Critics of Donald Trump often ponder whether he could be some type of foreign intelligence asset, but if he were, he would not be so damaging to the United States. It would at one time be the stuff of the tin foil hat wearing brigade to question the allegiances of a US president. It is not a view that I have ever subscribed to but events of the last month or so have left me wondering if he would do less damage if Vladimir Putin or Xi Jinping did have kompromat on him.
Because if the leader of the free world was a secret agent of a rogue state, he would at least have to attempt to look like he is acting in the interests of the United States and its allies and Donald Trump seems not to be inclined to even try and maintain that pretence.
Fawning over Kim Jong Un
Last week, Trump was fawning over Kim Jong Un, a man responsible for the execution of around 400 officials and elites, thousands of his own citizens, a prison gulag system of around 130,000 and the oppression of millions.
So desperate was Don to impress the murderous dictator, that he scaled back annual military exercises with South Korea in a desperate attempt to curry favour.
"North Korea poses us no threat," he told reporters who perhaps forgot to follow up with a question on what exactly it was that the North Koreans test fired last Thursday?
Iran and the USS George Washington
His comments in the Oval Office, where he once more cosplayed as the leader of a mafia protection racket, demonstrated an ignorance of US foreign policy and the role American military presence plays in maintaining the country's status as a superpower, that would be laughable if it weren't so serious.
In a separate theatre of Trump stupidity, his mishandling of the quagmire he has led his country into in Iran saw the USS George Washington set sail for the Middle East to relieve the beleaguered USS Abraham Lincoln that has been at sea for nine months.
Its redeployment leaves Asia with no American carrier strike group at a time of mounting fears of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. Xi Jinping must be licking his lips.
NATO and the wider damage
Looking back further on Trump's second presidency, we see the red carpet rolled out for Putin while Volodymyr Zelensky is shown out of the servant's entrance. We see intelligence withheld from Kyiv giving Russia the momentum in a war that affects every democratic nation around the world.
We see NATO undermined at every opportunity and a US President threatening to take an ally's territory by force.
We see propaganda spewed by Trump and his acolytes about civilisational decline in the west, serving not to spread truth but to undermine trust and sow political division. Despite this, I don't subscribe to the view that Donald Trump is in the pocket of a foreign intelligence service. But even if he were, would he really do very much differently?
