It’s frightening to think of what Putin may have over Donald Trump. It seems like the POTUS only respects the Russian strongman and he despises just about every other world leader. Maybe the investigations will discover what the heck is going on.
8
I am sorry but I think the Crimea problem was caused by the US, esp. Victoria Nuland.
We have conveniently forgotten that Crimea was part of Russia for several Hundred Years. For administrative reason,the Politburo in 1954 transferred Crimea and the Donbass and Odessa to the Ukrainian Oblast. There are photos of the Tsar and Tsarina on holidays in Odessa. When the the USSR collapsed those areas should have rightly been returned to Russian Control.
Crimea is now part of Russia and the world and US should recognize this fact. After all the US let Ukraine keep areas it had not right to.
2
I think Trump needs a big loan. And I'm not trying to be funny.
I'd bet anything that he is in financially deep with Putin and his kleptocrat buddies.
7
If there is ANY doubt left that Trump and Putin are collaboration buddies, it should be completely put to rest. There is only one thing that shocks me more than Trump, and that would be the sheep who follow this guy without question nor concern for what is happening to this nation. To declare well over half the nation as "the enemy" almost every day in the news or his tweets, is a poison pill to the GOP. It is quite possible that once trump is found out to be a crook (and it WILL happen) all his appointees should be recalled like the lemons they are.
8
When are the media going to quit beating around the bush and openly admit Trump's actions are tantamount to treason?
Because destroying our alliances while coddling our adversaries is exactly that.
12
You complain he isn't supporting democracy and peace, but you're blasting him for not hyping up tensions with Russia. More Crimeans consider themselves Russian than Ukrainian, and in Ukraine the West has supported neo-Nazis. Not that there are angels on either side in either case, but these are excuses for an economic war (and perhaps later a hot war) with Russia not the true reasons.
Your newspaper and most of the mass media are neo-liberal hawks always inciting war. Did you ever consider perpetual war might not only not be in the interest of the whole world (which you along with most of the US establishment care little about) but also for the US itself? Note that on many indicators we rank at the bottom of developed nations. Can't you see that the US spending so much money on war and preparations for war (something you and Trump agree upon) is bankrupting us so that domestically we go downhill?
Your hatred for Russia and much of the world blinds you to reason and common sense.
1
more than simply ignorant and incompetent, trump is actually a traitor -- i honestly believe this is an applicable use of that term. his concerns, as he's demonstrated time and time again, are not for the american people, the peace alliances of the progressive west, but to only himself and his aggrandizement and enrichment. his lapdog play with putin is ignorant, yes; it's playing directly into putin's machievellian plans for global destabilization, yes; but that's only a happy side-effect -- from trump's perspective: he is 'playing' an idolized 'leader' in order to score personal power and treasure in future dealings. and in so doing, he is plainly steering relationships and agreements in directions that directly oppose american interests and ideals.
***
18 U.S. Code § 2381 - Treason
Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or [bold] adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere [/bold], is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.
(June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 807; Pub. L. 103–322, title XXXIII, § 330016(2)(J), Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 2148.)
****
7
When Russia invaded the Crimea, Obama did nothing. If it was Trump, the Democrats would be screaming bloody murder. Obama was clueless at the time and indecisive as usual, but he unwittingly did the right thing. Now Trump has the opportunity to achieve a new glasnost with Russia and perhaps normalized relations even though the Democrats are still caught up in their fantasy of Russian collusion.
1
The person who is truly ignorant and most dangerous, is the one who does not know what they do not know.
GHC
8
Trump has already given Putin the Crimea. What's next, Latvia? or maybe Donald is just trying to get his hotel built, or those photos back?
5
Where will the United States be if Trump repeats his G-7 act with the NATO allies? Trump serves Putin's ambitions very well and to me that sounds like collusion if not treason. I hope that Americans find a way to maintain historical values and visions despite Trump's efforts to undermine a proud history.
4
#45 should not be allowed to meet with Putin one on one. The KGB interrogator will easily prevail over the foreign policy neophyte. Who can we trust as a witness to talks?
8
Many of the readers seem locked into a Cold War mentality. Is this what we want? Without Russia as a second front during WW II, we never could have beaten Hitler. Without Gorbachev’s intervention and assistance, the Berlin Wall would still be standing, and East and West Germany would not have been reunified.
How did we reward Gorbachev for his efforts? After perestroika Russia was on its knees economically, but we did nothing to help them. We then induced the former Warsaw Treaty members to join NATO and then stationed guns on their borders which we pointed toward Russia. Didn’t we have a Cuban missile crisis over the same thing?
Trump senses a new opening—a new glasnost. Maybe this time we can keep our word and give perestroika a second chance to achieve its true potential. It’s at least worth a try, but Trump’s critics at home remain adamant in their opposition because to them the highest priority is not glasnost for East or West but their hatred of Trump which has consumed them and destroyed their own better instincts. Maybe they should just cool down. They might learn something.
2
Let's get serious putin already owns trump and so does China!
7
Putin clearly controls trump, and can make trump do anything he wants...
7
Trump has to get his marching orders from his puppet master in person so there are no records of his conversation with Satan.
5
Slave is going to meet his master. Figure out who is who.
6
If Crimea should belong to Russia because they speak Russian, does that also mean you are going to stop with this pledge of allegiance nonsense and revert to God Save The Queen?
Are you going to start back paying all those tea taxes you denied us?
Does it mean we get back Australia but only half of Canada?
This will make Her Madge proper pleased, she was gutted about losing the colonies.
3
Dealing with Russia has always been tricky, as American and Russian security concerns are so different. However, we need to have the Russians on our side as China rises in economic and military strength. Right now, with sanctions, the Americans are driving the Russians into the arms of the Chinese. If the Americans provide them some incentives, perhaps the Russians will ally with us. The Americans would have to set aside their pride in order to strike such a deal. However, the Russians might remain neutral in the upcoming struggle despite incentives from the Americans. In fact, they might play both sides to their benefit. So like I said, dealing with the Russians will be tricky.
1
Trump buddied up to Kim and said he was an "honorable man," that he had a great sense of humor and that they could work together. A few days later this "honorable" man had a military officer shot by a firing squad for giving his starving soldiers some extra food. This is the kind of man Trump admires. He calls Trudeau weak, the threw Sparkles candy at Merkel during the G7 and yelled, "Don't say I never gave you anything," he sneers at NATO and calls Canada a security risk. He'll heap praise on Putin when he goes. After all, Putin has reporters assassinated. Putin is as admirable as Kim.
8
I hope Manafort is kept in an extra high security jail. It seems possible that Putin might provide instructions on how to recruit someone to poke Manafort in the leg with an infected umbrella or some such assassination tool.
4
There is no benefit worth sitting down with Putin at this time. Russia is not a significant contributor to anything importantly good in the world. Right now it sells oil, gas, and arms on the positive column and disrupts peaceful life in countries across the world in order to drag everyone else down into the stinking hole in which they find themselves on the negative. The negative out weighs the positive many times over. If Trump was anything but a private business trying to keep his bankers happy he would try to force Putin to stop being so destructive but he is not.
3
"Russia is not a significant contributor to anything importantly good in the world."
Lets insert US for Russia in that sentence and recognize the mess was have made throughout the world - Syria, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen. Iraq - The US has done nothing recently but create a mess in many countries around the world. We have nothing to be proud of.
3
"Mr. Trump’s top national security advisers are more cleareyed about the Russian threat than he is. So are the Republicans who control the Senate. They have more responsibility than ever to try to persuade Mr. Trump..."
Can we please just abandon the notion that any "cleareyed" person is going to persuade Mr. Trump of anything? Experience tells us this simply does not happen, and entertaining a hope to the contrary seems like a waste of mental energy.
4
June 29, 2018
Trump and Putin truly a marriage of capital achievements that is now both their manifesto for how government must produce wealth elites and then lead as if the divine manifestation of claim to power. Power as define by the goal of freedom is for producing the power brokers and economic rule registered with portfolios of authority that makes the homeland rightful and true to have the blessings of such power guys as Don and Val. An the rest of the folks may not be to friendly when deprived or ignored but so what - get a life wherever except the borderlands of the rights of destiny with the elite military Powers to give its protection with of course upscale retirement benefits to live eternal peace in the hinterlands.
1
You will see, Trump is gong to offer the US to Putin on a silver platter ! With leaving the WTO as a desert.
The Swiss have a Federalist system just like the US. The branches of government are the same, Executive, Legislative and Judicial.
However, there is one big difference: The decided that one person as head of the country was too dangerous. Therefore, they made an Executive Federal Council composed of seven members who share power !
The US may need to make some modifications in the future.
6
"Mr. Trump’s top national security advisers are more cleareyed about the Russian threat than he is. So are the Republicans who control the Senate. "
And this needs to be a point in the upcoming election. If Trump gets played by Putin as badly as he got played by Kim, those "clear-eyed" Republicans had better call him on it, and their voters need to know about it if they don't.
4
Is Trump a "recruit," that is, an American citizen who is spying for and working on behalf of the Kremlin? A remarkable amount of circumstantial evidence supports that conclusion.
10
If NATO takes more responsibility for its defence and pays it's fair share how will that affeect defence contracts I mean the world order?
1
One can be certain that Mr. Trump's avidity for this meeting is not to warn Putin against disclosing his "secrets", whatever they may be. Trump has enough sense to know that Putin has him under his thumb as long as those secrets remain secret. Once they are out, Putin will be effectively disarmed, giving the next US president good reasons to confront Russia in every turn.
And the meeting cannot be on Crimea, Ukraine, or even related economic sanctions on Russia. Mr. Trump has been clear that he does not mind Russian annexation of Crimea or their destabilizing role in Eastern Ukraine. In fact he has gone as far as pledging on behalf of Putin that "he is not going to go into Ukraine". So, the question remains why Mr. Trump is so keen on this meeting?
The answer is patently related to ME and Russia's role in that region. Mr. Trump has indicated in the past that the US intends to leave Syria. So, Syria is out of the picture.
From the NYT article "Trump Jr. and Other Aides Met With Gulf Emissary Offering Help to Win Election" (May 19, 2018) we know that Saudis, Emiratis and Israelis had a critical role in Mr. Trump's election. We also know that Mr. Trump has generously rewarded those who helped him to win the election. Given that these 3 countries have been trying to persuade US military to act against Iran and precipitate government change in Tehran, the meeting will be about the next US war in ME and what Putin can achieve by staying on the sideline.
1
We will see whether this meeting is more than a wannabe kleptocrat talking to the world's top kleptocrat and trying to divvy up areas of non-interference. For now this meeting feels more like a meeting between mafia bosses who try to avoid open conflict by marking their pilfering grounds.
The US and Russia are not natural allies. A meaningful meeting is not a made for TV spectacle, but must provide verifiable results. Unless Trump's more seasoned advisors prevail, this meeting could very well lay the seeds for future conflict.
1
Hey, these guys are dividing up the world. Leave them alone.
4
No, really! This dope of a "president" thinks that just because people speak Russian in Crimea that that is justification for Russia to have annexed it?? And if Putin 'says' there is no collusion, then there is none? Such deep thinking! Not surprising, I suppose, from someone who can't read. Such a deplorable situation! Where are the remedies? Who's going to step in and enforce our laws against this nepotistic grifter, who continues to flaunt the emoluments clause, tear down every treaty, inflict harm on the planet and us, alienate allies, and more, all to stop being found out as a Russian pawn and continue his & his family's grab for money? This so-called 'president' is only interested in his perceived greatness and wealth, and only looking to be re-elected so he can puff himself out further. C'mon Democrats and all citizens: vote out the only-interested-insaving-their jobs-and-wealth GOP and this harmful 'president" and show us those tax returns! And put some spine into the checks we have against such a terrible, harmful, crass, vindictive 'president'.
5
Canada was the USA's biggest trading partner and a most trusted ally. Our Foreign Minister the Honourable Chrystia Freeland is our Nafta overseer and is a renowned world public intellectual, economic journalist, NYT best selling author (Plutocracy: The Rise of the new Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else)and an architect of a 21st century global economy.
Freeland speaks fluent Russian, and Italian and Americans need to note the Italian economy is bigger than Russia's.
Freeland was chief of the Financial Times Moscow Bureau and has the honour of being one of fourteen Canadians barred from travelling in Russia by Vladimir Putin.
Freeland understands the global economy and as the head of Canada's Nafta negotiations is committed to a successful renegotiation but I am afraid that her genius and understanding puts us in direct confrontation with Putin and Trump because Canada above all else is committed to liberal democracy.
