“On February 28, the same day that President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance took the side of Russian president Vladimir Putin against Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office, Martin Matishak of The Record, a cybersecurity news publication, broke the story that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered U.S. Cyber Command to stop all planning against Russia, including offensive digital actions.”@heathercoxrichardson, Historian, Letters from An American
What became clear in last week’s disastrous Oval Office meet with Vladimir Zelenskyy, and Trump’s abrupt switch to Putin’s side of the peace negotiations, is that Trump and Putin are engaging in a very consequential protection racket that could bring down the U.S. economy as well.
They have come to rely on each other to stay in power. Russia’s huge cyber-attack machine helped Trump eke out his two election victories, and Putin wants Trump to hand him Ukraine to justify to the Russian people their horrific losses, and his hold on power.
Outrageous as that may seem, there is no other explanation for Trump’s actions in weakening the major federal agencies that protect our national security and growing isolation from our allies, and persisting in a tariff war that is alienating our closest allies.
Trump has jumped into their extortion racket with both feet. It’s a quid pro quo between two thugs, as happens between mafia bosses. Trump can hand Ukraine to Putin by withdrawing America’s support, and Putin will continue his unrelenting attacks on our national security infrastructure, weakening U.S. power and influence.
We can now see how they are doing it. Musk’s DOGE cuts are gutting the watchdogs that would uncover their protection racket, whether it’s by downsizing the FBI, CIA, NEC, CISA and other watchdogs (e.g., illegally firing 11 agency Inspector Generals), or reorganizing agencies in such a way that they function much more poorly.
The CISA, Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency, is especially important for our national defense. Former FBI Director Christopher Hays warned in pre-election congressional testimony to be especially concerned with the penetration of our cyber networks.
Wray noted that hostile nation-states, such as China, Russia, Iran, and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, are increasingly using “cyber operations” to meet their strategic goals and undermine the United States. These adversaries are “growing stealthier,” he said, and are always devising fresh methods to make their cyber operations more far-reaching and impactful.
“We’re seeing hostile nation states become moraggressive in their efforts to steal our secrets and our innovation, target our critical infrastructure, export their aggression to our shores and front and center is China,” Wray said at last year’s Boston Cyber Security Conference.
And why would Trump and his loyal followers want to take away our protections from such attacks? The answer is even more frightening. So that we align our priorities with Putin’s Russia, of all countries.
Professor Richardson reports, “Shortly after the election, a newspaper reporter asked Nikolai Patrushev, who is close to Putin, if Trump’s election would mean “positive changes from Russia’s point of view.” Patrushev answered: “To achieve success in the elections, Donald Trump relied on certain forces to which he has corresponding obligations. And as a responsible person, he will be obliged to fulfill them.”
It's becoming obvious that President Trump wants the USA to be run under the same one-man rules as Putin’s Russia, where the only laws are Putin’s laws, enforced by terror. He can murder his dissenters, whereas Trump will attempt to silence his opposition by weakening our election laws as well.
Professor Richardson reported that “On February 20, Steven Lee Myers, Julian E. Barnes, and Sheera Frenkel of the New York Times reported that the Trump administration is firing or reassigning officials at the FBI and CISA who had worked on protecting elections. That includes those trying to stop foreign propaganda and disinformation and those combating cyberattacks and attempts to disrupt voting systems.’
In fact, Putin may not need to hack Democratic Party emails, as he did in past elections. Musk’s DOGE hackers can do it for him in the upcoming 2026 midterm elections as they continue to penetrate the federal government’s closely guarded personnel networks.
We could see a WikiLeaks scandal all over again, if state elections officials aren’t careful. Trump/Musk have already attempted to remove Ellen Weintraub, the Democrat head of the Federal Election Commission that rules on election finance laws, without nominating a successor who must be confirmed by the Senate before she can step down.
But there is an even more immediate worry, the direction of our economy. Trump’s announcements of tariffs on Mexico, Canada, and Mexico caused the DOW to drop 800 points once again, and immediate retaliation. He is also threatening the EU. It is almost a kneejerk reaction as happened one week ago. Markets don’t like tariffs levied with no other reason than to collect import taxes to fill the gaping hole of our budget deficit and ballooning national debt.
Reuters just reported that a private survey showed American factory activity last month edged closer to stagnation—slowing growth combined with faster inflation—as new orders and employment contracted. A gauge of prices paid for materials jumped to the highest since June 2022. So how should investors react to all this smoke on the horizon?
It looks like Trump wants to ally with a country and economy that is one-ninth the size of the European Union when economic growth is more dependent on allies we can trust than ever before.
Harlan Green © 2025
Follow Harlan Green on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarlanGreen
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