Tag: Vladimir Putin

Analysis: Donald Trump’s ‘Schmucks’ and KGB Summer Sojourn

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 meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G-20 Summit in July 2017. They will meet again on July 16. Credit: Evan Vucci/, P file photo

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.

View the complete article on the Roll Call website here.

Newspapers Across the Country Decry Trump Siding with Russia Over U.S.

Yesterday, Donald Trump made clear that his loyalties lie with Vladimir Putin rather than with U.S. intelligence agencies and the American people. Just days after 12 high-ranking Russian intelligence officers were indicted for their attack on American democracy, Trump stood next to Putin and refused to call on Russia not to attack us again. Today, newspapers across the country are decrying Trump’s shameful display of cowardice and capitulation.

Here’s a look at some of the headlines Americans across the country woke up to this morning on the front pages of their local newspapers:

DNC on Trump Siding with Putin Over the U.S.

DNC Chair Tom Perez released the following statement after President Trump held a press conference in Helsinki, Finland with Russian President Vladimir Putin:

“Donald Trump made clear that his loyalties lie with a foreign adversary who attacked our country rather than with U.S. intelligence agencies and the American people.

“Today’s press conference was a shameful display of cowardice and capitulation. Just days after 12 high-ranking Russian intelligence officers were indicted for their attack on American democracy, Donald Trump stood next to Vladimir Putin and refused to call on Russia not to attack us again. He took Putin’s side over his own government’s. And instead of denouncing Russia’s attack on our democracy, he went after American institutions. Never before has a U.S. president failed so spectacularly to stand up to a hostile foreign power. Continue reading “DNC on Trump Siding with Putin Over the U.S.”

Trump-Putin Meeting: What Could Go Wrong?

Credit: Mikhail Klimentyev AFP/Getty Images

We believe that diplomacy should always be the chief tool used in working towards global peace. However, the actions of this president and his administration do not give us much faith in his diplomatic abilities. Trump should bow out of this meeting if he is not capable of protecting American interests.

President Trump should cancel his meeting with Putin July 16. In fact, he should never have taken the meeting to begin with. We have no idea what Trump hopes to gain from this meeting. But we have every reason to believe that it’s not in America’s best interest. Donald Trump looks out for one person and one person only: himself.

Also, it’s unclear if Trump learned that winging it during a meeting with a foreign adversary is NOT advisable. Considering how skillfully Trump was finessed by North Korea at the Singapore summit, we are skeptical that the president will find himself once again at a tactical disadvantage when meeting with Putin.

Reminder: Trump prematurely called his meeting with Kim Jong Un a success and naively declared that North Korea is “no longer a nuclear threat” and the problem “solved.”

Yet, the DPRK is describing its most recent conversations with Secretary Pompeo as “deeply regrettable.”

Continue reading “Trump-Putin Meeting: What Could Go Wrong?”

‘The gorilla in the room’: Inside Trump’s failed efforts to meet Putin in 2013

The following article by Philip Rucker was posted on the Washington Post website May 16, 2018:

They called it “the gorilla in the room.”

Donald Trump’s desire to meet Vladi­mir Putin was so fierce that as Trump and his team prepared for their 2013 trip to Moscow to host the Miss Universe pageant they strategized about how the American reality-television star might be able to huddle with the Russian president.

As soon as the deal was struck for Miss Universe to take place in Russia, pageant president Paula Shugart told Rob Goldstone, a publicist and fixer who helped bring the pageant to Russia, “Oh, God, he’s going to want to meet Putin,” according to Goldstone’s testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee released Wednesday. Continue reading “‘The gorilla in the room’: Inside Trump’s failed efforts to meet Putin in 2013”

Russia favored Trump in 2016, Senate panel says, breaking with House GOP

The following article by Karoun Demirjian was posted on the Washington Post website May 16, 2018:

The Washington Post examines how, more than a year into his presidency, Trump continues to reject evidence that Russia supported his run for the White House. (Dalton Bennett, Thomas LeGro, John Parks, Jesse Mesner-Hage/The Washington Post)

The Senate Intelligence Committee has determined the U.S. intelligence community was correct in assessing Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election with the aim of helping then-candidate Donald Trump, contradicting findings House Republicans reached last month.

