When Trump has a choice to make, I imagine he sits down with a group of advisors and decides which option is logical, rational, fair, not self-incriminating and in accordance with the will of the American people. Then, he chooses the exact opposite of that option.

Last year, the US passed the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAASTA) in an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote: 98-2 in the Senate and 419-3 in the House of Representatives. The act required the publishing of a list “meant to punish Russia for its interference in the 2016 US election, as well as alleged human rights violations, the annexation of Crimea and ongoing military operations in eastern Ukraine” (source). The list contains the names of 114 Russian politicians and 96 Russian oligarchs determined by the US Treasury to be involved.

This Monday was the deadline for the Trump administration to impose sanctions on the individuals included in the “Putin list,” but to nobody’s surprise, Trump declined. A State Department spokesperson explained, “Since the enactment of the . . . legislation, we estimate that foreign governments have abandoned planned or announced purchases of several billion dollars in Russian defense acquisitions.” She also said, “From that perspective, if the law is working, sanctions on specific entities or individuals will not need to be imposed because the legislation is, in fact, serving as a deterrent.”

In English, these statements mean, “They probably don’t like their names being on that list, and I think that’s punishment enough. They better stop rigging our elections and violating their citizens’ human rights, or we might put their names on another list!” Congress did all the research for Trump, handed him a list of names and a pen, practically begging him to do something, just once, so it stops looking like he’s colluding with a corrupt foreign government. Instead, Trump essentially told Putin, “I’m not mad, just disappointed.” Blocking the sanctions doesn’t just neutralize the list, it actively works against its purpose. Now, corrupt Russian officials know that even if the US finds out who they are and what they’re doing, they’re not going to do anything about it. And Trump rationalizes all this by saying that those on the Putin list have lost “planned or announced purchases,” but he uses the word “estimate” to protect him from having to actually know or prove something.

Trump wouldn’t shut up about Crooked Hillary rigging the election, but now that his own government told him exactly who rigged the election, suddenly it’s not that big of a deal (I wonder what he would say if the woman who actually won the election was president?). If he was at all consistent with his logic, he would stop calling for Hillary to go to jail, since his constant Twitter harassment is “serving as a deterrent.” Trump is currently frantically firing every inquisitive FBI agent he can, still complaining about Hillary to misdirect from his own corruption, and protecting proven enemies of American democracy from consequences voted through almost unanimously by his own government. Somehow, her emails don’t seem like that much of an issue anymore.

This was the vote on Russian Sanctions:

House: 419-3
Senate: 98-2

Today, Trump said he won't impose the sanctions despite a veto-proof majority.

Congratulations, America. Laws are meaningless now.
— Nick Jack Pappas (@Pappiness) January 30, 2018

America sure is great again.