Hillary Clinton warned us all, almost exactly ten years ago to the day. In a debate moderated by Chris Wallace of Fox News (which took place on October 19, 2016), Clinton and Donald Trump had a memorable exchange that has turned out to be sadly prophetic.

In the midst of a discussion about open borders, Clinton made a pivot and started talking about Russia and Vladimir Putin. Here's what she had to say about it, from the transcript of the debate:

But you are very clearly quoting from WikiLeaks. And what's really important about WikiLeaks is that the Russian government has engaged in espionage against Americans. They have hacked American websites, American accounts of private people, of institutions. Then they have given that information to WikiLeaks for the purpose of putting it on the Internet.

This has come from the highest levels of the Russian government, clearly, from [Vladimir] Putin himself, in an effort, as 17 of our intelligence agencies have confirmed, to influence our election.

So I actually think the most important question of this evening, Chris, is, finally, will Donald Trump admit and condemn that the Russians are doing this and make it clear that he will not have the help of Putin in this election, that he rejects Russian espionage against Americans, which he actually encouraged in the past. Those are the questions we need answered. We've never had anything like this happen in any of our elections before.

Trump then responded, first about open borders, then he moved on to Putin:

DONALD TRUMP: Now we can talk about Putin. I don't know Putin. He said nice things about me. If we got along well, that would be good. If Russia and the United States got along well and went after ISIS, that would be good.

He has no respect for her. He has no respect for our president. And I'll tell you what: We're in very serious trouble, because we have a country with tremendous numbers of nuclear warheads -- 1,800, by the way -- where they expanded and we didn't, 1,800 nuclear warheads. And she's playing chicken. Look, Putin...

CHRIS WALLACE: Wait, but...

TRUMP: ... from everything I see, has no respect for this person.

HILLARY CLINTON: Well, that's because he'd rather have a puppet as president of the United States.

TRUMP: No puppet. No puppet.

CLINTON: And it's pretty clear...

TRUMP: You're the puppet!

CLINTON: It's pretty clear you won't admit...

TRUMP: No, you're the puppet.

CLINTON: ... that the Russians have engaged in cyberattacks against the United States of America, that you encouraged espionage against our people, that you are willing to spout the Putin line, sign up for his wish list, break up NATO, do whatever he wants to do, and that you continue to get help from him, because he has a very clear favorite in this race.

So I think that this is such an unprecedented situation. We've never had a foreign government trying to interfere in our election. We have 17 -- 17 intelligence agencies, civilian and military, who have all concluded that these espionage attacks, these cyberattacks, come from the highest levels of the Kremlin and they are designed to influence our election. I find that deeply disturbing.

Wallace, sensing that the entire debate was spiralling out of his control, remarked soon after this exchange: "I'm not a potted plant here, I do get to ask some questions."

That was then, this is now. And now it's pretty obvious that Clinton was right: Donald Trump is essentially nothing more than a puppet whose strings are pulled by Vladimir Putin.

Trump announced this week that he had cut a deal with Russia where they would send us some diesel fuel, which Trump is desperately hoping will bring down prices at the pump for Americans before the midterm elections. This is almost certainly not going to happen in any major way. The amount of diesel is no more than a drop in the ocean of world consumption (or even just American consumption) and prices likely won't be impacted by the move much, if at all. But Trump was desperate, because he knows the American people quite correctly hold him responsible for high fuel prices which were caused by his ill-conceived war of choice with Iran.

Trump made no demands of Russia in order to cut this deal. He had leverage he could have used, but he didn't, plain and simple. Trump is also almost certainly breaking U.S. law by cutting the deal, since at the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine a law was passed banning all oil and fuel imports from Russia. Trump doesn't care, he's just going to waive all sanctions against the Russian oil industry until next spring.

Trump also doesn't care that Russia is aiding Iran in their war with us, or that the windfall of money Russia will get from this deal will fund Russia's continuing war with Ukraine -- who is theoretically supposed to be a U.S. ally. Trump is now actually punishing Ukraine as a result of this deal, which is so staggering a concept it defies description. He's cut off military intelligence and a satellite communications system the Ukrainian military relies upon. Trump is doing all of this because he's trying to force Ukraine to stop attacking Russia's oil infrastructure.

Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries have been one of their most potent military strategies, cutting Russia's oil production anywhere from one-fourth to one-half of what it used to be. It is affecting their entire economy, and Russia has had to institute rationing of gasoline and diesel for its own people. But now that they're going to send us some diesel (to help Trump's midterm prospects out), Trump wants Ukraine to unilaterally stop using the most successful weapon they have in the conflict.

Thomas Friedman summed up the magnitude of Trump's actions in his column today, beginning it with:

If President Trump does not understand what will happen to him if he proceeds with his plan to trade away support for Ukraine's democracy for Russian diesel, let me spell it out: He will enter the history books in the chapter on leaders who sold out their country's democratic values to appease a dictator.

Donald Trump, meet Neville Chamberlain. When future students search online for "sellout," "appeaser" or "traitor to his country's core values," their two pictures will come up first, side by side. And deservedly so. At least Chamberlain was trying, in what proved to be lethally misguided fashion, to avoid a world war. Trump is trying to avoid losing a few seats in Congress -- and is likely to be no more successful in achieving his goal than Chamberlain was in achieving his.

. . .

There is simply no core American value Trump will not sell. Desperate to lower diesel prices, which are hurting Republicans in the midterms, Trump actually made a deal to import diesel fuel from Russia, even though it offers a potential windfall for the Kremlin so it can bomb Ukraine harder -- and is unlikely to help lower prices or increase supplies much at all. Worse, his aides then asked Ukraine to refrain from attacks on Russia's oil refineries, without Trump making the same demand of Putin regarding Ukraine's energy infrastructure. It makes me sick to my stomach to even type this.

That is not overblown hyperbole -- that is the sad truth. Trump has indeed worked diligently to weaken NATO, he has undercut Ukraine repeatedly, and all of it plays right into Putin's hands. And that was all before he started trading with the enemy.

I never expected to say it, but I actually miss Lindsey Graham. Graham was the strongest Republican voice in terms of speaking out against Russia and in support of Ukraine. He buddied up to Trump to such a degree that he could get away with castigating Trump on the issue without any petulant payback from Trump. The bill that Graham was diligently working on to impose even steeper sanctions on Russia's oil industry passed the Senate a month ago and was actually signed into law by Trump. But Trump's deal with Russia has made it completely irrelevant now.

Donald Trump has now proven himself to be exactly what Hillary Clinton warned us all of. Vladimir Putin pulls the strings, and Donald Trump dances to his tune. The United States of America has now provided an economic lifeline to a country that is helping an enemy of ours in an active war. He has sold out American interests in a pathetic and desperate effort not to lose a midterm election. I'm with Thomas Friedman on this: it makes me sick to my stomach to even type this, but that's where we now are as a nation.

Hillary Clinton was right.

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant