On the heels of the Stormy Daniels interview on CBS and the march on Washington to protest a lack of legislation dealing with firearms – but on an even larger scale, a protest against the way this current administration and Republican legislators conduct themselves – Donald Trump, uncharacteristically silent, has suddenly decided to draw swords with Vladimir Putin, kicking Russian diplomats and spies from U.S. soil, possibly a precursor to stronger action.

For months, some have wondered out loud, whether Donald Trump would try and go to war with North Korea or Iran as a diversion against his personal and professional issues at home. This move against Russia, could be that diversion. This will not only divert attention from the march and Stormy Daniels.  The harder Trump pushes against Russia, the more it will pull attention away from Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, making it appear less likely that Trump or his people colluded with the Russians.

One wonders how hard Trump will push, whether there could be economic sanctions to follow?   According to the experts, that, and not diplomatic expulsions, is what would really get to Putin and his oligarchs.  However, Putin, should not be expected to sit back and do nothing in response.  He apparently has the ability to shut down at least some of America’s power grid, as well as the power in Ukraine and possibly elsewhere.  Who knows the extent to which the Russians have hacked into other countries systems?   The threat of such a cyber-attack can surely be considered nothing less than an act of terrorism?

Even more interesting for some of us, is the question of whether Trump’s stand might not motivate Putin to release any information he might have been using as leverage (blackmail) against Donald trump.  If there are video tapes, might this not cause Putin to release them to humiliate the American President?   Or might something else be going on here?  With Putin and Donald Trump, who, up until now, has refused to even utter a bad word about the Russian dictator, one never knows.

We do have a few facts to consider.   One, is how brazen the Russians were in launching an attack with a military-grade nerve agent on British soil.    It was as though they wanted the world to know what they were doing.   Another, is that the United States was almost sure to back whatever play the Brits made against the Russians as the U.K. is among America’s oldest and strongest allies.   And finally, we must never forget that Putin is a former KGB officer, and a key player with regard to the deconstruction of what was once a promising Russian democracy which was then usurped by the former KGB network with Vladimir Putin as their new strong man.

It is also possible that the attack in the U.K. was designed to make Putin politically stronger at home, making it appear as though the Russian dictator was forced to take a stand against a renewed attack from the west.

The more the conflict with Russia grows, the more other issues will shrink into insignificance, to the possible advantage of both Putin and Donald Trump.  It’s probably all just coincidence?  A very real problem for loyal Americans is that this current President is without credibility, so we have no way of knowing one way or the other.

It’s difficult to imagine Vladimir Putin would invite this much trouble internationally unless he’s in far greater political trouble at home than any of us understands.

Whatever is going on behind the political curtain, kicking a few diplomats from the country is no big thing.  We’ll see if it’s just a little dust-up to divert attention from the march, the Mueller investigation and DJT’s issues with women, or whether Trump is serious and takes it further with meaningful economic sanctions.

While this is an equation filled with unknowns, it can be said with some certainty that intentional or not, Putin and the Russians have just handed Trump and the Republicans a huge diversionary gift.