7
It is futile to place expectations of Trump's maneuvers in context of US policy objectives or benefits.
Is there anyone left who believes Trump's motivation extends beyond his personal enrichment (monetary or otherwise)?
He claims world peace was achieved by his facile meeting with NK. Wonder what he will be claiming over "summit" with idol Putin.
5
I grew up after FDR but before the internet, but I cannot recall any figure, political or not, who dominated national consciousness to the extent Trump does. Every newscast, every headline begins with "Trump." His Omnipresence exceeds even the imagination of Orwell--even Big Brother was confined to a TV monitor on the wall. Part of this is attributable to the insecurities of CNN, PBS and even the NYT, who fear missing a story. The fact is most Trump stories are not newsworthy at all, simply a reaction to his daily tweet.
Mr. Putin, I suspect, does not have the penetrance into the minds and consciousness of the Russian people Trump has achieved here.
In that sense, Trump overshadows Putin.
If Mr. Putin did put Mr. Trump into office, by actual hacking of the trunk lines carrying votes on election night, or simply by misinformation tactics, the monster he created has surely broken the bonds that held him.
2
Let me make sure I got this right. Russia influences American elections and you are worried about a summit between our countries where trump gives away the world order to Russia. Maybe putin is smarter than you give him credit and he gives trump some easy wins at the summit to help the GOP in the November elections. That way Putin gets to keep his guy in power.
1
As bad as we might think our President is, Putin is on a whole different level. Read Bill Browder's "Red Notice" to get an idea of exactly who Mr. Trump will meet. Despite Trump's boasting and blathering about Putin, he's got no idea what Putin can do to his adversaries. While not always successful, as was the case with Browder, he managed to inflict a lot of pain in so many different people.
The worst part is that Trump isn't smart enough to understand this nor would he listen to anyone who could provide the kind of background needed to meet with Putin. I guess he felt his summit with Kim Jong Un was so successful that he could move on to bigger targets. This one isn't worth the time.
2
Mueller's likely combing over even more files damaging to Trump, pun intended. Hacking emails is a crime and accepting aid and item of value from foreign agents is conspiracy.
Trump creates his own problem of optics: He looks terribly guilty by insisting on these meetings with Putin. That's where the term "Vladadministration" comes from.
Russian attempts to sway the U.S. election to Trump have been proven. Trump staffers are indicted, pled guilty, flipped as witnesses, or are in jail. Don Jr.+ Eric said the family's significant source of income for years has been money from Russia. Trump should worry more.
4
He's having his annual review (with thanks to Colbert).
7
Trump must be stonewalled on everything he tries to implement, as well as McConnell 's- Senate and Ryan's House. When Dems finally take back the majority then we can get down to the real business at hand. Making Trump not only a one-term demagogue (sound familiar?) but neutering his power as chief executive.
Onward to November. Let's see if this time Dems will wake up and realize they were taken to the cleaners by the Trump/GOP/Russia axis of Evil. Dems, Bernie Bots in particular, were fooled by the vicious attacks against Hillary. And still, despite that barrage, she still cleaned Trump's clock tower by garnering three million more votes.
DD
Manhattan
4
I think Putin is the real owner of the Trump Organization. When Trump went quasi bankrupt and was saved by Russian money everybody assumes that they were investments and loans. Instead, they might be informal purchases and Putin owns Trump's assets the same way he owns assets of Russian oligarchs.
8
So the useful idiot and the KGB vet meet. I am not betting on the idiot.
7
Kindered spirits perhaps. But not the same. One is a moron.
6
Trump clearly carries a lot of respect for people whose integrity is well below respectable. It is as though his measure of honesty is determined by how much deception a person can get away with. Why in the world anyone of respectable character would lend any credence to the scum Trump admires is well beyond reason. He is a bonafide fool making openly making fools of everyone who supports him. A very careless and dangerous fool who is imperiling our once great nation.
3
Putins control over Trump is obvious to any person not living with head in sand.
Lets stop pussy footing-around with "politically correct" terminology. The United States is now a one-party state that is being controlled by corporate fascists. If the American public does not go to the polls and fight against a fascist dictatorship aided and abetted by the Supreme Court, the Republican Congress, and wannabe Dictator Donald Trump, then voter apathy will be the undoing of our country forever. Trump can emulate Putin and be his version of Supreme Leader.
8
There was a time, for most of the 20th century in fact, when American leaders viewed Russia with deep suspicion...and rightly so. But starting with Bush junior and ramped up by the unworthy scum who is now president, America has been too stupid to realize the undermining of the country. In trumps case, he has been thoroughly compromised by Russia, and with the Manafort trial one month away, his republican enablers are doing all they can to shut down the investigation. Traitors all.
5
There is something happening between Trump and Putin which is difficult to understand but this love affair is caused by something that Putin has on Trump. Could be money or whores or both. Trump goes out of his way to demean and destroy our allies and yet puts a totally different face on for Putin and other Autocrats, why?
There is something very unsavory about this particular Administration and its dealings, using revolving around me, mine and self-enrichment.
America's current trajectory is a rapid descent, right into the abyss and yet our long thought safeguard of checks and balances are corrupt and a total failure.
7
Will citizens of the world deserve transparency of what goes on between Trump and Putin at this summit through translated transcripts for all to read and analyze? Even observance of their body language and nuance of their words are revealing of their relationship and discussions. We didn't receive such coverage in previous encounters between them, especially that long one months ago behind closed doors which was said to have lasted a couple of hours. That's a lot of time to discuss Trump vodka and revive the idea of Trump Moscow Tower plans. What did they talk about? We never knew.
There was a time that candidate Trump bragged that Putin called him "brilliant" which in fact translates into Russian as merely "colorful." In the "the words of President Obama to Trump, "Words matter." Vet those translators and double check them as well while you're at it.
Forgo the protocol of not sharing the meeting's transcript with the public as Trump has so often broken countless other protocols. Make them available to us, even if they are redacted somewhat due to intelligence security classfication.
The stakes are incredibly high and we deserve to know in Trump's own words: "What the hell is going on?"
6
"So are the Republicans who control the Senate. They have more responsibility than ever to try to persuade Mr. Trump that the country’s security is at stake when he meets Mr. Putin, and that he should prepare carefully for the encounter."
Old Yellowstain McConnell will bend his knee once again, and do nothing.
1
After all, Trump is a grateful guy to his king maker master Putin. Putin did so much for Trump in 2016 election. Moreover, Trump does not any friend in international arena except Putin, Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Netanyahu. He messed up the relation our traditional friends who stood by us in good times and bad times. Trump can not stand Angela Merkel of Germany. He hates Macron of France. He does not like Theresa May of UK. Surprisingly, he hates Justin Trudeau of Canada. He ruined the relationship with the Latin and Muslim countries. He has one dependable friend, Mr. Putin who is going to help in next elections. Can you blame Trump for his gratefulness?
2
The "love" for Russia that our president has displayed since he took office is probably based on his financial dealings in that country. We may never really know the whole truth, but I would bet that there is an element of blackmail, the threat that the Russians would expose his dirty little secrets.
5
Any thought of Trump meeting with Putin is as frightening as thoughts about the results of climate change. In short, both are looking at Armageddon. Where is sanity? Nowhere near Trump nor his “advisors.”
2
Would "Clear and Present Crisis" adequately title this astounding chronicle now being recorded for present and future generations. Should this Russian issue dwarf others?.
1
Truly terrifying. Trump in this article is confirming our worst unspoken fears. That his agenda is to destabilize the world because the US would be better off! These are the ravings of a madman. Oops, that's probably too uncivil for Times' publication. Where's my Thesaurus. Hmm. No,"raving madman" seems accurate.
6
This will be another "sheer farce summit." A big photo-op for what Russia correctly labels "the useful idiot" in the White House, and a diplomatic coup for Putin. Trump is already severely compromised, owing Putin and the oligarchs $$ Millions, which we all know is why he goes easy on Putin. Trump is a blatant traitor to this country, with the full backing of the GOP. But from their POV, they can get away with more, as we see with the supremes, with Trump in charge. With #45 and the GOP, they are both "useful idiots" for each other.
1
Once again, Trump is going to Putin to get his "marching orders."
3
Frenemies my hat! They're the best of friends -- or at least Trump thinks they are while Putin simply regards him as a "useful idiot" -- and the question remains: Why? Why does Trump keep promoting Putin's agenda every way he can? He sneers at NATO. He wants to break up the EU. He dismisses Russian meddling in our election. He wants the G7 to be the G8 again with Russia readmitted. He justifies Putin's seizure of Crimea and his invasion of eastern Ukraine. He gives Putin free rein in Syria and cedes U.S. influence in the Middle East. What does Putin have on him? Is it just money; is Trump a Manchurian candidate simply because he owes millions to Russian oligarchs? Or is there really a tape of him cavorting with Russian hookers in a Moscow hotel room?
5
The prez is an actor and a playwrite who is following the script written in conjunction with Putin.
Trump will go down in history as a traitor to his country.
7
It is a fact that Trump is KGB asset and he is doing everything to destroy the basic foundation of our free world. He is doing the bidding for Vladimir, the worst thug in the world. Finally, Vlad found an ally in the US with zero governance skill. The “me”narcissist president does not have the intelligence to see what Vladimir is doing to destroy our great nation. He is extremely loyal to the man who helped him to win the election at the cost of turning our allies as potential enemies. It is a shame and travesty that his supporters do not see the true color of the con man in the White House.
2
So Putin his called Trump to Finland to give him new instructions on how to further betray the United States.
4
The man is a traitor. A clumsy, insane and vile one, at that.
I disliked George W, believed he was responsible for negligence in 9/11, and lying to the country to go to war with Iraq. And he tortured.
But I never thought W was a traitor to our country, our allies and the basic belief in a democratic society.
Trump is a traitor, in essence and in fact. His meeting with Putin makes me sick.
8
Wow...
"...permanent destabilization creates American advantage..."
The problem with incompetent people is... they don't know enough to know that they don't know. Trump is in so far over his head..."he thinks he's mastered it."
He's the perfect dupe...stupid enough to believe he's earned his way and is actually calling the shots. Putin's pay dirt!
It's excruciatingly obvious. And yet...
Racists cheer...empowered to call the cops, knowing they will "rough them up" and reinforce white supremacy.
Xenophobes cheer...empowered to call ICE, knowing they will "deport them back" and reinforce white supremacy.
Republicans cheer...empowered to look the other way, knowing they will "get their way" and reinforce white supremacy.
The banality of evil has begun.
It's time to choose sides, America!
8
"Mr. Trump said, “NATO is as bad as Nafta”"
Vlad couldn't have said that any better himself.
Our Quisling in Chief is a transparent Russian tool.
7
Trump is the transformation of America into fascism in broad daylight. His shameless audacity is his most powerful tactic as millions of his followers passively submit to his rampaging ambition.
Trump is demolishing the NATO compact and is creating a new alliance with dictatorships around the world like the fascist alliances in the 1930s between Mussolini, Franco, Hitler, and Hirohito.
This fascist push is not based on a learned political philosophy, but is a mindless extension of Trump’s deranged personality which exhibits on a daily basis his megalomania, paranoia, reckless aggression, and limitless greed.
Only engaged Democratic voters can save the country now, and it will take more than the usual rallies and marches, it will take unprecedented voter registration and participation. Use it or lose for real this time. This is not a dress rehearsal.
6
Considering Trump denies Russia's involvement in the 2016 election stating he believes Putin over the National Security advisors, the ongoing investigation Trump has actively thwarted, Putin is the last person he should be meeting.
There is an overt traitor in the White House. He has alienated allies and staunchly defended Putin, even with regards to Putin eliminating opponents on national TV with the reasoning the US had murdered people too.
The day after firing Comey, over the Russia thing, he hosted Russian diplomats in the Oval office and gave them classified information that put the source of the information in peril.
Trump has violated National Security, ignored and did nothing to protect the intergrity of US elections, threw the country and globe into turmoil and abondoned American allies.
He is flagrant liar, immoral, ignorant, stupid news hound who poses the greatest threat to the stability of the US citizens and the Democracy he demonizes.
2
And the collusion continues. Is there any doubt that Trump, the loudmouth, won't cave to the quieter, more sinister Putin? This is very worrisome, since no one has proven capable of controlling this fool.
1
Unfortunately for the World the POTUS will not read this editorial.
1
Why use this picture? Is that a statement about "hands"? Who chose this? It's a fish handshake? Is this meant to signify something? I assume some thought went in to this choice. I do not see how it relates to the "too friendly" theme. Is it the watch? Whose hand is whose? Very distracting.
