Reading Charles Todorich’s Maine Voices column extolling Donald Trump (Feb. 11), I couldn’t help but notice one very important word conspicuously absent from the piece: Russia.

In a commentary that waxes nostalgic for the Cold War, it seemed strange to throw Russia down the memory hole.

The ever-growing list of investigations, indictments and convictions related to Kremlin meddling helps to keep Russia in the 2019 headlines. But so do Trump policy moves: The withdrawal from Syria and draw-down in Afghanistan, the undermining of NATO and the tearing up of arms agreements that President Ronald Reagan himself signed. All of these provide little or no benefit to the U.S. but absolutely check items off Vladimir Putin’s Christmas wish list.

Another glaring omission from Todorich’s op-ed was the name Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post journalist and permanent American resident who was manually strangled and dismembered by a Saudi Arabian hit squad. President Trump, the leader of the nation Reagan referred to as the “shining city upon a hill,” has done nothing tangible to address this Dark Ages-esque butchery. Trump’s publicly admitted excuse: Money.

Knowing how easily the thin line between morality and amorality can be danced across by this president when money is involved, it’s not a big stretch to believe that financial ties also motivate his coziness with the gangster-autocrat in charge of the Kremlin.

Sometime between now and Trump’s addition to Mount Rushmore, I hope we finally get to see his and his syndicate’s full, unadulterated financial disclosures. That should go a long way to show us just where this president’s allegiances lie. I’ll bet we even see that forgotten word “Russia” in there.

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