My associate Massimo is excitable and too quick to draw conclusions. For example, he maintained that the Bush administration was responsible for 9/11 because (cui bono?) they benefitted from it more than anyone. Now he is wondering if Trump is a Russian plant, imbedded in the American government to undermine and if possible destroy the United States. He thinks that the Russians have something on Trump. Not the prostitutes and pee-pee business; there’s no handle for blackmail there since lots of playboys do that sort of thing. Rather, Massimo believes the answer might be found in the Trump income tax records. Has collaboration with Russian capital saved Trump from financial embarrassment or even collapse? Did the immensely wealthy Putin pick up some of Trump’s debts? Has Trump invested in lucrative and semi-legal Russian enterprises?

But Massimo’s surmise that Trump may be under the Russian thumb is not based on these speculations about the cause of his subservience, but because of what Trump has done during the election campaign and in office. He created broad fissures in American society by appeals to racism, anti-Semitism, xenophobia, misogyny, homophobia, religious bigotry, in short, by appeal to any fear of the other or imagined grievance. He has mesmerized the media by his absurdist behaviors. He has so frightened the dominant Republican Party that they back him up, much as the German right wing backed up Hitler. He is collaborating with Congress to sabotage the public health system. He has closely identified himself with a variety of right-wing crazies, acting on their advice and information they provide; he has encouraged and enabled their anti-social pathologies and thus created a new political party loyal to him alone. He plans to destroy the American economy with his Great Wall, military buildups, tax cuts to the rich and corporations, and abolition of international trade. He has declared war on the environment, removing any legislation or agency that would inhibit the all-out polluters. He has attacked the press and the intelligence agencies so that his regime can work in tightly maintained secrecy. He has begun a program of mass deportations, using his secret police, the enlarged ICE, to arrest, imprison, and deport people without due judicial process. He has appointed a cabinet that consists mostly of incompetents or subversives He has systematically alienated America’s neighbors and traditional allies. So reasons Massimo. As Kellyanne might say, “I hope it’s not true.”