Liberal Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank said the recent indictments by special counsel Robert Mueller show that Americans who supported President Trump in the election were “useful idiots” for Russia.
In an op-ed published Tuesday night, Milbank said the indictments, brought late last week, showed how Americans were “played” by Russia to support Trump, even though he admitted that Trump is right when he says no collusion has been shown so far.
“In fact, the Mueller investigation is ongoing and has offered no such conclusions,” Milbank wrote. “But what Mueller did expose last week should sicken us all: Vladimir Putin has played Americans across the political spectrum for suckers. In particular, the Russian dictator has turned Trump supporters into the useful idiots of the 21st century.”
The indictments relate to 13 Russians and three companies that stand accused of attempting to disrupt the election. The charges say the Russians deliberately agitated voters by using social media to spread content on controversial issues, like the Black Lives Matter movement. Prosecutors said the accused stole the identities of American citizens and posed as political activists in carrying out the plot.
The charges do not explicitly implicate the Trump campaign, though it said that some of the Russians, while posing as Americans, helped organize pro-Trump rallies. It also noted that the Russians organized anti-Trump efforts as well.
Though Milbank singled out Trump supporters as the “useful idiots,” he blamed voters in general for the election outcome.
“Mueller’s indictment is full of nauseating detail about how Putin made fools of Americans,” he wrote. “Trump and his defenders take that as exoneration, even though it is limited to just this aspect of the probe. But it’s another way of saying they were useful idiots.”
