Let me be Rod Serling for a moment. Let’s just play with an idea.
Imagine, if you will, a foreign leader intent on world domination. Let’s call him Vladimir Putin. He has big plans, but insufficient resources and leverage to make those dreams a reality, unless somehow he can block the other countries that are most likely to stand in his way, and even recruit a few of their leaders into his service. Of course, chief among such nations, his dream for subversive influence would be the United States. So, he begins to cultivate, among many other possible friends, a well known American businessman he believes to be greedy, ambitious, wholly apolitical, and a fellow malignant narcissist with voracious appetites and no moral rudder. The man’s reputedly a billionaire, at least on paper. And while he has lots of enemies—including business associates he’s betrayed and many women he’s seduced and discarded—there are yet many more people who are to some extent friendly with him, in order perhaps to gain access to his resources, or to the modicum of power or status that comes with them. The target’s name is Donald Trump. The wily Putin begins to play a long game with this man, one of the few wealthy and widely connected people in America with broad name recognition and no scruples or morals that might get in the way of the manipulation that’s planned.
To make a very long story short, the de facto dictator begins to lure Trump into dreams of multiplying his fortune through Russian banking and business opportunities, and satisfying his more hidden desires through the ample resources of the Russian secret service and its friends and operatives. For years, Putin makes suggestions to help Trump set himself up for more national political influence. He tells Trump that he’ll help stir up concerns about the legitimacy of the American president and his likely successor who would most stand in his way. He plants false news reports about birth certificates and many other things. He suggests an unlikely career move, a run for the Republican nomination for president and assures his man that it will at least burnish his brand and feather his financial nest for the future, regardless of the outcome. But he believes he knows the result he’ll achieve, through massive resource allocation. He gets his people busy helping to make this happen in all sorts of devious grassroots ways. And then, beyond all the predictions of the experts who have no idea of the vast stealth campaign that’s going on, in all its immensity, this extreme candidate wins both the nomination and the presidency. The secret chess master is thrilled. He now has a good friend in the White House, and can use this man in many subtle ways in the pursuit of his own goals.
But then, a few elements of the electoral interference are discovered, bit-by-bit, and investigated endlessly. The news is relentless, every day, with new revelations several times a week that this or that Trump associate or friend or supporter has met at some point with a Russian operative of dubious background. The majority of citizens begin to become very skeptical of Trump’s friendliness toward Russia, and his strange, ongoing praise for Putin—a matter that has long worried the man behind the scenes himself, because he realizes that all this unexpected, odd adulation may raise concerns. But he lets Trump be Trump, in all his hyperbolic enthusiasm. And yet, he can see a quick erosion of his man's ability to serve Russian purposes, in light of all the alarming news about complicity with a foreign government and the endless speculation it launches. His massive investment may soon be wasted. So he realizes he needs to act dramatically and turn this around.
In 2013, an ally of his, President Assad of Syria, had used chemical weapons against his own people. At the time, US president Obama had called that the crossing of a “red line” and had thought it proper to respond militarily. But Trump tweeted strongly against any such intervention, let’s further suppose, at the urging of Putin’s people. At the time, he wasn’t even thought of as a political person, really, but was beginning to draw a greater measure of national attention in various ways. And so Putin thought it might help to use him to speak out against any possible military action against a friend. He had a few others in our government to speak with, as well, and they listened. Several congressional representatives had been brought to power by supporters who secretly admired Russia as the "white nation" with the greatest global strength. And there were channels available to use to influence these officials to take a stand on this issue.
Obama was intent to obey all relevant laws, and so he wanted Congress on board for such a military strike against a sovereign nation, but enough members of congress warned him not to try it that he backed away and dropped the idea. He then instead worked behind the scenes with John Kerry to convince the Russian leader to put pressure on Assad to get rid of such weapons, or at least not to use them again. Putin agreed, or seemed to, and Assad appeared to back off. But then Obama’s political adversaries, many of the same people who privately warned him not to take military action, publicly called him weak for not acting through such means.
Now, in 2017, Putin’s immense longterm investment in Trump was looking about as sound as Trump’s investments in casino hotels. It was all about to go down the drain. Big dramatic and extreme action was needed to turn the situation around. Putin had to orchestrate events in such a way as to make it look as if Trump is a strong and decisive leader perfectly willing to act against Russian interests and go his own way. Only that could now counter the public suspicion that the president owes something to Russia and is under its influence.
So the master schemer behind it all tells Assad to use chemicals again in a strike that will be photographed and televised with horrible images. Russians are at the airbase where the weapons are loaded on Syrian jets. And then it happens, and the photographs and videos are everywhere. President Trump, a man known for no emotional empathy throughout his life, and almost no interaction with his own babies over the years—a man who has bragged about never changing a diaper or spending any time on parenting—then makes a speech about all the beautiful babies that were killed by this terrible action. Many of his religious supporters, who have focused for years in their politics on the plight of babies resonate deeply with their president’s purported feelings and his resolve to do something about it all. And then, completely reversing everything he’s ever said about military intervention in other nations, as well as about Assad and his place in Syria, and contrary to the entire isolationist nationalistic mindset he ran on and won on, Trump suddenly orders a retaliatory strike with fifty nine cruise missiles against the airbase where the chemical attack was launched.
But he tells the Russians of the action in advance, with the explanation that he needs to avoid killing the Russian troops stationed there. And of course, they already knew of the plan, as did the Syrians, though perhaps not the exact timing. And so the Tomahawks fly, and Assad and Putin's people duly complain that it was illegal and unwarranted, and unacceptable. But their complaints seem a bit muted and pro forma, as such things go.
And the airfield where this great action took place, is then reportedly back operating the next day. A few people, sadly, were killed, but not many. And a few planes were destroyed, but again, not many. What may have cost Americans well over ten million dollars in missiles alone, not counting all the associated expenses of such an action, did a lot less than might have been expected, except to stir up constant news commentary. I don’t know about you, but I’d guess that if fifty nine cruise missiles had hit my local airport in an effort to do a much damage as possible, no planes would be taking off there the next day.
The Russians and Syrians objecting to the action are, fortunately, not quite the actors they need to be. And so, a few people begin to wonder. Is this merely a sort of elaborate and grotesque theatre, meant to cloak the grand plan that The Russian genius has for Trump? These events do manage to displace all the other news reporting that was negative for the administration. They get people's minds off the things Putin doesn't want us thinking about. And they begin to create the appearances that Putin now needs. Trump has to seem presidential, and strong and independent, and he has to appear to “stand up to” Russia right now, so that later, the original plan can be rescued and implemented to the full, as things tend to happen here deep, very deep down, in the Twilight Zone.
Of course, like everything that Rod Serling ever imagined, it’s just a story. Right?