President-elect Donald Trump, who recently stated that Russia's Vladimir Putin was "smart" for not retaliating against the United States for sanctions imposed on Russia by President Obama, needs to "Man up" and admit that he is nothing more than Vladimir Putin's planted puppet. The sooner Trump comes clean and admits that he's in "way above his head," the better off everyone, including Republicans, will be. To determine what Putin's motives were for interfering with the American election and "planting" Donald Trump as President, one only needs ask what Putin stands to gain from a Trump presidency.

What Putin hopes to gain

Putin's motives for planting Trump in the White House are many and varied. For one thing, Putin is hoping that America will have a president who will not interfere with Putin's occupation of Ukraine and other Baltic States. Despite inhumane treatment of the citizens of Ukraine by the Russians, including torture, Russian occupation of Ukraine has continued and worsened in recent years. President-elect Trump has stated that he only will support Baltic States that are current in their dues to NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization). This gives Putin a blank check for continuing his occupation of Ukraine and other Baltic States and strengthening his position and power throughout the Baltic region.

Secondly, Trump's support for NATO has been inept at best. In recent months, Trump described NATO as "obsolete." Trump's practice of "tweeting" his foreign policy agenda recently came into question by Secretary of State John Kerry.

Thirdly, so long as Trump is President, Putin's support of Syrian President Bassar Assad's regime in Allepo and throughout Syria, will remain unchallenged.

The chronicle of inhumane treatment of average citizens of Aleppo, including mass starvation of children, will remain unchallenged so long as Trump is President because of his support of Putin. Trump recently stated that in a new arms race, the United States would prevail over all other countries. He provided no evidence for his claim.

It has been said that if you can appeal to a person's vanity, you have the makings of a fool. Such is the case with "the Donald." What better way is there to get someone to "melt" in the palm of your agenda-laden palm, than to appeal to his exaggerated sense of himself, to make him feel that he is "the ultimate," and to convince him that the world really does revolve around him after all? That is exactly what Putin has done to Trump.

The only thing left for Trump to do is call for a complete investigation of Russian interference with the election that resulted in his Electoral College victory. In his short inaugural address, Trump should state that although he ended up being elected President, he is calling for a complete probe into Russian hacking of the American Presidential Election 2016.

It won't happen

Of course, that will never happen, because Trump will take his marbles and run to the next game, that is, if anyone is still willing to play with him, which is doubtful.