The Presidency that Donald J Trump assumed on January 20, 2017 and the circumstances of his winning the 2016 election under the cloud and suspicion of collaborating with the Kremlin to swing the election in his favour and the attendant probe by both the FBI and House committee is beginning to impact on decisions taken by key officials of the Trump administration in the arena of foreign policy and defense. The notion that the Russian government meddled in the US Presidential election in favour of Republican candidate Donald Trump, while it began in the twilight days of the Barak Obama administration has with the appointment of Robert Mueller the former FBI director appointed as special counsel by deputy Attorney general Roseintein assumed a life of its own and it is beginning to weigh down on the Trump administration.
The fact that Trump is being investigated for having close ties with the Kremlin effectively ties the hands of the President in taking decisions seen as favorable to Russia, this effectively ties down the hands of the President in taking any decision seen as pro-Moscow. The reverse side of the equation which is the subject of this write-up is that each time Trump or his officials take a hard line on Russia, he is seen as vindicated of any prior ties with the Russians. This state of affairs is definitely not healthy for the US or the Trump administration who now have to be hawkish in their approach to Moscow in order to obtain a reprieve from American public opinion.
This trend is obviously noticeable in the decision by the Pentagon in shooting down a Russian built, Syrian owned SU-22 plane which was seen as attacking pro-US rebels fighting the Islamic state in Syria, The decision by the Americans to shoot down the Syrian jet was obviously taken not only to protect the US-led Syrian rebels but obviously to show that Trump is not a whimp where fighting the Pro-Russian forces are concerned. The danger is that the Russians are now viewing themselves as pawns in the chess game between rival and opposing groups in Washington. That no doubt informs Russia's hard line in threatening to target and attack coalition aircraft west of the Euphrates River seen as threatening Russian/ Syrian air operations.
The sum game is that because of this pre-conceived notion of Trump and the need to vindicate himself, US policy on Russia is automatically on a default setting which is dangerous and unhealthy for world peace. That President Trump can no longer follow his convictions but know-tow towards a hardline on the Kremlin is the fallout of this investigation into the President's alleged ties with Putin. Whether this state of affairs will benefit or be healthy to the US on the long-run is still to be known, but any course of events that puts the President in a strait-jacket is not only unhealthy but unsafe for America on the long-run.
