President Trump's 2017 performance review, from Putin with love You’ve devastated America’s ability to lead the world even faster than we thought possible. This couldn’t have gone better.

Steven Strauss | Opinion columnist

Show Caption Hide Caption A third of voters give President Trump 'F' on first year report card What letter grade would you give President Trump for his first year in office?The results from a new poll are in.

Dear Donald:

Sincere thanks from everyone here in Russia’s leadership for your unstinting work on our behalf. We realized, when preparing this performance review, that you have done so much for us — including your verbal attacks on America’s allies while singing my praises, encouraging racial and religious animosity among Americans, dismantling and degrading the U.S. State Department, undermining the FBI, NATO and NAFTA and so much more — we could only highlight your major successes.

You’ve devastated America’s ability to lead the world, and draw on its allies for support, even faster than we thought possible. This couldn’t have gone better. Across 37 countries, Pew Research reported confidence in the U.S. presidency dropped from a median of 64% under President Obama to 22% under your presidency. The confidence of America’s key allies (e.g., the United Kingdom, Germany and France) plummeted even more dramatically (from about 80%-85% under Obama), to roughly 10%-20% under your administration.

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You’re also doing a fantastic job steering America into a major conflict — which would weaken and isolate the United States, economically and politically. Instead of trying to avoid a disastrous nuclear war with North Korea, your team openly speculates that military action might be necessary. What a great way to send North Korea’s paranoid leader — armed with nuclear weapons — over the edge! With a bit more bellicosity, you could trigger a clash that devastates America’s ally South Korea and lands a nuclear strike against a major U.S. city. And, if you can’t start a conflict with North Korea, we’re pleased you’re keeping your options open for a war with Iran.

You’re a genius at convincing your base you put “America First,” while you severely damage U.S. interests. Your decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital didn’t benefit America in any way, but angered all the countries that are the biggest buyers of U.S. exports. So much for putting U.S. trade and jobs first! Your Jerusalem gesture resulted in America’s absolute humiliation at the United Nations — demonstrating you’ve made the U.S. completely impotent in international diplomacy. As you know, America was outvoted on this issue 14-1 in the U.N. Security Council and 128-9 in the U.N.General Assembly (the few countries voting with America were small and insignificant). We admire your superb skill in convincing your base that this diplomatic disaster for America was something to celebrate!

As a side point, you’ve also done exceedingly well recruiting useful idiots. For example, despite the obvious disaster you’ve been for America’s status in the world, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., praised your international leadership in a nationally published editorial. Seriously — do you have kompromat on Cotton, or is he really that clueless?

At your insistence, America withdrew from the Paris climate accords, isolating the United States internationally (America is the only country in the world not participating). In just the past year, the U.S. had several major climate-related disasters, resulting in damages in excess of $200 billion. But rather than try to reduce these risks, you’ve staffed your administration with politically partisan climate change skeptics, who often have no scientific background! You’ve adeptly set the stage to further weaken an unprepared USA through future climate disasters.

The consensus is that your new, so-called Tax Cuts and Jobs Act will do little to increase U.S. economic growth, but (by adding substantially to U.S. budget deficits) it will further enfeeble the U.S. government. Even better, from our perspective, is the act's attack on one of America’s great strengths — its research universities. Currently, 11 of the world’s top 20 universities are American. They contribute significantly to keeping the United States a world leader in technology. The act imposed (for the first time) a tax on some of America’s most successful research universities. Please use your anti-intellectual GOP (a majority of Republicans say college education negatively impacts Americans) to do even more damage to America’s universities in the coming years.

When pressure builds to contain the increased deficits created by this act, propose even larger taxes — on research universities and their students — to close the revenue shortfall. Hopefully, you’ll destroy America’s great research universities as successfully and quickly as you’ve destroyed respect for America in the world!

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Your most significant achievement, however, is normalizing Russian interference in U.S. politics. Your GOP is openly called the Party of Putin — and an increasing percentage of Republicans view Russia favorably. GOP members of Congress are sending a clear message to the FBI that it should not be investigating our activities. Meanwhile, you’re doing nothing to protect America’s upcoming elections from our manipulations. Excellent! We’ll uphold our de facto bargain to support Republican candidates, as long as the party ignores our political interventions and looks agreeably on our interests.

Of course, the year wasn’t perfect. For instance, the U.S. Congress made a show of voting additional sanctions against Russia (we’ve noted this happened despite your objections and your delayed implementation). We do understand occasional token gestures are necessary to maintain the facade of America’s independence from Russia’s orbit. But keep these setbacks to the bare minimum!

Overall, results for your first year in office have been outstanding. We have hopes that by the end of your presidency, you will have completely destroyed America.

President Vladimir Putin

Steven Strauss, a member of USA TODAY's Board of Contributors, is a lecturer and visiting professor at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School. Follow him on Twitter: @Steven_Strauss.