Please before we can address who Kaiser Trump will nominate to the High Court, then meet with his co-conspirator, Vlad the Impaler, in Helsinki, to plot further atrocities to commit against the nation and the world, let US look at removing the worse president ever from office. If nothing else, indict him, put an bracelet on his ankle, and make sure he is prevented from issuing anymore of his treasonous executive orders.
The preservation of the Constitution and the United States of America is at stake. Isn't it worth saving?
Well then, let's get cracking.
DD
Manhattan
1
Why is Trump so in love with Mr Putin? Heheheh...
1
Trump's meeting with Kim was a fake in order to please Putin. Trump could care less about NK denuclearization. He wants Kim as an ally just the same as he wants Putin to be. Trump is a traitor.
3
Trump is so out of his depth when dealing with Putin, yet his own brain, with its overblown, sickened narcism, will not even allow him to see that basic fact. Even with NK he was out of his depth; all he could do was play the Apprentice guy -- before giving away more than he got, and he got absolutely nothing but a self-serving photo op. And that is all that will happen again. But to get it, he'll give something away again; perhaps the location of a couple of our nuclear submarines. Oh wait, he's already done that. The priceless part of all this, is that Putin has already gained far more then he ever dreamed would happen in his lifetime. And the cause of all this? People who don't pay attention; complacency, idiocy. The world is slipping into the beginning of last century again and not enough people have read enough history to know what happens next. We all think such things could not happen again. Yup, we are that arrogant, that blindingly stupid. It's happening right before our eyes.
2
Putin will likely congratulate his useful idiot Trump on his progress toward authoritarianism given that journalists are being shot in the USA. Trump will express his undying devotion to Putin by weakening NATO and agreeing that the Crimea really belongs to Russia.
1
Bewitched by Kim
Bothered by Xi
Bewildered by Putin
1
Another liberal assault on Trump devoid of facts but overflowing with innuendo and hyperbole. It reads more like the forward to a John Le Carre novel than an opinion grounded in facts. How many more spin articles and outright nonsense will The Times continue to publish?
I long for the days when the front page of The Times was worth reading.
3
It still has a use if one gets the paper edition.
1
It’s all very interesting how minor players become world leaders. A corporal becomes Der Fuhrer, a backwater KGB agent the head of communist Russia, and another pathological liar becomes president of the United States.
Every time one criminal leader meets another criminal leader the rest of the world either cringes or shrugs. But in any case, the results are never good.
In this case a life KGB agent and a reality TV host. To paraphrase, whether the rock hits the pitcher, or the pitcher hits the rock, it’s no good for the pitcher; in this case the USA.
2
Laughing into a hurricane, you realise?
What amuses me most about the Trump-Putin bromance is how unmatched and unequal they are. Trump is effectively a stuffed suit who has been spoilt his entire life - sure, he can send out a few tweets that unhinge citizens and worry other leaders, but beyond name-calling and getting Michael Cohen to make hollow threats, what is he without power? For all his fake machismo, take away his gold toilet and his extra scoop and he’s just an obese Daddy’s boy from an elitist background crying for you to stop being so mean to him.
Putin, on the other hand, is KGB. He knows exactly what he is doing at any one moment, and has indulged in all manner of behaviour that is probably illegal in assorted courts. To him assassinations, beatings and threats are just a way of doing business. His macho persona of homoerotic horse rides builds on that image of him as KGB - a strong man of action who can get things done, because the opponents have conveniently disappeared or accidentally shot themselves while shaving. And then Russian media and publicity does the work with his populace who praise the strongman while not noticing the billions he’s skimming off the top.
Trump just wants to be liked, and Putin will stoke his ego while affecting big doleful eyes of innocence. To him, Trump is just a pliable idiot who he can manipulate - but he wouldn’t hesitate to destroy him personally if he started resisting.
7
What does Putin have on Trump????
1
We can look at this meeting in several different ways:
1. Handler (Putin) meets the Asset (Trump)
2. Dictator (Putin) shares advice with wannabe Dictator(Trump) or a tutorial on "Dictatorship for Dummies"
3. A communist thug (Putin) wants to utilize the US to help roll out its devious agenda
4. A handshake to offer generous Russian investments in Trump businesses worldwide in support for a short term US alignment with Russia
5. A prelude to even more harsher policies by the US toward its historical allies
6. A How To from a Russian thug to a US mafia don
7. A tutorial on how to Kill the #MeToo movement
8. Adoration by the "Magi" (Trump) of "Christ" (Putin)
9. A tutorial on political assassinations and muffling the press.
And most but not the least
10. A meeting between two sick human beings.
1
Soooo - Mr Trump will go to meet his soulmate, maybe sip a smooth vodka together, after which he'll say, "do what you want". Then he'll come back home and go right back to work on Muslims and Mexicans.
Putin needs to give face to face orders to his chief US agent in place to the White House.
2
Republicans like to think they won the Cold War...the Russian supported election of Little Donnie proves they are all fools.
2
This Never Trump stuff just flows naturally from the NYTs. Their recitation of the NYTs rendition of the Ukraine situation never changes and is wrong. Crimea opted out of Ukraine because of a right wing anti-Russian coup in Kiev in 2014. It was pulled during the Winter Olympics in Sochi for maximum embarrassment and discomfort for Russia. The US was involved in the operation. Crimea houses major Russian military bases and has a vast majority of ethnic Russians. The international rise of anti immigrant nationalism was not caused by Russia but they are an easy scapegoat. Putin is very aggressive in Russia denying any opposition to him. The rule of law in Russian is very susceptible to abuse by a powerful by an authoritarian leader. But it has been shown that Putin is very popular in Russia. He appeals to Russians desire for national greatness. Trump would love to be as powerful in the US as Putin is in Russia. Russia though has weaknesses such as over dependency on oil and other commodities for its economic well being. They also have a huge expensive pension and health care system which Putin wants to cut back on. This has the chance of being a very unpopular proposition to Putin politically.
It just absolutely baffles me that this Congress bears witness to the undermining of our democracy and does nothing about it. Trump is doing everything in his power to gratify himself.
I hope Robert Mueller rises to the occasion.
1
Mr. Trump's next blunder will be to withdraw the United States from NATO. He has repeatedly shown his disdain for that treaty, and it stands in the way of his establishing an economic, perhaps even a military alliance with Russia. Dark days indeed.
2
"...Republicans who control the Senate. They have more responsibility than ever."
When was the last time the Republicans showed any sign of doing this?
1
Where to begin? One's head spins.
"Trump “doesn’t believe that the U.S. should be part of any alliance at all” and believes that “permanent destabilization creates American advantage,” according to unnamed administration officials quoted by Jeffrey Goldberg in The Atlantic."
This is consistent with Trump's desire to be the center of attention, and having one-on-one meetings makes that much easier than being one in a crowd.
Unfortunately, it is not always about him. Other people will probably find such behavior to be simply offensive.
The statement is also consistent with Trump's thinking that he needs to be "unpredictable." Unfortunately, being unpredictable usually makes even a one-on-one negotiation unlikely to be successful, especially when Trump tends to be hyper aggressive.
Strong counterparties are just going to walk away, or push back, because they do not need to be subjected to his nonsense.
"Mr. Trump reportedly told his fellow heads of state that Crimea is Russian because everyone there speaks that language."
By that criterion, "Little Odessa" in Brighton Beach in Brooklyn also is Russian. Da, tovarish. ("Yes, comrade.")
Mr. Trump tweeted, “Russia continues to say they had nothing to do with Meddling in our Election!” That MUST be conclusive, right? Just like bank robbers who swear up one side and down the other that they were only in the bank to make a deposit.
Yeah, sure, I believe that, and that I am the Pope. Don't you?
4
Who knew that all Russia had to do to end the cold war was buy greedy pseudo business men and republican politicians. Money and power moves them more than their loyalty to the United States and its citizens.
4
Don’t read too much here into the list of what Trump could and should do at his upcoming meeting with Putin. All the flattery he bestowed has a single purpose in mind: Get the tapes.
1
The reality on the ground - which the Times seems determined to suppress or ignore - is that the current administration is by far the toughest on Russia of any American administration in the last 30 years.
The Times feeds the bogus narrative about being Putin's puppet.
In reality, Trump has hit Russia hard on every front:
- Trump reversed Obama's policy of refusing lethal military aid to Ukraine, and approved (Apr. 30) selling the extraordinarily effective Javelin anti-tank missiles to Ukraine. Like the Patriot missile sales, this is a game-changer, and the Russians are infuriated by it.
- Trump reversed Obama's policy regarding sales of our most potent missile defense system to both Poland and Sweden. Putin fears this military weapon more than any other in our arsenal.
- Trump reversed Obama's Syria policy and directly confronted Russia on the ground, killing or injuring hundreds of Russian mercenaries and troops in Syria.
- Trump more than tripled defense initiatives to deter Russian aggression in Europe, staging maneuvers on Russia's borders and raising spending by almost 50% vs Obama, to $5B.
- Trump sanctioned ~40 oligarchs and Russian officials and expanded the Magnitsky sanctions list.
- Trump closed two Russian consulates, several diplomatic annexes, and expelled 60 diplomats.
- Trump administration officials blamed Russia for the NotPetya cyberattack.
These facts demolish the "Putin's puppet" hoax.
Is that why the Times does not cover these stories?
"Putin fears this military weapon more than any other in our arsenal."
Complete nonsense. Why would the Russians "fear" a defensive missile system?
"These facts demolish the "Putin's puppet" hoax."
No, they don't.
"Is that why the Times does not cover these stories?"
The Times covered all of those stories.
Your post is a desperate denial of reality, "T-Bone".
3
"Why would the Russians fear a defensive missile system?"
Because it negates their first-strike advantage in ballistic missiles. Putin and the Russian general staff consider this an offensive weapon system and have said so, publicly, on many occasions.
Nothing in our arsenal inspires so much fear and angst among the Russian military leadership as this system.
This is the main reason that Putin recently said that US-Russian relations could not be worse.
Facts: look them up.
Educate yourself.
It is hard to take, Trump's 'willful' ignorance of Russia's incursion in the internal affairs of the United States, by stupidly parroting Putin's declaration of innocence 're' cyber invasion, and delivering the presidency to Trump in a 'silver plate'. Could our ugly American in-chief be a fifth columnist, given his love affair with Putin? And his disengagement and even attack of allies and friends? What a farce will this summit be, if not the selling of America's soul?
President Trump -- in the mode of dictators Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin -- is the first wannabe American Dictator in our history. We were warned long ago by great American historians and writers that fascism will come to our country wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross. We have already witnessed the patriotic zealotry and scamming art of our carny-barker president and his hordes of ignorant G.O.P. loyalists. We can't begin to imagine what lies ahead for us and our country under Trump's inchoate and demented leadership.
2
Is it time to learn how to speak Russian? Boy, Putin must have lent him a ton of money..this is now a national security issue at the highest level. Mueller, do what you must and help us rid this country of trump.
2
Frenemies? Kindred spirits? Ridiculous.
There is only two reasons Trump has anything to do with Putin:
1. Putin helped Trump get elected
2. Putin has a sex tape on Trump that he will release to the world if Trump stops appeasing Putin.
It is that simple.
Meddling? What a pathetic word.
From the way it looks, the election of Trump was illegitimate and possibly included treason against The United States.
The president is a fraud.
If a flag goes up on my house on the Fourth of July it will be in honor of a democratic system that will put Trump and his accomplices in the place where they belong.
2
The day Trump insulted Trudeau following the G7 summit, I raised the Canadian flag at my house. We'd be better governed if we admitted the American Revolution was a catastrophic mistake, and each State petitioned Ottawa to be admitted as a Canadian Province.
Why have a summit? Putin can just as easily give Trump his orders over the secret "back channel". The only reason is that Putin will be able to gloat over his triumph.
Dear GOP : Saint Ronnie Reagan is rolling over in his grave. " Tear down this Wall " has morphed into building " my big, beautiful Wall " that Mexico will most assuredly will not pay for. What happened to you ? From the day he descended from the faux gold escalator, your party has become a collection of charlatans, Collaborators and crazy. Where have all the sane republicans gone ??? They're leaving the Party. Finally.
1
Where is the Deep Throat of this Administration?
1
Trump loves Putin because the Russian has what our president wants: absolute power and wisdom about achieving a dictatorship. Trump also loves Putin because the Russian let Trump the citizen borrow money from him before he became president, something he couldn't do in the U.S. after three or four bankruptcies.
