President Trump: The NEW one and only politics thread

"As with his comments after the violence in Charlottesville, Trump’s obsequiousness toward Putin ripped away what remained of a very tattered fig leaf. Just as Charlottesville made it no longer quite so taboo to describe the president as sympathetic to white supremacy, perhaps Helsinki will allow mainstream commentators to more comfortably acknowledge the danger of the Trump presidency on the world stage."

Trump and Putin: The End of All Illusions - The Atlantic

 

How does he talk so articulately with Trump's dick in his mouth?

 

I guess Ali doesn't see how offensive this is:

 

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/fox-fri...-explain-directly-to-trump-what-he-got-wrong/

Something tells me (like most things the F&F say) it was written by someone else. I do wonder who has that kind of juice. Hannity? The Koch Bros? The Murdochs?
I can see the conference room at Fox with various people dialing in to offer their thoughts on what needs to be communicated to the President and how to do it.

 

He's qualified, and highly so, for the only thing that matters - making the libs mad.

 

Politics of appeasement!

 

By the way, this would all go much more smoothly if people would just admit Romney was right about Russia in that debate and Obama was wrong.

 

Again, I think it's fair to criticize his approach, but I don't quite think it's appeasement.

Trump has been tough on Russia. He's upped sanctions. We killed Russian mercenaries (troops) in Syria. We sent Ukraine weapons that Obama refused to send them.

The effort is to not publicly embarrass Putin personally, so that he has the ability to cooperate with us, without himself looking weak.

 

He does not read, he does not know or care about history, and he willfully refuses to prepare. He then sits down at the table with Korean negotiators who have met with U.S. diplomats repeatedly and know our policy goals better than anyone left in the State Dept., or sits down with Putin, who again has been at this for years, knows our policy and the negotiating history, and is a formidable opponent even when he isn't matched against an egotistical narcissist he can easily manipulate. By this point it is utterly unsurprising that Trump gets nothing in return except a lot of camera time and the public thanks of dictators he has given away the store to.

I'm surprised we still have Alaska.

From CNN:


"In talks with Russian officials, the White House passed along Trump's request for a one-on-one session with Putin, something he believed could better foster leader-to-leader ties. An official involved in the planning said Trump also expressed a belief that a private meeting with Putin would reduce the potential for leaks and disallow aides who might take a harder line on Russia from undercutting him.

That led to concerns among officials that no official record of the meeting would exist, aside from Trump's own recollections. When the two men sat before cameras at the start of the session, a pen and notepad was positioned next to Putin -- but not next to Trump.

Afterward, a US official said the translator in Trump's one-on-one with Putin would likely be debriefed, at least informally, by other US officials about some of what took place in the meeting -- not unusual practice for one-on-one meetings, according to the official, though the contents of that nearly two-hour meeting have gained additional scrutiny following Trump's extraordinary remarks."

And this, which bears on the above:

"Spending the weekend at his golf resort in Scotland, Trump underwent brief preparatory sessions with aides who tagged along to the Scottish coast lugging briefing binders and topic papers, most of which went unseen by the President himself.

Instead, Trump's aides -- including Chief of Staff John Kelly and National Security Adviser John Bolton -- presented him short talking points they hoped would narrow his focus ahead of the high-stakes encounter, including on Syria, Ukraine and election interference. Before he left for Europe, Trump indicated to aides that he would raise the issue, even if he expected little to come from the conversation beyond Putin's rote denials."

And this gem:

"In talking points sent to surrogates late Sunday night, the White House instructed its allies to argue Russia has already faced consequences for meddling in the 2016 election and cited the special counsel's indictment of Russians for their alleged hacking as one of the top ways the Trump administration has been tough on Russia."

'How bad was that?': Even Trump aides question damage done - CNNPolitics

 

Today and tomorrow's tweets should be fun.