Remember our vengeful expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats for the attempted murder of a former Russian spy? Business Insider discovers this is just a bit of political theater:
But there’s a catch.
A State Department official confirmed to Business Insider that the White House’s diplomatic expulsion will not require Russia to reduce its staffing levels in the US, and vice versa. In other words, the 60 diplomats who were kicked out — many of whom were undercover intelligence operatives— can be replaced by others.
USA Today first reported the news on Friday.
The revelation initially gained traction in Russian state media, which said an anonymous senior White House staffer told the Russian government that it could send new diplomats to take the place of those who had been expelled. The Russian state media outlet Vesti quoted the official as saying, “The doors are open.”
Or, in other words, Please replace your 60 spies with a different set of 60 spies. There’ll be a slowdown in spy production, true, but nothing truly damaging.
In a way, I find this revelation reassuring, because it returns Trump to his pattern of Russia-loving, and deception. For a while there, he actually looked like he was doing the right thing, and while that, in itself, is a good thing to see from our Executive Branch, it was somewhat disturbing to see an anomalous behavior.
But now we find that, behind the curtain, he’s still pulling the levers so as not to hurt Russia.
Good ol’ Donny, back in pattern.
