President Trump: The NEW one and only politics thread

Trump puts the final nail in Reagan conservatism with his "(Blame) America First" campaign.

The Republican Party Is Now the Blame America Party

 

Trump not only looked weak, he looked like a sycophant. His model seems to be his cabinet singing his praises. Putin has zero respect for that. He's used to toadies. All that approach does is trigger his predatory instincts. He's an intelligence operative, so he milks his assets slowly over time instead of ripping their throats out on the spot, but make no mistake, Putin has no respect whatsoever for Trump.

 

Lavrov checking out Melania's legs. From Russia With Love.

 

When you say "What did Korea/Russia gain at these talks? Nothing much was agreed to." you need to consider this, from a Reuters article about how Helsinki is considered in Russia as a great victory for Putin. The same thing applied to NK, only to a greater degree for Kim:


"In Moscow, there was a recognition that the summit did not produce any breakthroughs on issues such as Syria, Ukraine or arms control. The Kremlin, in the run-up to the summit, had played down expectations of major progress.

Instead, the focus was on the symbolism of the leader of the world’s biggest superpower sitting down one-on-one with Putin after four years of international isolation triggered by Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region"

“The attention of the whole world is focused today on Helsinki and it’s crystal clear to everyone: the fate of the world is being decided between Russia and the United States, the leaders of the two major powers of our planet are meeting,” Pushkov said in a Twitter post on Monday."

"The opportunity for Putin to present himself as an equal to the U.S. president was a major objective for the Kremlin as it prepared for the summit, according to people close to the Russian foreign policy establishment."

Mission Accomplished.

Putin gets bonus points for:

“Putin gets to look like the urbane grown-up, and presents Russia as peer power to USA,” Galeotti wrote on Twitter." ~ Because of the many words I might use to describe Donald Trump, urbane is at the very bottom of the list. NC

And in a little remarked upon attempt to throw gas on the fire of U.S. electoral politics:

"In a new departure, Putin waded directly into that U.S. domestic debate. Standing alongside Trump in Helsinki, Putin said he had evidence that $400 million dollars in unlawfully acquired cash may have been funneled to the election campaign of Trump’s defeated opponent Hillary Clinton."

Russian establishment chalks up Trump summit as a win for Putin

 

So, what approach has worked, or will work, with Putin?

GWB's, I got a sense of his soul, approach didn't work. Obama's "reset" didn't work. Obama's attempt to put Russia down -- "regional power" -- didn't work either.

Under both of them, Russia intervened militarily in sovereign, neighboring states. Under both of them, he countered our actions in Iran, Syria, Egypt, and elsewhere.

So, let's no act as if we have some playbook on how to deal with Putin, and Trump is willfully ignoring it.

 

So the new plan is, "Trust Putin, not the FBI or the CIA. Europe is our foe. Russia is our friend."

I really enjoy how you spin this all as a positive.

 

I didn't think that was even possible. Even Fox has condemned his performance, with their best spin being "They're all over reacting. It wasn't so bad. What did you expect, Trump to call Putin a liar on TV?".

Outrage over Trump, Putin Helsinki meeting – Did we expect president to call Putin a liar on global TV?

 

Democrats, with an assist from the media, have attempted to delegitimize Trump' presidency since the day he was elected. (Which, was Putin's exact goal, with the expected election of Hillary Clinton.)

And, because the media can't separate Russia's attempts to influence our election from the fake "collusion" narrative, Trump has a hard time separating them as well. He thinks that if he gives an inch on the interference, he's giving the Dems, and the media, ammunition to delegitimize his election.

As a result, he handles questions about Russian interference very poorly.

He should simply accept the IC's assessment. He should do it plainly, and clearly, and move on from it. By refusing to do so, it remains an issue, and keeps popping up.

 

Let's start with this: How do you know the collusion narrative is fake?

Here are some incontrovertible facts:

1. A Russian foreign agent was indicted yesterday, and the indictment indicates that operative used the NRA to set up back-channel communications with the GOP.

2. 12 Russian agents were indicted last week, and the indictment indicates those operatives had contact with someone from Trump's campaign.

3. Donald Trump Jr. was specifically offered help by the Russian Government during the campaign, and responded with glee, and they took a meeting.

4. We are mostly in the dark on Trump financial ties to Russia, because the GOP suddenly decided it's no longer important to understand where a candidate might have conflicts of interest.



So - other than, "Because Trump says it's fake," - how do you know the collusion narrative is fake?

 

You were told this would happen. You voted.

50 G.O.P. Officials Warn Donald Trump Would Put Nation’s Security ‘at Risk’

 

“Come on, snap out of it, everybody,” Pirro said. “The guy is doing what he is supposed to be doing, and that is protecting us… What was he supposed to do? Take a gun out and shoot Putin? Putin said ‘I didn’t meddle in your election.’ So the president should say, ‘Hang on, let me execute this guy.'”