The President seems to have forgotten, if he ever knew, about the Cold War, much less the Cuban Missile Crisis, or the support the then Soviet Union, repeatedly, has given to our enemies. The insistence that “there is nothing there,” with regards to Trump’s connections to Russia ring ever more hollow with each day that poses. The question that won’t go away, however, is what does Putin have on Trump.

More than a few of Trump’s associates have met with the almost famous Russian Ambassador, Sergey Kisylak, including the now disgraced former National Security Advisor General Michael Flynn, the Attorney General, his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and so on and so forth. The same man who wanted to “lock up” Hillary Clinton because she didn’t protect her emails from the possibility they would be seen by prying enemy eyes is spilling our secrets, face-to-face, with a long-standing adversary.

General George S. Patton wanted to turn U.S. troops against Russia during World War II but was rebuffed. Patton was prescient. He anticipated the danger the Soviets would pose to the world, the innocent lives that would be lost to its brutality, and the support it would lend the enemies of the United States for decades to come.

The role Russia played in Trump’s election, we’re told, isn’t playing a part in the President’s smooching with former KGB factotum Vladimir Putin. The alleged ties Trump has with Russian affiliated organizations, doing businesses the world over, clearly, can’t be motivating the President’s agenda. It’s all fake news, Trump says, just like everything else that reflects poorly on the President. Recall, though, that Russia lies. What a surprise that Trump does, too.

The Oval Office spends more time attacking the press, the judiciary, any critics, the opposing party, a fat guy in New Jersey, and U.S. intelligence services than it spends on jobs. What has Trump done for coal miners besides making it easier for the Coal industry to pollute streams and rivers? How many rust belt factories have re-opened? Where is the big “beautiful wall” we were promised? Why is ISIS still running amok in the Middle East? What promises has Trump kept beyond putting a conservative on the Supreme Court through a slight of hand change of Senate rules?

What Trump has done, primarily, is to create chaos and in the country and, now, the world. The President promised he’d make changes but did anyone, really, expect the law and order candidate to fire James Comey, FBI Director, because Comey was investigating the President’s ties to Russia? Did anyone expect Trump to fire, or impede, anyone investigating him? Who could have expected Trump to embrace the Red menace like an old friend to the extent he’d reveal our hold cards?

To a generation that practiced “duck and cover” under their desks in case a nuclear bomb disrupted the school day, Trump’s actions should be frightening. To those alive when John F. Kennedy stared down Nikita Khrushchev and blockaded Cuba to prevent Russian ICBM missiles from being delivered ninety miles from our shores, Trump could be considered an anathema. To those not alive, then, Trump’s empty promises about protecting the nation’s security should be frightening.

Maybe, Donald Trump can’t help himself because he’s ignorant or, perhaps, he’s ill advised and needs to fire everyone around him. Perhaps, it’s his enemies, a number that grows every day, who are blowing his bad decisions out of proportion. There are plenty of excuses. Obama did it. Hillary Clinton did it. Comey did it. Mercury going retrograde is responsible. Could be China, or that fat guy in New Jersey, who’re responsible, too. There’s no one shortage of people to blame.

Nancy Reagan did a better job of running the country when Ronnie began to fail than Trump is doing. There must come a time when Republicans place the well being of the country over party. Their silence in face of the disaster that is this presidency jeopardizes their own party, its agenda, and the very safety of the nation.