Putin loves Trump because he has him right where he wants him: in his back pocket. Putin has an enemy who owes him money. The Russian is calling the shots while the American is playing the fool.
1
Why won't someone just come out and say it? Trump is a Russian agent, bought, blackmailed and paid for. Even if he had not been hired by Putin, he is doing Putin's dirty work. If he's doing it for free, then he is an even worse businessman than his three bankruptcies would indicate!
6
Mr. Trump is a child who doesn't like sharing his sandbox.
So, he alienates every other kid in his neighborhood and kisses up to the local bullies with whom no one else will play.
In that world of thugs, Mr. Trump feels more important.
His deep-seated insecurities find comfort in others like himself.
This is not about political philosophy or ideology.
It is about a man-child acting out his inner demons on the world stage.
It is a pathetic and disturbing thing to behold.
1
Friends with foreigners from Russia and North Korea (invite them to the White House), enemy of our Latin American friends (who we cage). Upside-down, messy, ugly...and we'd better get the vote right this year and in 2020 or this disaster could last for decades.
Join your local Indivisible group and get moving toward what our country used to be.
I care about this summit about as much as I care about Russia playing World Cup soccer. Trump is the postering poseur. He idealized Putin for so long as a strong man to emulate, that given trumps mercurial personality, who can say what will happen. Probably two phfratt boys talking trash and back slapping each other’s egos. Putin will continue to murder and trump will continue to hallucinate. Putin is the daddy figure our president has been looking for. Much ado about nothing.
1
It will be a meeting of lord and serf! Give me a break. Putin is a KGB Agent nevermine the former. Trump is egotistical, self absorbed and addicted to flattery. He’s is also ignorant and a perfect target for blackmail. What could possibly go wrong?
Calling the frenemies gives Trump far to much credit. He is in awe of Puting as he is of all dictators. If he is offered the crown as long as he kneels, he will say where and for how long. It is a sad day for the USA.
Most likely Trump is going to Russia to thank Putin for his win in 2016.
I suspect he is going to collect on some of the damaging photos/tapes that Putin has on him. And perhaps get an agreement on Trump branding in Moscow.
Other than that, what could go wrong?
When will the Times print the truth about some of the dozens of actual policies enacted by the current administration toward Russia?
Trump tweets softly and carries a big stick.
He has confronted, challenged and escalated Russia on every front.
He reversed Obama's Russia policy on missile sales and signed two massive sales of our most advanced weaponry, the Patriot anti-missile systems, to Russia's neighbors. Putin is furious about this.
He reversed Obama's Ukraine policy and will ship Javelin antitank missiles to the Ukrainians so as to destroy Russian tanks. The Russians are enraged.
He closed two Russian consulates, sanctioned dozens more Russian oligarchs and government officials, and expanded the Magnitsky List.
He officially called out Russia for the devastating ForPetya computer virus.
He has dramatically raised military spending aimed at countering Russia and has loudly, publicly urged NATO allies to do the same.
I know these seem bewildering in light of Trump's foolish tweets, but these are hard, undeniable FACTS.
In reality, this is the most aggressively anti-Russian presidential administration since Reagan's.
Reagan, too, was called a dumb entertainer, a warmongering racist, a fascist by his critics. It was Reagan whose pressure brought the Comd War to a peaceful conclusion (near-peaceful: Gorbachev slaughtered 14 Lithuanian protestors).
Reagan slashed our nuclear arsenal.
Here's hoping Trump will now pivot and de-escalate. No war with Russia.
Remember in November. Vote!!
2
This is an exceptionally stupid ediorial. Improving relations with post-Soviet Russia--the world's second most powerful nuclear armed nation--is in the national interest of the United States and in the best interest, too, of humanity, in general. As for obsolete NATO, it is worth noting that none other than George F. Kennan, the brilliant architect of the policy of Containment--which, when applied to Europe, certainly succeeded--opposed both the alliance's formation and pointlessly provocative post-Cold War enlargement, which violated a promise made to the last Soviet leader in return for his cooperation concerning Germany's unification.
4
I just want to understand why isn’t Trump’s cozy relationship with Putin and his anti-American behavior considered traitorous????
2
Donnie and Vlad
Sitting in a tree
K i s s i n g.
They own him lock, stock, and barrel. It's obvious that our president is a collaborator with a foreign adversary for his own benefit at the expense of our country's--a traitor. When will we start admitting it instead of poking around it.
2
As noted in my previous submission, once more there is hope and the possibility of renewed glasnost or an “opening” in relations between East and West, but the Democrats and the NYT continue to sabotage the effort out of blind ignorance of history and a short-sighted hostility toward Trump. They think that getting rid of him is the answer, and they will sacrifice everything, including the best interests of our own nation and the world, to accomplish their goal. They mask themselves as patriots who are concerned for the future of America, but the only thing they are interested in is getting back into power. They are the true enemy of peace in the world. They are the threat from within.
3
This is a very difficult, frightening time for our country. Our elected president prefers dictators and autocrats to democratically elected leaders, and his circle of advisors includes people who favor fascism and have a plan for creating chaos in world alliances and democratic systems.
I hold the Congressional Republicans complicit in this plan, and as blind to what's happening as the leaders of post-World War I Germany were to the rise of the Nazi movement.
If you believe in a higher power, pray for our country. If you care about your own future, do something constructive to protest what's happening - turn out for a rally, contribute to organizations fighting this administration, relentlessly write to your representatives in Congress and let them know you will hold them accountable.
And if you believe in nothing, but would rather not see your children living in a modern version of the early Soviet Union, then vote. Putin indisputably interfered with our last election, but he cannot possibly figure out how to hack every little tiny county election commission's digital records. Vote as if your life depends on it, because, in fact, it might.
2
It is President Trump. Maybe the board can learn some basic writing etiquette.
Trump. The real-life Manchurian Candidate.
2
We have to remind ourselves that this is just an editorial "opinion."
1
an informed opinion.
American heartland loves the idea , that's why they elected Trump . They "hate" democracy and see it as a failure to protect white supremacy .. that's why all Americans ( no race difference as long as they can vote ) without any graduate degree support Putin and his oligarch in USA in Trump!
Unless this bitter but very true realization comes to us who started to live in the cloud with Obama's election and "Yes we can " etc ....
Yes we can lose everything if we do not use our intellect now and wake up to the reality fast before November or we lose everything that we created post WW2
Good Lord can you sound more scripted than this editorial? If it was up to the NYT and their journalists who are (literally) in bed with alphabet soup agencies, we'd be beating the war drums once again based on phony evidence cooked up by the very people whose existence depends on international antagonism. I think we need another one of those brilliant pieces by Judith Miller from back in the day to tacitly convince us that neoconservatism is always the answer lest we get too comfortable living at peace in our own country.
Come back to reality, NYT folks. The cold war is over and there's nothing all you trigger happy "liberals" can do about it. I'm sure there's still plenty of other countries out there to enforce your ideal government structure whether they like it or not.
1
Putin is blackmailing Trump. He has enough "dirt" on Trump to put him in prison without pardon or parole for life.
1
Trump has been so hated and despised his entire life for being a liar and a cheat that he doesn't care what anyone thinks about him as long as he gets rich in the process.
The meeting might well be called "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, the Russian Version." Perhaps the NYT could convince David Cornwell to come out of retirement in order to cover the event. Someone around the paper should have his phone number. Call him.
1
Don’t read too much into everything listed here about what’s at stake at the upcoming meeting between Trump and Putan. All the flattery has one pupose. Trump is going over to get the tapes back.
There is NEVER just one copy of a tape.
1
During the 2016 campaign, Nancy Pelosi said, "I want to know what the Russians have on Trump." Many people are still wondering and waiting for an answer.
What if Trump knows that the Russians were not only trying to assist his election, as is factually proven, but knows that they did something that changed the outcome and put him in the White House? If that were correct, then he would owe his very power to them and likely give himself the task of trying to repay the favor. Such wheeling and dealing would not be out of character for Trump when he was primarily a business person known to do whatever it took to get his way.
We have had crooked elections before. It is generally believed that Lyndon Johnson's ties to dirty ballot manipulation in south Texas was a critical factor in putting Kennedy in the White House. Ballot stuffing was a well known tactic in Chicago in that era, too, which reports say boosted Kennedy's vote totals as well in 1960.
We know the Russians were trying to penetrate electronic ballot systems in this country. How much of a mighty leap is it to ask if they were successful for Trump in a critical way?
This is not wild conspiracy speculation. We know they were trying, we know they put massive resources into the effort, we just don't know if they succeeded. Perhaps Trump knows they did.
1
Between the Republicans and the Russians, rest assured the fix was in.
There are two types of intelligent people in the US, those who are idealists and believe in US democratic institutions, and those who are convinced that these institutions no longer work.
Trump belongs to the latter group. I suspect he believes he can reshape government so that it accomplishes more.
But it was the first group that allowed US democracy to fail.
When Obama was elected we had high hopes. The US confronted a possible Great Depression II. Partly this was due to fraud perpetrated by bankers with complicated derivatives they had sold to pension fund managers. Many Americans saw their retirement shrink.
We expected Obama's justice department to take action. But remarkably, the known culprits, Dick Fuld, Angelo Mozilo, Ken Lewis, Joe Casano, were not prosecuted as criminals, none went to jail or even faced criminal prosecution.
Meanwhile, ghetto dwellers who use a gun to steal a pizza go to jail.
Donald Trump was watching. The star of the Apprentice realized that there are two forms of justice, one for those with money and connections, the other for the rest of us.
He realized that our justice system doesn't really work. That people with money could corrupt the government.
Why didn't those who believed in the US institutions see this coming? Obama's failure to prosecute was a clear invitation to Trump to put the government even more firmly in the hands of the very wealthy.
Every statement made by Donald Trump regarding his campaign's multiple contacts with Russian actors has been false or misleading. Every one. Trump cannot breathe an ill word about Putin, in marked contrast to his attitude toward essentially every non-family member he meets. He tells us that he fully credits Putin's denial of interfering with the election of 2016, and continues to trash our intelligence professionals who have demonstrated otherwise. He is concerned that Putin may be offended by the question! He also continues to alienate and insult our most important allies around the globe.
How can Trump's bizarre statements and behavior be comprehended? If for whatever reason he is in fact under the control of Putin and acting as an agent of the Russian Federation, all of the above facts suddenly make sense. And of course the President is a traitor.
1
I don’t think Americans can count on Senate Republicans to protect the country from Russian influence.
1
There's no shortage of critical and disparaging comments on Donald Trump's perplexing aversion to long-time allies and even stranger infatuation with Putin. But no amount of these accusations will change his behavior for the better. The only check on his misuse of power is the Senate and the House of Representatives. For as long they remain quietly non-committal on Trump's abuse of his position and his wrong-headed, thoughtless, self-serving, he rules supreme. And actually seems to accrue more power by the day. Elected representatives must put their beliefs and values before their projection of political career earnings. If not, then no democracy can withstand the assault from a skilled unprincipled demagogue.
Had Trump been around in 1776, he would probably have argued that the US belonged to Great Britain as everyone here speaks English.
1
At least we can get a laugh out of it.
Watching the Russian news this morning on our local multi-cultural SBS TV (Australia), I noted they had a piece about the forthcoming summit between Trump and Putin.
I noticed that Trump's name becomes трамп in Cyrillic, which when transliterated back becomes "Tramp"!
It's quite apparent to me the reasons Orange Face Trump continues to 'cozy up' to the "Dictators" (Russia, North Korea, Turkey, etc.), is because he is busily 'setting the scene' to build up the Trump Real Estate Empire - after he leaves his "political" career (by resignation or impeachment) behind him. The more he can do (as DICTATOR President) to ingratiate himself with his friendly Dictators, the more positive they all will be for Trump Hotels/Golf Courses/Condominiums/etc., to be built within their Dictatorship countries. He needn't bother with good relations with our Allies - he already has his 'Playgrounds' In those countries. It's "TRUMP EMPIRE OF DOLLARS over the
CONSTITUTION and AMERICAN CITIZENS."
1
The only thing that Donald Trump has mastered in his year and a half as commander-in-chief is his ability to divide the country , disregard the rule of law in the US , and obliterate any semblance of trust in his competency and credibility. That sounds like an excellent resume for an autocrat or a dictator, but sadly not for a president of United States of America .
