Donald Trump just proved he’s somehow even more stupid than we thought

| 10:55 pm EDT September 23, 2019
Dear Palmer Report readers, we all understand the difficult era we're heading into. Major media outlets are caving to Trump already. Even the internet itself and publishing platforms may be at risk. But Palmer Report is nonetheless going to lead the fight. We're funding our 2025 operating expenses now, so we can keep publishing no matter what happens. I'm asking you to contribute if you can, because the stakes are just so high. You can donate here.

To give you an idea of how far removed Donald Trump is from having any sort of clue about how to survive his whistleblower scandal, Trump has spent the day alternately claiming that he did – and did not – threaten to withhold funds from Ukraine unless it helped him rig the 2020 election. But while his willingness to try the risky Ukraine stunt without a safety net was stupid, the true measure of his stupidity can be found in a different detail within this scandal.

Donald Trump is a known agent of Vladimir Putin. Ukraine hates and fears Putin, and would jump at any chance to weaken Putin by taking out his puppet Trump. So when Trump decided to spin the globe and pick a nation to ask for help with rigging the 2020 election in his favor, he chose… Ukraine. No, really.

We understand why Trump chose Ukraine. Trump has concluded, accurately or not, that Joe Biden is the 2020 candidate who represents the biggest threat to him. Joe Biden’s son has done business in a few different nations, and Ukraine is one of them. The United States provides funding to Ukraine in its effort to keep Putin from taking over. Trump realized he could threaten to withhold that funding unless Ukraine helped him. What he didn’t realize was that Ukraine was going to be uniquely motivated to not help Trump if at all possible.

It turns out Ukraine didn’t rat Donald Trump out over his treason plot; a whistleblower within Trump’s own regime took care of that. But the mere notion of Trump approaching Ukraine, of all the nations out there, shows how thoroughly he just doesn’t get it. Either he doesn’t understand the basics of the world stage, or he’s become too desperate and brazen to consider what a low percentage play this was. Either way, Trump is just plain stupid.