It’s getting more difficult with every new day to ignore just how deferential Donald Trump is to Vladimir Putin. Trump has never been shy about expressing his feelings, particularly when they are brash insults to anyone who he thinks is less than adoring to him. Trump will lash out viciously at friends, associates, and strangers who dare to criticize him, even in mild terms. But he never has a harsh word for his pal in the Kremlin. Many people are wondering what Putin has on Trump to guarantee this endless supply of affection.

This peculiar – and conspicuously anti-American – behavior was exhibited again this week when Trump ventured off to Brussels for a meeting with our NATO allies. He even foreshadowed the position he intended to take when he told the media that his upcoming tete-a-tete with Putin would be “the easiest one” he would have on this junket. And in the very first public gathering open to the press, Trump demonstrated that his relations with our allies would not be easy at all by launching a wild harangue against Germany for partnering with Russia in a natural gas pipeline.

So the battlelines have already been drawn in just the first few hours of the NATO summit. And, naturally, Trump is bashing our friends and cozying up to our enemies. The brazen manner with which Trump displays his betrayal to long-time allies is now being noticed by his most vociferous defender: State TV (aka Fox News). As the summit was getting underway, Chris Stirewalt, Fox News digital politics editor, had a few words about the President’s disloyalty to America’s national interests (video below). Referring to members of Trump’s GOP who have been feverishly trying to spin Trump’s unsettling commentaries, Stirewalt said that:

“I want to tell these Republicans, quit kidding yourselves. You will not stop Donald Trump from undermining NATO, and you will not stop him from undermining U.S. foreign policy to be more favorable towards Russia. He is going to do it.

“And the Republicans who say, ‘Well, we have a broad foreign policy apparatus and we forced him to impose these sanctions, and we forced him to do these things.’ He is going to fly into Brussels like a seagull. He is going to defecate all over everything, squawk and fly away, is what he’s going to do in Brussels. And the Europeans are going to continue to say to each other, ‘We don’t have a reliable partner in the U.S. government right now. We don’t think this is a working relationship.’

“Plus, we have a trade war going with them. The President will succeed, whether it’s temporary or whether it’s lasting, realigning U.S. foreign policy away from Europe and toward Moscow.”

Clearly the quotable portion of that analysis concerns the defecating seagull. The media will likely highlight that colorful phrase to draw in readers and viewers (just as News Corpse did). But no one should let the more substantive part of Stirewalt’s remarks go by. Because the significance of a Fox News editor telling their primetime audience that Trump is “realigning U.S. foreign policy away from Europe and toward Moscow,” cannot be overstated. This isn’t Anderson Cooper or Rachel Maddow talking. It’s a senior Fox news editor who is issuing a warning to an audience that he knows won’t welcome it.

But will they listen? Probably not. At least not until one of the pharisees of the Fox/Trump cult like Sean Hannity or Laura Ingraham says it. Until then, Trump’s disciples will continue to believe that he has the infallibility of the Messiah. And anything he says – no matter how destructive to American values or interests – will be agreed to and worshiped like gospel. And Stirewalt will be dismissed as a heretic. That’s how cults work.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.