“We see no reason to dispute the [intelligence community’s] conclusions,” the committee’s chairman, Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), said Wednesday in a joint statement with its vice chair, Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.), who added: “Our staff concluded that the … conclusions were accurate and on point. The Russian effort was extensive, sophisticated, and ordered by President Putin himself for the purpose of helping Donald Trump and hurting Hillary Clinton.” Continue reading “Russia favored Trump in 2016, Senate panel says, breaking with House GOP”

Trump floated a Putin visit to the White House in a March 20 phone call

The following article y Anton Troianovski was posted on the Washington Post website April 2, 2018:

MOSCOW — President Trump proposed meeting Vladimir Putin at the White House in a March phone call, the Kremlin said Monday, a fresh revelation about a conversation that stirred controversy over Trump’s friendly tone toward the Russian leader amid mounting tensions with the West.

After the March 20 phone call — in which Trump congratulated Putin for a reelection victory in a vote widely criticized as not free and fair — Trump told reporters that the two leaders had discussed a possible meeting to discuss Syria, Ukraine, North Korea and “the arms race.” He did not mention any meeting venues at that time. Continue reading “Trump floated a Putin visit to the White House in a March 20 phone call”

What ‘DO NOT CONGRATULATE’ says about Trump — and the peril of meeting Kim Jong Un

The following article by Aaron Blake was posted on the Washington Post website March 21, 2018:

President Trump also said that he will discuss what he described as an “arms race” with President Putin. (The Washington Post)

President Trump announced two weeks ago that he would hold an unprecedented summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. On Tuesday, Trump reminded us just how awry that meeting could go.

The Washington Post is reporting that Trump was given key talking points for his call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday and that he disregarded just about all of them. He was not supposed to congratulate Putin on his allegedly unfair and undemocratic reelection win — his notes even had “DO NOT CONGRATULATE” in all caps — and yet he did. And he was supposed to condemn Russia’s alleged role in the nerve-agent attack on a former Russian spy in Britain, and yet he did not. Continue reading “What ‘DO NOT CONGRATULATE’ says about Trump — and the peril of meeting Kim Jong Un”

Trump faces backlash after congratulating Putin on election win

The following article by Jordan Fabian was posted on the Hill website March 20, 2018:

President Trump chats with Russian President Vladimir Putin in November 2017 at a summit in the Vietnamese city of Danang. Credit: Mikhail Klimentyev/AFP/Getty Images

President Trump is coming under intense criticism for declining to press Russian President Vladimir Putin about the fairness of Russia’s presidential election and the poisoning of a former Russian double agent living in England, an incident the United Kingdom blamed on Moscow.

Trump phoned Putin on Tuesday to congratulate him for winning a fourth term and to discuss a possible summit meeting. But Washington seized on the topics that were not discussed, which include Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Continue reading “Trump faces backlash after congratulating Putin on election win”

Trump’s national security advisers warned him not to congratulate Putin. He did it anyway.

The following article by Carol D. Leonnig, David Nakamura and Josh Dawsey was posted on the Washington Post website March 20, 2018:

President Trump also said that he will discuss what he described as an “arms race” with President Putin. (The Washington Post)

President Trump did not follow specific warnings from his national security advisers Tuesday when he congratulated Russian President Vladi­mir Putin on his reelection — including a section in his briefing materials in all-capital letters stating “DO NOT CONGRATULATE,” according to officials familiar with the call.

Trump also chose not to heed talking points from aides instructing him to condemn the recent poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain with a powerful nerve agent, a case that both the British and U.S. governments have blamed on Moscow. Continue reading “Trump’s national security advisers warned him not to congratulate Putin. He did it anyway.”