President Donald Trump's opponents in Washington are biased against Russia, and that is damaging Trump's presidency, according to Mary Dejevesky, writing Thursday in The Independent.
"If there was one policy that infuriated the elite, it was his professed hope of improving relations with Russia," Dejevesky wrote about Trump in her opinion piece.
"It is not clear to me whether Trump's enemies really believe that his Russia policy is a risk to U.S. national security and so disqualifies him from the highest office, or whether Russia — because it can still inspire such fear in American minds — is being used as an emotive stick to beat him with," she wrote.
Evidence that shows any wrongdoing by Trump "remains highly dubious," she wrote, adding, "There is no reason to believe that Russia backed Trump — or even believed he could win. Who did?"
Dejevesky said she does not know why Trump's opponents have linked him with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and neither does Trump. "Trump sometimes evinces bafflement as to how it seems completely accepted in Washington that he is in a league with Putin … the difficulty for him is that it is almost impossible to prove the negative, and the Washington coalition ranged against him is powerful."
The president was "unscathed" after former FBI Director James Comey's testimony, but U.S. media leaks led to him being investigated as part of special counsel Robert Mueller's probe. "Trump is furious that he has become a subject of Mueller's investigation, because this is bound to weaken his beleaguered presidency further," she wrote.
The situation has led to Trump feeling "obvious fury and a sense of injustice."
"The mood of Washington, so entrenched in its belief in Russian guilt, only makes things worse," Dejevesky wrote.
The writer also addressed Russia's connection with Trump in May in The Gulf Today. She credited the idea that Jared Kushner worked on a back channel to Russia: "This is a time-honored way of trying to end a persistent, maybe dangerous, stalemate."
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.