeducation camp? 

By all rights, this should be another hair-on-fire scandal that lands like a punch to the solar plexus. And let’s not forget that this is negotiating over an actual person’s life. Unfortunately, far too many people are simply tickled. 

Reagan may have set all this up years ago, but Trump is spiking the volleyball right in our faces. And he has far too much support from his democracy-hating kiss-ass chorus. 

Needless to say, that has to end—and soon. 

Daily Kos’ Postcards to Swing States campaign is back, and I just signed up to help. Please join me! Let’s do this, patriots! Democracy won’t defend itself.

RELATED STORIES: 

Nikki Haley endorses 'unstable and unhinged' Trump—of course

Watch: Democrat criticizes GOP’s allegiance to ‘dictatorial wannabe’ Trump

Jon Stewart: 'Trump is the real cancel culture'

Like many Republicans, Donald Trump has tried to sidestep the issue of abortion and reproductive rights. But he stumbled during an interview with a CBS affiliate in Pittsburgh this week, promising an “interesting” new policy that would let states restrict contraception.

Campaign Action