What the editorial board fails to mention clearly in its otherwise commendable oped is that this president has very likely been compromised by a hostile foreign power. All the evidence points in that direction, including the very behavior of Donald Trump, who continues to vehemently deny any possibility of his having been compromised .
Name calling is a waste of time , but calling the wrongdoing by its name is essential .
1
What will we say when we next find out that Mr. Trump will be meeting Mr. Putin one on one with only translators present, as he did with Mr. Kim?
Democracy requires transparency.
1
Mr Trump will give Mr Putin everything. Mr Putin owns Mr Trump. The proof, Mr Trump trashed allies and propose to bring Mr Putin to the G7? This summit will be a success for Russia. In the meantime the trade war is raging, and we are losing, bigly.
"Mr. Trump’s top national security advisers are more cleareyed about the Russian threat than he is. So are the Republicans who control the Senate." What joke! They are sclerotic.
We (at least for now) remain a functional democracy.
Russia does not.
Impeach, impeach, impeach.
2
This is one meeting with a foreign leader that Trump will actually be prepared for.
He's taking breath mints.
2
Fast forward to the next presidential election:
news reports indicate widespread vote tampering, most likely originating in Russia. Trump is left no choice other than to nullify the election results, declare a state of emergency, and proclaim himself president until, 'I can get all this election stuff sorted out."
And now we have President Trump for life.
1
I have never seen such an Un-American American President. God help America!
1
Trump will probably ask Putin for help building a Trump Tower in Moscow. That seems to be his priority...
Yeah. Trump needs to be tough with Putin and show it symbolically.
I got it!
How about a big red "RESET" button to let them know we are serious about being tough?
Don the Con has not uttered a peep of criticism ,at Putin or his policies,since his election as POTUS..........because the EX-KGB Russian dictator holds incriminating files and financial data which,if revealed, could mean impeachment,indictment,or incarceration for Trump.
The meeting will simply be Putin debriefing on of his,sleeper,operatives !
Your anti-Trump diatribe continues unabated.This editorial
seems to me you are in Panic-Mode! You know very well that
there was a CIA effort that fully supported a Revolution in
the Ukraine to overthrow an elected Government.
Also in the Crimea is the Russian Naval base at Sevastopol.
This is Russia's only outlet to The Mediterranean.
Think Guantanamo Bay and The Cuban Revolution.
How did we treat that situation?
1
This is another editorial where you discuss semi-normal things that Trump "could" do at a summit. The summit is worse than a farce. It is a Russian humiliation of the United States. Our President is a Russian agent and we are powerless to do anything about it. The main purpose of this summit is to rub our noses in that. NYT, don't discuss what could constructively be done if it were normal summit. It isn't a normal summit. Instead, rage against treason.
When we kick the Neoliberals and Neocons out of the government we'll finally end this Russia Derangement Syndrome lie fest that substitutes for taking responsibility for what is going wrong, namely Wall St and Millionaires and the Pentagon thoroughly trashing America.
1
There was no "seizure"of Crimea,nor an "attack"on Ukraine.This is very propagandistic and untruefull wording,let alone calling Putin a "strongman" etc.
When does the Board stop being a "hatepaper"against Russia?
2
Is Trump a sleeper agent for the USSR who woke up and didn’t realize that era has passed?
2
Maybe when Trump is in jail an exchange of captured agents can be arranged, so that Putin and Trump can be re-united again in the end.
Never in the course of American events has so much been owed by one US “president” to so many Russians.
Kim Jong-un, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin are president Trump's autocratic answer to our former longtime American allies, the G7 and the member nations of NATO. Dictators are now on Trump's best-friends list. Kindred spirits. Trump's personal relationships with dictators is shocking to those of us who still believe in America's ages-old allies(viz G7 and NATO). Trump's lavish praise of his "friend" Putin -- quoted by Fox News here, asking the Russian Czar, " Would you do me a favor? Would you get out of Syria?...out of Ukraine?" -- is dementedly laughable. The Trump/Putin Helsinki Summit 16 July won't be any more substantive than Trump's Singapore Fling with the DPRK's Kim Jong-un a few weeks ago.
I simply do not understand why nothing is done to stop this most dangerous president. We all sit around, feeling helpless, puzzled, scared as to why there is not a single person who can't begin to stop Trump or even slow down this mad man.
Trump is a criminal and people in power sit around and yawn. What is going on?
We must fight the Russiablicans before it's too late and we have no allies. If we're not supporting democracies overseas, what are the soldiers dying for?
My prediction- Trump is gonna make things ugly at the NATO summit and then hand over to Putin the keys to Eastern Europe. Baltics beware. You’re first.
What Trump and Putin have in common, other than Trump at the least is a "useful idiot" for the Russians (and he had to know what was going on in the money laundering schemes he participated in in his real estate dealings with the Russian oligarchs/mafia), is that they both routinely lie. What we can expect from their meeting is that Putin will try to make Trump look good to keep him in power, while he tells him to be sure his people count the votes in the next election. In Russia elections under Putin have been cancelled at the local level, and his own election was a sham with opposition candidates jailed. Even without Trump and his willingness to cheat about everything, Americans need to be sure that the vote count is secure with a paper trail in all precincts.
From Putin's perspective, Donald is a very useful fool and tool. Trashing the G7 and NATO is an absolute display of stupidity and fealty to Putin. Very well done Donald.
A segment on Russian state television described Donald as vain man and opined that he would be satisfied with crumbs. Spot on. He's easier to figure out than a two year old who can be bought off with a lollipop. And god knows, appealing to his vanity won't be hard, since he is the world's biggest crybaby. The King of Jordan had him fawning with the word humility. Donald is so clueless he thought it was a sincere statement versus calculated flattery.
And then of course, there is the question of compromising evidence. Donald's two Achilles heels, chronic lack of cash and his penchant for extra marital sexual escapades, both provide ample opportunity for blackmail or worse. By the latest estimate, wealthy Russians have invested approximately $100 million in Trump properties, raising the potential of money laundering. Putin likely has something on him.
Donald will end up with a photo, some pomp and circumstance, and lots of press coverage, which is all he really wants. If we are lucky, America will not be betrayed. But that's about the best outcome we as a nation can expect.
Good summary, but the conclusion is unrealistic. Trump won't prepare, his knowledge of policy and history is virtually non-existent so how could he prepare? Congress will look the other way and say nothing regardless of whatever Trump says or does.
2
The Democratic Party has only one hope, that Trump will fail. Whipping up charges of Russian collusion is part of their plan, but they don’t even do that too well. In the meantime Trump by means of a combination of luck and sheer determination is setting down with problems whose solution has long eluded the established politicians of both parties. There are already complaints about the NK deal as there will be again if he works out a deal with Putin, but Trump in his unsettling way is at least getting things moving again in the right direction.
explain the right direction
1
Ed, you must be joking. Beyond the PR operation for north Korea, he NK deal is non existent : the North Koreans are now actually accelerating the development of their facilities. Not to mention the blatant lie on the on- going return of soldiers remains. Just open your eyes.
1
ED
Corruption and treason and utter incompetence is not the right direction. We face the most dire threat from a warming planet and trump moved us in opposite direction. Creating chaos is not a good policy and trump excels at that not to mention that he is a sexual predator who treats women like pieces of meat and now threatens their very rights as human beings with his supreme court pick of a radical alt right judge.
1
Please do not speculate about a meeting between our president and the president of Russia before it happens. it is part of any president's job to meet with foreign leaders from time to time, in some place or another. Neither the NYT editors nor us ordinary citizens will be privy to what is said in the secret meetings and that is just as well. What matters is what actions both governments take to solve global problems or avoid military and economic conflicts that affect us all. Particular to the current president, I would like to see the editorial board hold him accountable for results and not let him continue to hide behind "words, words, words" and maintain his own image. Drill down to what he is actually accomplishing. Talk is cheap and image is superficial.
1
I think Trump would be completely happy to cut a personal deal with Putin. Putin does nothing provocative, and maybe even feigns cooperation to help Trump and the GOP emerge from the midterms unharmed. In return, Trump will look the other way in Syria and Crimea, though he may have to make some negative comments (wink, wink)
As for the US and relations with Russia, who cares, really? That stuff for the little people to fret about.
There's a story that when Sammy Davis, Jr. was starring in "Golden Boy" on Broadway, he appeared on the "Tonight Show with Johnny Carson" when the show was still in New York. Frank Sinatra was also on the show. Davis excused himself to get to the theater to prepare for that night's performance. Sinatra told Davis to sit down. Davis, one of Sinatra's minions, sat down and the show started late.
This summit will be reminiscent of Davis/Sinatra. Putin has told and will continue to tell Don the Con what to do, when to do it and how enthusiastic he should be while doing it. Bought and sold means bought and sold.
9
We know that huge amounts of laundered Russian money passing through the Bank of Cyprus and elsewhere were used to bail Trump out of bankruptcy when no legitimate banks would lend him a nickel. Trump fawns over Putin's leadership abilities and power and wants to convert the US presidency into a Putin-style dictatorship.
First and foremost, Trump serves Putin and the Russians and not the United States and its true historic allies. These allies in Western Europe and Canada have fought and died for the US but Trump displays his blatant ignorance of history and economics with every passing day. Trump is who he is and always has been - an ignorant narcissist and now apparently a Russian agent bent on destroying decades of critically important alliances in favor of Russia.
However, the greatest threat to our nation is that the Republican leadership remains silent and compliant on behalf of their ultra-right wing billionaire owners. They know full well that Trump is easily manipulated by Putin, and that he is disgracing the United States before the entire world and undermining US security in violation of his Constitutional oath. Despite Trump's self-evident servitude to Putin, Republicans in Congress refuse to protect the American people as is their sworn duty as well.
The only hope for the future of the United States is getting out the vote in order to throw Trump and his Republican enablers out of power in every election going forward.
7
Bottom line Trump is in Putin's pocket.
Trump would like to be like Putin, a de facto dictator but can't.
Trump wants to be best buds for one and only one reason. After Trump's term he wants to partner with Putin to make both richer since almost no bank will lend to Trump because other then RE, he is a failure in business.
If he has to sell the USA down the drain and become a puppet of Putin he has and will continue to do it.
Putin will carefully continue to throw Trump a few bones to keep him in power as long as possible.
Look for some phony "breakthrough" like Trump had with Kim.
8
he is kind of failure in RE too, considering what he inherited from his dad in the early 80s.
1
Good point Damien, I am not an expert on his net worth but most experts consider him a billionaire at least on paper otherwise he would not have been living in Trump Tower.
The point being is that he is a general failure as a businessman and negotiator.
Putin is a real pro and can cause America great harm stroking the incompetent demagogue Trump's ego.
I am old enough to remember McCain’s warnings about Russian troops in South Ossetia and Georgia. All the Progressives warned about another neo-con war. I even remember Obama mocking Romney that the 80’s want their Foreign Policy back. And when Russia invaded Crimea, Progressive critics began wringing their hands but Obama led from behind and eventually a few sanctions were imposed with the EU. This paper seemed all content with this feckless policy. Now the narrative switches, without any evidence, that President Trump has been colluding with Russia all along and we should be stopping the Russians wherever we can. Your blind hatred of President Trump prevents you from offering any serious analysis of foreign affairs. You should be supporting our president instead of consistently trying to bring him down.
.
2
Sue
There is overwhelming evidence of collusion between trump and russia but we have republicans in congress ignoring this threat. trump told us he gets all of his money from russia and want to lift sanctions on russian murderous his campaign team met with russian officials to get dirt on his Hillary. these are acts of collusion. Firing the FBI and then telling russia we did this because of the "russian thing". We have the evidence, you and the corrupt and treasonous republicans are just ignoring what is before your eyes.
61
You just said Trump
“Was colluding with Russia all
Along”, but then finish with “we need to support President Trump” because......???? Because why, again?? That’s ridiculous.
6
Seriously? " . . . without any evidence, that Trump has been colluding with Russia all along . . ."??
5 of his 'best people' have pleaded GUILTY and 17 there's more indictments! The trail hasn't led directly to Trump YET, but where there's smoke there is most certainly fire.
If a Democrat president had had a fraction of the crooked connections to Russia, the GOP would have been shouting 'lock 'em up'.
10
Every treasonous act and seditious tweet by Trump prove he's indebted to the Russian oligarchy for billions in past debt to underwrite his financially and morally bankrupt grifter lifestyle. Congress will look the other way as long as more SCOTUS seats open up — potentially 3 more in the next few years. Don't expect any challenge to Trumpism, even if collusion and bribery are proven in court. His kids and associates may go to jail, but Trump will once again be given a pass, the only way he has survived his whole privileged life.
