The following article by John T. Bennett was posted on the Roll Call website on July 9, 2018:
‘Do you know what? Putin’s fine,’ president declares amid Dems’ concerns
President Donald Trump’s European summer swing will be bookended by summits that form a microcosm of his contrarian presidency. Some worry his coming talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin could alter the post-World War II global order.
Trump’s seven-day trip will start with NATO allies he believes are making “schmucks” of Americans and will end with Putin, whom Trump believes is “fine” despite agreement among his intelligence agencies that Russia tried to upend U.S. politics with a disinformation campaign in 2016. Democratic lawmakers are warning that Trump’s unique foreign policy philosophy — a mix of pre-World War I realism and modern-day mercantilism — could lead him to further anger allies and give in to a Russian strongman.
The president and his top aides have given few signs that he intends to moderate his tough love rhetoric and demands for America’s NATO allies or that he plans to deliver ultimatums to the Russian president about meddling in future American elections or giving up the Crimea region of Ukraine he seized in 2014.