With Nowhere to Turn, Trump Lobbies For Serbian Vote

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Donald Trump has lost the support of women, blacks, Latinos, Asians, Native Americans, the disabled, Muslims, and pretty much every other demographic group other than angry white men. So who’s left that might vote for him? How about Serbians?

“The bombing of Serbs, who were our allies in both world wars, was a big mistake,” Trump told the Serbian weekly magazine Nedeljnik for an article published on its website Thursday. “Serbians are very good people. Unfortunately, the Clinton administration caused them a lot of harm, but also throughout the Balkans, which they made a mess out of.”

….Eric Gordy, professor in Southeast European Politics at University College London, told Newsweek Trump’s words echo the tactic used by the Russian government to cultivate support among Serbs. “The most obvious interpretation of his statement is that it is another sign of alignment with Russia,” he says. “To be honest, this kind of statement is usually more a symbolic attempt for Russian politicians to drum up resentment towards the U.S.,” Gordy explains.

Regardless of your opinion of Slobodan Miloševi? and the NATO bombing of Serbia, I find it extremely unlikely that Trump has ever actually had an opinion about this. So why did he suddenly decide to talk about it? I figure Trump has three good reasons: (a) it takes attention away from Gropegate, (b) it aligns his views with Vladimir Putin’s, and (c) anything Bill Clinton did is bad.

I doubt any of this will work. Gropegate is a firestorm. Putin probably doesn’t care about Trump anymore now that it’s clear he’s a loser. And Miloševi? escaped being an official war criminal only by dying before his trial could finish. I think that even most Republicans are OK with the bombing war against Serbia these days.1

1I’m just guessing about this. They were pretty critical at the time, but it never seemed to turn into much of a hot button issue.

UPDATE: This interview may be a hoax. More here.

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“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things it doesn’t like—which is most things that are true.

We’ll say it loud and clear: At Mother Jones, no one gets to tell us what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please do your part and help us reach our $150,000 membership goal by May 31.

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