8
Let's face it, President Trump s due for his annual review from totalitarian Putin. A summit between the two provides a perfect place. The only question I have is does President Trump rate a "exceeds expectations", meets expectations", "needs improvement" or remedial action necessary"
6
Republicans in Congress are overjoyed at being able to foist their destructive agenda upon the United States because of Trump in office. They prefer to keep that going, even if it means selling out our country.
5
Soon after the accession to power of Russia's Vladimir Putin. Russian companies became so dodgy that it was a grave risk to have any commerce with them. Not long after that, the same doubts arose about the Russian State itself. Now the United States is following suit, willfully positioning itself as a state with which interaction is too risky for private and public entities to deal honestly.
8
Vlad and Mini Vlad. The protégé visits his mentor.
6
“This is my last election … After my election I have more flexibility,” Obama said, expressing confidence that he would win a second term.
“I will transmit this information to Vladimir,” said Medvedev, Putin’s protégé and long considered number two in Moscow’s power structure.
"Frenemies?" - No, that implies equality.
Master and servant - Putin commands, Trump obeys
9
Just two kindred spirits getting together to plot their strategy for the up coming midterm elections.
5
Great idea. Lets get into all those details with someone who has at least 2000 thermonuclear warheads pointed at us. I say don't make Putin nervous. We can settle these other issues in good time. I am a cold war kid. Wear them down, again, but not a good idea to antagonize Putin. Maybe Trump is playing him? Nah, I don't thinks so either, but sometimes a stumble- bumb is exactly what we need. If Trump can lower the pressure on Russia then I can live to fight another day. Think about it people. Please!
The enthusiasm and anticipation evident in The Liar in Chief words and facial expressions, speak to his ardor for things Russia and Putin in particular.
It's frankly incomprehensible that a dictator and known killer inspires our " leader" of the "free world" to such hyperbole and praise of this cruel regime. And the simpletons repetition for the aggrieved Fox News and base, one and the same, of "he said he had nothing to do with influencing the election", already proven by the CIA and FBI, "and I believe him". So innocent, so unbelievable, so lying, so hypocritical.
Unless they are in cahoots!
6
I have long thought Trump is a Russian agent working for Putin. No other explanation rings true.
1
"...Mr. Trump reportedly told his fellow heads of state that Crimea is Russian because everyone there speaks that language. "
So maybe there is hope that Great Britain will take over the US, after all the US does speak English. I can see the hats now "MGBGA".
I guess along that line much of the world will also become Spain's domain.
7
Sorry, but China claims first.
Trump hardly understand the concept of a nation, a society. Everything he sees and deals with resembles his private company or fiefdom. He can give away any state secret and sacrifice our national interest if that help him personally- financially or politically, very well aware that there is no credible leader in GOP who dare to hold him accountable.
Both GOP and Trump are also well aware that thier core vote bank is basically imbecile to understand even simple data and logic to hold them accountable. They would believe pretty much anything if said by Trump or a Christian "conservative" preacher/politician or any other the person of thier choice.
Once the consequences of his decision start pouring in after few years, both Trump and GOP would conveniently blame the Democrats and the administration present that time.
6
The meeting in Helsinki is essentially a status report. Trump is going to report to his boss on how well the project to destroy America is going. I think Putin will be very happy.
8
Let's be clear, the things that Trump is doing taken as a whole, including his subservience to Putin, are not within the range of acceptable differences in policy. They are either the work of an incompetent or the work of someone consciously attempting to destroy our country.
16
Trump will give all his is asked by Putin and more. Putin is the only one whom trump is afraid and respects, because he has the means to destroy him. It’s clear now how the puppet functions...
3
Donald Trump’s desire to be personal friends with Vladimir Putin should not have to affect the rest of us 325 million United States people.
If he wanted to do business with Putin on his own, he could have. If he wanted to visit with Putin at anytime, anywhere, he could have. They could dine together, wine together, laugh together, tell each other their best narcissistic stories.
But why oh why did Trump have to run for President and drag all of us into his sick desire to be buddies with Vladimir Putin?
5
He ran for President because Putin told him to. It's that deep.
Donald Trump, selling America out again. And again.
12
A Summit of Two Traitors to their respective people. Putin has already ruined Russia - and enjoyed it tremendously, it seems - He is now fine-tuning his mentoring of Trump on how to ruin America. Methinks Trump will not enjoy it so much when the real America (the one actually governed by the Rule of Law) will send him to prison - or at least to a care institution.
1
Manchurian candidate STOLE the White House like he stole so much money during his creep life, and this time with the help of a hostile foreign power. He benefitted from an 18th Century Electoral College created to keep slave states in the Union and gerrymandered Republican rural districts along with voter suppression tactics.
Even then he "won" by only 77,000 votes in three states while LOSING the national election by 3 million votes. The system is completely broken when an ignorant minority rules over the better educated and economically situated majority. thanks to subterfuge and an 18th Century political anomaly.
Violence would be horrible, but the fact is unless the system is changed and justice prevails in our society and SOON, the only way to install the government that our people want and deserve will be through extra-political means.
The last chance to do the right thing and avoid a mass uprising or retribution is to elect ONLY Democrats in November, if it's not too late.
If it is too late, bring it on. Traitors and evil can not be allowed to prevail; and if it happens, they'll have to defend their evil with their worthless lives, and we'll sacrifice EVERYTHING against them. Mark these words.
1
As with Kim, Trump will give Putin everything and get nothing, and leave the meeting thinking he's triumphed. The con-man conned. Was it Mark Twain who said "You can't cheat an honest man?"
6
Pictures are worth a thousand words
Putin loves expensive watches. As does ExPresident Obama, an dEx- President Clinton
That bond won't work with Trump who has only a lackluster collection.
The leader least obsessed with status symbols is Ms. Merkel: A "Boccia", worth just 89 euros.
Trump is probably thinking only of his personal profits he hopes to make from opening hotels in Russia as approved by Le Putain
Putin is probably rubbing his hands with glee contemplating how he can advance his personal power by manipulating such an obviously narcissistic ego
As Joe Biden once said to Putin - 'Mr. Prime Minister, I'm looking into your eyes, and I don't think you have a soul.'” ... “And he looked back at me, and he smiled, and he said, 'We understand one another.'” - https://www.businessinsider.com.au/joe-biden-putin-soul-2014-7
That may be why Trump sees eye to eye with Putin - perhaps neither of them has a soul. Certainly one of them lacks a conscience.
7
Oh Lordy, so Mr. Trump said in Quebec that Crimea is Russian because everyone there speaks Russian.
The breaking news in Europe is that France is going to annex the part of Belgium where people speak French, and the longterm plan to also annex all French speaking countries in Africa, e.g. Morocco, Senegal, Niger, etc., etc.
So Putin is probably left-handed, wearing the watch on his right wrist. I could not decipher the brand on the photo.
It is time for trump to give his job report to Putin and for Putin to give him his evaluation.
1
When the day comes that Robert Mueller reveals Trump & his associates threw in with Putin & Russian oligarchs to become POTUS & do Putin's bidding - will the Republican senators & Congress standing behind Trump the traitor finally feel shame?
Mitch McConnell, I'm talking to you.
Trump repeatedly refuses to hand over his unsecured personal cellphone to his security staff - convincing many it's because he uses that phone to talk with Putin, without anyone monitoring these calls. What other possible reason can there be why POTUS obstinately demands to use this private unsecured phone against the advice of all the professionals charged with protecting him?
How else to explain that much of what comes out of Trump's mouth is Russian kompromat such as his ludicrous claim Crimea is part of Russian 'because they speak Russian.'
We're standing by watching in horror as this Russian asset posing as our President tears apart international treaties,
destroys our treasured alliances, happily refuses to punish a foreign power that undermined our democratic election & eagerly pursues his 'friendship crush' with the monstrous Putin - who has murdered his political opponents.
Future generations will be amazed how many Americans blindly supported this treason - as many more stood by insisting we give this traitor "a chance." A chance to what? Make the United States of America part of the Russian Federation? (Paul Ryan, I'm looking at you).
Wake up. Putin is breathing down our necks.
1
"But at the Group of 7 meeting in Quebec this month, Mr. Trump reportedly told his fellow heads of state that Crimea is Russian because everyone there speaks that language."
Unless HM Queen Elizabeth II (for the UK and Canada), President Steinmeier of Germany, President Mattarella of Italy, and HIM Emperor Akihito were actually unannounced participants along with Presidents Macron and Trump, the Group of 7 meeting was not of "heads of state" but of "heads of government". Poli Sci 101, that the NY Times routinely gets wrong.
Isn't there anyone in America who can put a stop to Trump selling us out to the Russians?
“But at the Group of 7 meeting in Quebec this month, Mr. Trump reportedly told his fellow heads of state that Crimea is Russian because everyone there speaks that language....”
Wouldn’t that make us English?
5
CF
Does that mean we get to invade and control the english speaking parts of Canada?
1
With a frenemy like Putin, who needs friends? (Then again, if you're a weak-souled tough-guy like Donald Trump, you don't need friends. Fellow mobsters are just fine, thank you.)
1
“He now thinks he’s mastered this..”
Ignorance is bliss. Never has it been more truly descriptive of an American politician. It’s not just bliss, it’s an end in and of itself. Putin will eat his lunch.
Crimea became part of Russia in the 18th century, under Catherine the Great. Kruschev made it administratively part of the Ukraine in 1954, when the Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union. Now that there is no longer a Soviet Union, there is no particular reason why Crimea should be part of Ukraine rather than part of Russia. Additionally, there was a referendum in Crimea, in which the majority decided that they wanted to be with Russia.
1
"Such thinking goes further than most Americans have been led to believe were Mr. Trump’s views on issues central to allied security."
Ha! That's a massive understatement.
To even speak about Trump's thinking in such terms is to normalize him.
Let's not do that.
4
Selection of the proper Putin-Trump United States Supreme Court appointee, like the urgent retirement pressure put on Kennedy, is of obvious great immediate importance to both Putin and Trump. I'm sure that working one-on-one together next week they'll be able to pick the right candidate to suit both their need to absolve any, and all, legal consequences of the Mueller investigation.
6
'Trump thinks he's mastered this,' said one. Note the secret power handshake. He gets under the other hand shaker's hand and lifts it up slightly. Having mastered this dominance cue, he is pretty sure occult forces will guide him to a sweet win. Putin is after all a small-time oligarch with a big market to cut pieces off. The only progress likely in Finland will concern oil and gas business, and how to trade security for profit.
5
Trump and Putin are kindred spirits, but not just for the reasons cited.
Both are ardent nationalists. Putin wants to restore Russian international standing and influence and Trump's make America Great Again speaks for itself.
Putin sent Russian troops into the Crimea. Trump matched him by sending American troops into Syria. At least Russia had plausible reasons for not allowing Crimea and its ethnic Russian citizens to live under an increasing neo-fascist government in Ukraine.
But Trump's undeclared war in Syria simply continued the oil wars initiated by Bush and carried out by Obama.
Putin probably committed war crimes by bombing civilians in Aleppo. Not to be outdone, Trump killed just as many or even more civilians by bombing Mosel.
Putin demonstrated Russian military technology by displaying a new cruise missile capable of navigating the globe below normal radar levels.
Trump has now weaponized space and added billions more to the many billions we plan to spend on a new generation of tactical nuclear weapons.
While the Times is keen on every conceivable Russian threat to world peace, they conveniently ignore the nation that spends more on it's military than the next seven countries combined.
Russia is a potential threat, but with troops on the ground in nearly 70 nations around the world America has gone beyond potential and become the worlds greatest threat to peace.
1
Much too cautious an editorial. Trump and Putin are planning the carving up of Europe (ala the infamous Ribbentrop-Molotov meeting). Trump will abnegate NATO (won't need Congress: as commander-in-chief he'll simply order U.S. military to stand-down as Putin's tanks and troops re-occupy the Baltics - and likely much more territory of the old USSR). (Trump maybe will get Scotland - where he can build more golf courses).
1
So, according to Trump's logic that because Crimean people speak Russian, Russia has every right to take it over? Maybe Canada can take over America?
There was a recent article in this newspaper about the law in California (and in many states) which allows someone to be tried for 1st degree murder if they take part in a robbery but someone else kills the victim. I wonder, if in the same vein, Republicans could be held responsible for Trump's 1st degree treason against the people of America?
3
C'mon, people. Trump has been laundering Russian Oligarch money through his properties for years now.
