The just concluded meeting between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin willl go down in history as the single embarrassing performance by an American President on the world stage.
The other embarrassing moment on the world stage was twenty five years ago, when President George Bush threw up on the Japanese Prime Minister at a State dinner in Tokyo. That can be excused as a medical issue. Just watch that sushi.
No wonder the Helsinki meeting has been dubbed the “surrender summit.” It is a day that will live in infamy.
Not only did Trump throw American intelligence services under the bus by his criticisms on foreign soil, he praised Putin again and again, while at the same time deriding the American justice system that has been investigating alleged collusion between Russians and Trump’s own campaign in the 2016 election.
Asked if he raised the issue of Russian interference in the 2016 election, with a straight face Trump simply said, “ I don’t see any reason it would be.” America is in disbelief.
It was surreal, seeing an American President standing next to America’s arch enemy and praising him vociferously while at the same time trashing American institutions. It seemed like he was under a trance.
American diplomacy got a black eye, and history will not be kind on the Helsinki debacle
Commenting on Trump’s perfomance, former CIA Director John Brennan said President Trump’s performance was “nothing short of treasonous.”
He went on to say, “Donald Trump’s press conference in Helsinki rises to and exceeds the threshold of “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
Russia is America’s number one enemy, and in Helsinki, in broad daylight while the world watched Trump aided and comforted the enemy.
Former Defense Secretary under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama said, when asked what he thought of Putin the first time they met, “I looked in his eyes and I saw a cold-blooded killer.”
But, don’t tell this to Trump. He thinks the world of Putin and says the man is honest and he can do business with him. Not once, since becoming President has Trump criticized Putin or said an un-kind word, like he has against America’s allies — Canada, Germany, Mexico, or the UK.
When a reporter asked Putin whether he has any goods on Trump (referring to Trump’s visit to Moscow for the Miss World pageant) which may be the reason Trump handles Putin with kid gloves, in vintage Putin style, he simply smiled and never answered the nagging question. What is one to make of this?
In all fairness however, it may be unfair pitting a seasoned former KGB spy against a Real Estate developer. But Trump was warned and requested to call off the meeting, but as usual this advice fell on deaf ears. And there will be a price to pay for this for years to come.
It is telling that when both men met in private, there were two interpreters. Yet, Putin speaks fluent English because when he was at the KGB he was sent abroad to train in foreign languages. Clearly, Putin prepared better for this spectacle than Trump. I bet a lot of vodka was consumed in celebration on the flight back to Moscow.
Trump said he was not going to bow to political pressure and risk losing a chance to build good relations with the other country that possesses 45% of nuclear weapons. But can good relations be had with Russia without accommodating their bad behavior — such as assassinations of opponents, poisoning dissidents in foreign capitals and invading other countries?
Donald Trump seems to have a soft heart for strong men, which makes one wonder whether he does not wish he could have the same control over America. I don’t doubt it in the least. He has praised the dictators of Turkey,N.Korea,Egypt and the Philippines to no end, never raising the abhorrent record of human rights violations in these countries.
This last dance with Putin, however is giving America sleepless nights. It is the most egregious blunder of the Trump administration and may be his undoing.
At the end, judgment of history will have the last word.
