Election Interference: The Grim Outlook

Trump and Putin met at the G-20 the other day, and someone took a video of them showing Trump, grinning, as he told Putin not to meddle in our elections. That was revealing, as commentators pointed out. Even more revealing was the self-satisfied smile on Putin’s face in reaction to being issued a stern warning by the president of the world’s greatest democracy and commander and chief of the most powerful military force on Earth. We can expect Putin to employ every artifice available, at whatever cost it takes, to bring about Trump’s reelection, and we can expect Trump to do everything he thinks he can get away with to encourage Putin in his efforts. We’ll be very fortunate if American democracy makes it through the Trump era intact.