Putin helped Trump get elected because when Trump visited in Russia at his 2013 Miss Universe contest, he not only sampled Russian hospitality in his hotel suite, he cut a deal with Putin to dump the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnitsky_Act act which killed Russian ability to launder more Russian money in the U.S.
That is what the meeting in the Trump Tower was about, not about adopting orphans. How simple can it get?
Putin is one of the world's richest people, he controls the wealth of his and his Russian Oligarch puppets who would not be or stay rich without him and Trump is mightily impressed by money which equals power.
Trump's daughter won her share of the $82 million she and hubby made last year, all that is chicken feed to what Trump and Putin want to put together through private deals concerning real estate, oil and what have you.
Wake up folks, Trump does nothing, key word, nothing, that is not in his self interest first.
8
I always ask the question '' WWHIODI '' ?
(what would happen if Obama did it)
The answer is always the same, and that would be that 35% of the country would freak out beyond all reasonable expectation.
That same 35% turns a blind eye to what is right in front of them, which is this current President is acting in very strange ways to a country (and leader) that attacked and continues to attack the U.S. in the cyber realm.
Then there is probably the tape ...
7
Trump would like to be an autocrat like Putin.
He realizes something that the editors of the NY Times don't want to admit---democracy is no longer working in the US.
Take illegal immigration for example.
In 1979, the Chinese autocrat Deng Xiaoping, having observed tens of millions of Chinese dying of starvation under Chairman Mao, introduced a one-child policy.
With fewer children, China was able to raise the living standards of a more slowly growing population for the next 40 years. China now has 12,000 miles of high speed electric rail, skyscrapers in Pudong which dwarf the Manhattan skyline, a space program which has put a rover on the moon.
China will soon surpass the US in GDP.
The US has an overpopulation problem like China did in 1979. But neither party has put forth a coherent proposal for dealing with it.
One aspect of such a program would involve starting one-child programs in Latin America countries, involving birth control and abortion. But Republicans regard abortion as murder.
Ethel Kennedy on the other hand calls for a hunger strike to protest separating illegal immigrant mothers from their children. And Democrats call for providing due process for those who claim asylum. But the asylum-seekers are like the drops of water in the ocean.
Democrats shut off meaningful debate with cries of racism.
We don't have enough resources to provide due process. And in eight years, Medicare starts running out of funding.
Trump realizes autocracy beats chaos.
I think Trump is a Russian agent working for Putin. There's no other explanation that rings true.
11
Last evening he told his Cult that "our so-called allies are worse than our enemies".
Trump cannot cope, psychologically speaking, with being part of a group, one among equals: he ceases to exist if he doesn't feel he's the King, calling the shots, expecting and receiving the groveling of sycophants.
In Trump's little twisted brain, if it's good for Trump personally then it is, by default, good for America: he is America. You've handed him the Country and the world on a golden platter and he's smothering us in cheap ketchup.
Economic alliances of your soon-to-be former allies with China....looking like a safer bet with each passing day...geez, "what have we got to lose".
Trump's not a smart man, a knowledgeable man, a thinking man, a reading man, not really a "man" at all but rather a psychologically crippled conspiracy theorist....have you noticed enough to get to the polls while you still have polls to get to (shutting them down in the name of "national security" isn't beyond this Administration).
6
I am no fan of Trump but you guys are missing something here. Americans, having watched "Democracy" return handy bonuses for corrupt banks and bank employees after those same people brought the world economy down....do not think liberal Democracy is working for them. Don't you guys get it? Folks are now willing to try out something different. Why stick with something that does not work? Liberal Democracy is run by Military Contractors, Banks and Arms Dealers. Why would we stick with that? So, stop making liberal Democracy into something that its not and beating on Trump. Liberal Democracy, for the average American, has failed. Especially the dead ones in Vietnam, Korea, Afghansitan, Iraq and Syria. All pointless wars for profit of those true members of Liberal Democracy - Military Contractors.
Michael, So you think folks are willing to let the US fall into a totalitarian state? You think that might work better? When did you last read a history book?
“President George H. Bush continued to dodge helping the Russians and the President of Czechoslovakia, Vaclav Havel, laid bare the linkage for the Americans in his address to a joint session of Congress on February 21, 1990:
... I often hear the question: How can the United States of America help us today? My reply is as paradoxical as the whole of my life has been: You can help us most of all if you help the Soviet Union on its irreversible, but immensely complicated road to democracy. ...[T]he sooner, the more quickly, and the more peacefully the Soviet Union begins to move along the road toward genuine political pluralism, respect for the rights of nations to their own integrity and to a working—that is a market—economy, the better it will be, not just for Czechs and Slovaks, but for the whole world.”
We did not follow Havel’s advice or keep the promises we made to Gorbachev who was engaged in a policy of glasnost or “openness” which reversed centuries of hostility between East and West. Russia was economically on its knees at the time like Western Europe after WW II, but there was no Marshall Plan for them or appreciation for the role Gorbachev played in the reunification of Germany. Instead, as if the Cold War had never stopped, we built up NATO and even invited in the nations of the former Warsaw Pact on whose borders we placed our missile defense and trained our guns as if Russia was the same enemy as before. This gave rise to Putin, but once more there is the hope.
Not frenemies. Trump admires Putin and wants to please him. Putin is amused by Trump and enjoys his easy power over Trump's desperate ego.
8
I expected a Putin meeting soon. After all, Trump is Putin’s choice to be President of the US. I would bet that meeting will be off limits to mainstream journalists. What to expect: Trump will promise to fulfill the requests Putin has because, well, he owes Putin and various Oligarchs financially...After all, they bailed out his failing business. May I remind those that still read that Trump is a loser who has been able to present his Apprentice” image because the Russian Oligarchs bankrolled him. He is the Russian “Golden Boy”, chosen because of his weakness. I guess his so-called base recognizes the weakness, but not the significance of it, unless they actually think they will be better under a totalitarian regime...? Go figure. God help the US.
3
NYT Liberal hype.. Everyone calm down the sky isn't falling. Trump albeit in an unorthodox manner escalated then deescalated tensions with North Korea. We have always had tense, suspicious relations with Russia. Trump is reaching out to Putin - Let them talk, cut a few deals and we will get along just fine. And seriously why can't the NATO alliance pay more? The U.S. foots the bill for everything. Liberal media is going berserk claiming we are abandoning our European allies - what does that mean exactly? These are the same countries who can't stand American tourists. It's time to let the world govern on its own- American leadership needs to return to America. Let the world fix itself for a change. I want isolationism.
2
Well, you won’t get isolationism. You will get totalitarianism. I would bet you have no idea what happens in totalitarian States. And maybe for you it won’t matter...
When Congress and our intelligence agencies have to plead with our president to persuade him that Comrade Putin is not our friend, it is time to terminate his command and end the strongman clown show. Trump will prove Marx right that Capitalism, as practiced by Trump , will collapse from within, destroying the West along with it. Our only allies under Trump will be autocrats and hardline nationalists.
2
Here's our chance! Simply add Russia to the list of countries covered in the Supreme Court's recently upheld travel ban while Trump is at his "summit"! He then could not return. Russia is home to many Muslims and has been recently implicted in many terrorist-type activities and is definitely not trustworthy from a national security stance.
6
As Mr. Trump heads for Helsinki to get new instructions from Putin, Russian officials openly boast on television that "we elected Trump!" And laugh about it. As the Western Alliance collapses, Republican legislators and millionaire evangelists purr with contentment
7
1. Every meeting that has occurred to date between Trump and Putin has been announced by the Kremlin. Translation: Russia is in control and the U.S. subservient.
2. Trump came under Russian influence in the late 1990s when desperate for capital after burning his bridges with American banks and shareholders through abuse of bankruptcy and irresponsible vainglorious purchases like the Plaza, Trump when begging to the Russian mob that was already starting to launder Russian cash for Putin in exchange for access.
3. Trump had a "control in place" by marriage to Melania Knaus, daughter of a longtime Slovenian agent, her father Viktor, in 2005 to protect Putin's 'investment.' Trump was already making grandiose pronouncements threatening runs for office and was an 'access point' for influencing politicians as a conduit for campaign contributions. He was, in other words, a useful channel for Komprimat. He also established a 'media presence' and his relationship to the U.S. Media was also firmly established.
4. What began as a 'gambit' to exploit potential for disrupting the "Clinton Presidency" and potential Russia bashing by Romney experienced in 2012, became an unexpected coup with Trump's decimation with RU's help of the GOP field.
5. The Coup resulting from the 2016 election made DC look like "Moscow West" for the Trump "Coronation."
6. Trump frustratingly has been unable to deliver yet on sanctions and war with Iran to deliver $100 p/p/b oil.
2
I note, in passing, that Delphiniums, the flower depicted in the illustration that is in the background of the photograph featured with Mikail Metzel's TASS - Getty Image that accompanies this editorial contains a potent neurotoxin (MLA) that may be used in a modified weaponized form in the arsenal of poisons employed by the successor to the KGB (the FSB).
In many respects, the pharmacology of MLA closely resembles that of the classical neuromuscular blocker, d-tubocurarine. The "curare-like" properties of MLA seem to have been first mentioned in 1958 by Kuzovkov and Bocharnikova, working at the Ordzhinikidze All-Union Institute for Scientific Research in Pharmaceutical Chemistry, in the former USSR.
A detailed paper on the pharmacology of MLA (in the form of its hydriodide salt, given the drug name "mellictine") in classical animal preparations was published from the same Institute in the following year by Dozortseva.
Russia has always be fascinated by poison, and used it in its espionage and foreign intrigues.
1
Why to meet if fears in US are so big?
Anyway it is good that nuclear superpowers meet regulary to exchange views and understand each other better. It could ob of grave signifance if their leaders (for god sake no) ever come to situation that would have to decide to push nuke button or not.
Trump otherwise can't give to Putin just anything, except some words that he can't fullfill, because he simply don't have any meaningfull power left to negotiate with Russia.
Putin on other side could do a lot more, because he has much more power in Russia. He is not autocrat, as is writen here in article, but very powerful president.
But he won't probablly give anything at least on topic mentioned here. Ukraine is for Russia much more strategic then it is for US and things are far from finished there, at least for Russia. And in Syria war is almost over, Asad won and longer the US will be there, more Iranians and Russians will be there.
There would be good prospect for economical&trade development between countries, but here is the problem that US has fixed idea, that this is tool for bkackmailing. It isn't because Russia is not USSR, it is capitalistic market economy and big enough to be self sustainable. This sanctions goes directly in benefit of Russian industry against foreign competition.
In the Guardian, the British paper now lumps Trump and Putin as allies. It infers these two are one alliance and the EU and other Western countries are the other alliance. A true shift in the world order - and you know what? The Brits are right.
Trump is beholden to Putin - a Bromance for sure. I trust Putin will give Donnie all kinds of “next steps” from Putin’s play book and Donnie will lap it up seeking approval from his personal mentor. I have suspected that Putin has been somehow feeding Trump through this whole presidency. I have no idea how.
Dark influences have infected the US government and the democracy is hanging in the balance. The US is on the cusp of being an autocratic dictatorship.
2
Kindred spirits? Try master and servant.
10
I wonder who is the top and who is the bottom.
3
The editorial board is slowly but steadily homing in on the only logical explanation for Trump's pro-Putin words and deeds; he is Putin's agent saboteur set to weaken the Atlantic Alliance and what's left of liberal democracy.
The only remaining question is to what degree the rest of the GOP is complicit.
Occam's razor.
7
Trump and Putin together is a one sided bromance and you can guess which side is involved in the bromance. Putin will play Trump like a Stradivarius while Trump acts like a labrador retriever with flopping tongue and three foot jumps eager for Putin to throw the ball again. The best we can hope for is that Putin doesn't ask for our nuclear code and Trump doesn't sell Alaska in order to obtain the money he has sought from Russian oligarchs. Trump is a sandlot ballplayer while Putin is a Hall of Famer. Never has there been such a mismatch.
3
trump's a grifter. A con man and without doubt Putin's "friends" own him, lock stock and barrel. No doubt trump wishes he could be just like Putin. trump is a trailtor. His "job" is to ruin America to make way for Putin and he's doing an excellent job (the only thing he seems to be good at). Tillerson helped that process along in the international sphere. The other cronies, i.e., cabinet secretaries, are busy doing their things: savaging the environment, ridding the government of scientists, turning the government into a revenue source for trump's friends.
13
Here's perhaps a salutary thought experiment: Ask yourself whom you would prefer in control of that vast Russian nuclear arsenal: the autocrat Vladimir Putin or a Russian version of, say, George W. Bush or Hillary Clinton.
