It has long been reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin once called GOP nominee Donald Trump “brilliant.” Trump likes the remark so much that he’s constantly repeating it, as if it validates him in some manner when a murdering tyrant like Putin pays him a compliment. Just two nights ago, Trump told Matt Lauer:
“Well, I think when (Putin) calls me brilliant, I’ll take the compliment, OK?”
But did Putin actually call Trump brilliant? Perhaps not. And MSNBC host Rachel Maddow began her show last night with a closer look at what Putin did say, opening the segment by telling viewers:
“This is an election year where the Republican Party is running as their candidate for president a candidate who is so self-centered and narcissistic that a flippant — and apparently misquoted — compliment from another foreign leader was enough to put enough stars in his eyes that the Republican Party’s presidential nominee now really does say that he prefers the president of Russia to the president of the United States,” she fumed. “This is crazy. And it’s irrelevant. But this is the highest level of our politics right now.”
But what Putin really said regarding Trump is something very different–and less laudatory–than brilliant. Maddow said she asked a Russian language expert to translate what the Russian dictator said. It just so happens if Putin meant to call Trump “brilliant” because of his intellect, he would have used the word “blestiashchlii.” But instead, he used the adjective “yarkii,” which is akin to calling Trump brightly-colored or flamboyant. Kinda like a shiny coin or a peacock.
All of this should be irrelevant in any normal election year, but in the Year of the Orange Menace, Maddow noted, it somehow means everything:
“It really shouldn’t matter. On the one hand, who cares? On the other hand, we now have to. Because this is an election where the Republican presidential campaign at the number-one online ‘debunker’ of 9/11 and the Oklahoma City bombing and the Challenger disaster, and the Aurora movie theater massacre, and the Sandy Hook shootings, and the Boston bombings because ‘all of those things didn’t really happen — they’re all government conspiracy theories.'”
Donald Trump is a dangerous con man who would destroy this country in ways we cannot even fully comprehend. Maybe it’s time to cook up a few conspiracy theories about him and see if they stick.
Featured Image Via MSNBC
