The decision to impose new sanctions against Russian companies that supposedly may have sold nuclear technologies to Iran, North Korea, and Syria is Trump’s first openly hostile move toward our country. Here we’ve been trying to guess for months now when he’d start baring his teeth, when he’d rise firmly to his feet, shed the Manchurian candidate’s cocoon, and as a butterfly take flight toward the spring sun.

Well, there you go — he’s taken wing at last. The skeptics who accused journalists of “Trump-mania” can clap their hands. The determination to fight Iran has turned out to be more important than goodwill toward Russia; North Korea isn’t the issue here and neither is Damascus, which doesn’t even have enough atomic bombs to defeat old, bearded men with butcher knives.

But in reality, Iran isn’t the issue. America is the issue. Even a very strong individual can’t take hold of and break the backbone of a monster trained to hate Russia. No matter how much of the silent majority’s support the current U.S. president has, he’ll never be able to overcome the resistance of the deep state, the educated class, the press, academia, and liberal business.

Trump isn’t Lenin or Stalin. He’s just a showman who in his old age put forward a couple of common sense slogans and by some incredible combination of circumstances found himself being whisked away to the height of power. Well, yes, in the modern world, saying two plus two is four is perhaps super-audacious. You might even be elected president for such a thing.

But what, is he going to keep communicating with society through his personal Twitter account?

Probably not. And we’re seeing ever more clearly that Trump is backing down. Not very quickly, cautiously, but steadily backing down: Flynn, Sessions, “Obama was such a weakling that Russia was able to take Crimea,” pulling the bill to repeal Barack Obama’s health care law … He still brags, yells, and stomps his feet, but deep down, as we see, he’s resigned himself — there’s no point banging your head against a brick wall.

This is all pretty sad and foolish. After all, Russian society has already managed to fall in love with not only the charismatic politician but the whole of Trump’s America too. Actually, it’s not that hard. Loving the Russians is a whole lot easier than hating them. The America of Coca-Cola, hamburgers, and Schwarzenegger movies; the America of pickup trucks, flannel shirts, blueberry pie, and repulsive, garbage coffee in huge mugs; the America of baseball and the senior prom, it seemed, had taken revenge. But no. “I thought it was spring, but it’s just a thaw!”

Even in winning the election, Trump lost. Because the void, the slimy, iridescent amalgam of the globalist establishment and incapacitated journalists can’t be defeated. You can try, of course. But manually rolling back so-called progress is the same as getting into a fight that won’t have a clear outcome. In short, it’s the same as running out in front of a streetcar. To many of us, it seemed early on that Trump was going to do just that.

What can you do? No one has to be a hero. As it stands, well, he’s still an amusing guy.

Even though he’s a wimp. Just like his entire administration.