The following article by Gene Lyons was posted on the National Memo website July 17, 2018:
It’s almost proverbial to say that every bully is a coward at heart. But that’s wishful thinking. In politics, many strongmen are like Vladimir Putin, ruthless, cunning and sadistic. As the world witnessed in Helsinki, a posturing blowhard like Donald Trump is simply no match for the Russian dictator.
Faced with a real thug, the trust-fund poser cowered.
Thankfully, Putin is also a bloody-minded realist. Because the disgraceful spectacle of Trump belittling America’s NATO allies, lying about it, and then cringing before the Russian dictator might otherwise tempt him to do something reckless. If the U.S. president is weak, the western democracies are still far stronger than Russia. But events are definitely moving in Putin’s direction.