EB. You whined when Trump threatened NK with military force and demanded he negotiate. He negotiates and you complain it did nothing. Now he's meeting with Putin and you whine about that.
Let's be clear. It was under Obama's watch that Russia took over Crimea and engineered control of parts of the Ukraine. It was when Obama was president that the Russians tried to interfere in our election and Obama did nothing until HRC lost and then he suddenly had a fit. It was Obama who let the Russians assume a leading role in the middle east. It was under Obama that relations with Russia deteriorated.
I know that Obama is a saint in the holy progressive church, but don't omit facts. And you have no idea what will occur in this meeting. But isn't it better to meet with Russia (and NK) and attempt to negotiate than snarl across the Atlantic at them?
And why do we need NATO today? I seriously doubt if Russia has plans to march through the streets of Berlin or Paris. And are the NATO nations seriously going to fight against Russia if Russia attempts to take over or control any of the traditional buffer states? I don't think they will. NATO did nothing re Crimea or Ukraine. The lack of commitment to NATO by many of the European nations shows clearly they don't perceive Russia as an existential threat.
The US has had a run of presidents who project a "soft" image. The EB can't deal with a president projects a tougher image.
3
I see the Trump apologists are already trying to normalize our president's treasonous behavior. Well done Kremlin.
Agree with almost every word here--except that "kindred spirits" seems off the mark. Trump says over and over that aspires to join the club of thug dictators. Putin, on the other hand, is an old hand at the authoritarian game--though he has said (more or less) "why is anyone upset at me, it's not 1937" (meaning no big deal, I am not purging and slaughtering like Stalin).
No single man should have this much undisciplined power.
And when an ignorant, boastful, greedy, showy, heartless, and undoubtedly compromised, narcissistic, practiced liar and cheat somehow gains such power, it becomes clear that our “checks and balances” aren’t working.
Very clear.
If there is a “blue wave” in coming elections, then Congress must revise our laws to reclaim some real authority over the executive branch ... and correct a rogue president.
1
Korea, Russia -- next stop Iran, where he'll negotiate a "beautiful, beautiful" denuclearization deal with the Ayatollahs in which all is promised and nothing delivered.
6
Russia will be a natural ally against Sharia law.
The Visegrad 4 (Poland, Czech, Slovakia, Hungary) has created a EU Battlegroup to resist invasion of their countries. Austria, the Balkans and even Italy may join them.
Already the US finds itself more in accord with Russian immigration policy than with Germany and France. Our alliances with Britain, France and Germany will weaken as they capitulate to domestic terrorists.
False equivalence again NYT's.
V. Putin:
-trained KGB agent after university graduation
-wily reader of politics who supported the coup against Gorbachev and saw his chance
-1998, Yeltsin appointed Putin as Director of the Federal Security Service (FSB), the primary intelligence and security organization of the Russian Federation and the successor to the KGB.
-implicated in the deaths of political opponents, members of the media, and ruthless seizure of the wealth of the nation
-successful for years in seizing political power internally and externally
-successful in disrupting the western alliance
D. Trump
-scion of a mid level Queens real estate developer
- want to be NY socialite
-multi bankrupt
-reality TV persona
-many failed business ventures, culminating in less than successful 'branding'
-embroiled in federal investigations during office regarding corruption
-no successful foreign policy, great internal dissent regarding domestic policies
-supporter of fiscal and trade policies that do not have the support of knowledgable experts
-proponent of dissolution of the western alliance
V. Putin will take D. Trump to the cleaners and further humiliate the US. D. Trump will announce a great victory, and the affirmation of a wonderful 'friendship'.
V, Putin will be emboldened to further disrupt US and western alliance elections and sow further internal mistrust and dissent.
V. Putin - too many to count
D. Trump - zero
6
It would be bad enough if this was just Putin, but it's the same thing with Xi, bin Salman, Erdogan, Kim and the other partners in this despotic international criminal circuit. It is not extreme to wonder, what will become of our world and if were not entering another "dark age", led by America. Who would have thought?
2
If Bob Mueller cannot end this nightmare I genuinely fear for the future of America. Does anyone really believe our elections in 2018 and 2020 will be free of Russian hacking? Our top security analysists claim we are not doing enough to prevent cyber espionage and all Trump does is tweet nonsense and hold rallies with his adoring supporters. All the GOP does is, well, nothing.
2
It will be like looking into a mirror for Putin, he will just see someone he greatly respects as a warrior for the worldwide oligarch class, of which he is king.
Just translate the word "Putin" for the word "Trump" and this all makes sense, both internationally and internally within the White House.
It is time for Putin to get rid of the Marines around Trump, so Putin/Trump can steal more land, kill more journalists, sow the seeds of weakness throughout the west.
And through it all, the spineless Republican Party is gleeful, thrilled at the red meat that that they have been thrown in the shape of added riches for the American oligarchs.
Hugh Massengill, Eugene Oregon
3
Summit? What Summit? Trump is going to Finland for his annual employee review to determine if he merits continuing employment and to receive further instructions from his boss as to where next he should be wreaking further havoc into the Western alliance and the U.S. Constitution.
2
....and to get Putin's approval of Trump's Supreme Court appointee.
1
Clearly, one way or another, Putin owns Trump. If one simply examines what Trump has done in the foreign policy arena and allows for incompetence and sociopathy the picture emerges of a man doing exactly would Vladimir Putin would want done. Of course it's not going to work because of the power differential between the US and the Russian Federation. Trump notwithstanding America is the dominating force of the 21st century where has Russia is not even in also land with an economy the size of the state of New York's which is into its fifth year of consecutive shrinkage.
2
As a Canadian, I find this sequence of events more than chilling: that the Russians manipulated the US election; that Trump and the GOP remai unperturbed by this; that Trump has decried NAFTA as a key rallying cry to his base; that he manufactured a perceived grievance by our Prime Minister and then insulted him publicly in a dreadful way; and that he is slathering to meet Putin, unscripted. Why am I so worried by this chain of events? It's pretty clear: Canada is sandwiched right between the territories of these two treacherous and lying aspirants to "King of the World".
2
I am an American naturalized citizen and love and believe the country's stated founding ideals.
I have worked with Russians, people just like us in my previous tech startups, they are just like us with a different language but yearning to be free, they have never known freedom. The people I have worked with were and are brilliant.
But then, we succumbed to Trump's authoritarian and racist impulses (and I blame the Democrats for it, I was one till before the '16 election where they just, in my opinion, threw the election away.
It should have been a landslide the other way. The poor Russian people, wanting to be just like us, had freedom for a while and then succumbing to oligarchs who then begat Putin, an authoritarian.
He is just like Trump, but to use an overworked term, "an uber Trump." In other words, Trump on steroids. He, if the reports are accurate and if one can believe it, has amassed a massive amount of wealth, jailed anyone who opposed him or if it could not be done, more "extreme and final measures" were used.
How do we fight and reverse this life threatening disease to our formerly functioning Democracy? I don't know. Trump seems to be learning how to subvert the media and the still functional organs (the State and Federal bureaucracy of government that Putin has already subverted for his own aims.
I weep for my Russian friends but I want to fight for our freedoms before we lose it.
Mr Trump has already started, just prior to the summit with North Korea, that he doesn't need to prepare. With this upcoming debacle the improvisation to watch out for and prepare to deconstruct is an ad hoc back-room alliance against China.
In all honesty, I really don't know where the idea came from to force Trump and Putin into the same friendship. There's little to no evidence of them even speaking to each other prior to the election, and the attempts by many media outlet to make them bed buds seems contrived and forced. If anything, Trump's style of leadership is more akin to the low level brutishness of Viktor Orban of Hungary, Recep Erdogan of Turkey, or more likely Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines. All three of them are much more likely to engage in low-brow self-congratulatory narcissism. Putin is an autocrat above the simple man baby that is Trump. Putin has had little to nothing to say about Trump and all efforts at painting Trump as some sort of loyal puppet of the Kremlin are more fiction than fact.
1
I'd put it as Trump being a useful tool for Putin.
"It’s clear that Mr. Trump isn’t a conventional president, but instead one intent on eroding institutions that undergird democracy and peace."
Talk about eroding institutions, Trump just tried to persuade Macron to take France out of the EU, luring him with trade deals. That sends a shiver up my spine, it's so clearly Putin's agenda. Trying to break apart the bonds between countries of the free world is downright evil. Thanks for this superb editorial.
2
After reading “The Plot to Hack America” and discovering what the CIA, FBI and Americans have learned about the alleged Russian cyberwarfare during the 2016 campaign, surely-surely the CIA, FBI and the “true patriots in Congress” won’t let Trump talk to Putin alone-I perceive that as a big mistake. Someone must be with him at least to report back to the CIA and FBI what Trump and Pompeo agree to. Putin “is hoping or relying on Trump” to dismantle our relationships with our European allies and to destroy NATO, which will free him to chip away other European countries.
Looking back to history, I believe George W Bush was immature and had an inferiority complex too, and back in 2001 in Slovenia after meeting Putin he said, “I looked the man in the eye. I found him very straightforward and trustworthy – I was able to get a sense of his soul." But later Condoleezza Rice said that Bush's phrasing had been a serious mistake. "We were never able to escape the perception that the president had naïvely trusted Putin and then been betrayed."
Trump is walking a very thin tightrope [with a hangman’s noose on the end ?], in that coupled with what Mueller will conclude in his investigation, will Trump, Pompeo and Bolton be protecting American and Allied/NATO interests, or, are they bowing down at Putin’s behest.
The last paragraph in the article had to make me laugh.
"the Republicans who control the Senate. They have more responsibility than ever to try to persuade Mr. Trump that the country’s security is at stake when he meets Mr. Putin, and that he should prepare carefully for the encounter."
First, the President doesn't listen to anything, but his gut. So he's not going to listen to any Senators.
Secondly, as to "preparing carefully" that would take someone who is thoughtful, deliberate and who studied an issue. President Trump is none of these things. The best we can hope for is that the rest of the Government can minimize the damage. That's the best case scenario.
2
Perhaps Trump is more than prepared to listen carefully to what Putin advises him; prepared for some gentle rebukes from the Russian leader who might feel it necessary to give him a rap across the knuckles.
Our president will attempt to ensure that one of his aides takes notes during their meeting, and keep these close at hand, when in need of being reminded of his homework.
November is not that far away. Whether the Media picks up some clues as to where the wind blows in this latest encounter of Red and Rust, only time will tell if Trump again believes in his own lies, and spreads them around, to the confusion and detriment of our nation.
It'll be one of the worst days of our country's sovereignty when Trump meets Putin in Helsinki,Finland on July 16th.
There is a rumor that the only reason, why Trump is so keen to meet our country's worst adversary for more than seventy years, is his desire to hug and kiss Putin's cheek and say two words that he probably said over the secured phone of the White House already, "Thank you."
With the Republicans pressuring the Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein to hand over all the evidence that his appointee Robert Mueller has already collected against Trump's personal involvement in Russia's collusion with Trump and his campaign team in 2016's presidential election, it is possible that we'll never find out what exactly happened if Mr. Rosenstein hands over all the evidence to the Republicans in congress within 7 days as they demanded.
It is quite ironic that it was the same Republicans who unnecessarily dragged Ms. Clinton's inquiry for more than 3 years.
The Republicans in congress then knew that Ms. Clinton did nothing wrong when she handled official emails through her personal server which every Secretaries of State before her did the same.
And as you've mentioned in this editorial that Trump and the Republicans want to end this inquiry before Trump's congratulatory meeting with Putin next month.
Thay tells us only one thing,they're afraid that truth will come out before the upcoming meeting between two crooks who won their elections fraudulently and force Trump's impeachment.
2
American has been going through an incivility crisis. To get over it, we should take President Trump as a role. To see how we should treat people of different political persuasions, we should look at the respect and politeness Trump gives to Vladimir Putin.
I can only wonder if this heat wave has increased your kool aid intake.
Well, Trump is an obvious security risk for the NATO alliance and should therefore be removed from office. Anyone?
Merkel and Macron also met Putin and that is a good thing which is also in the grain of US politics. When it comes to Russia the Times has taken leave of its journalistic ethics: the evidence that Trump colluded with Russia is not in (and of course neither Putin nor Trump are attractive democrats, to say the least but that is not the point in international relations). Israel and Netanyahu have interfered with the US election far more massively (often openly) and The Times seems to forget the many violations of international law by the US (Guantanamo, aiding and abetting Saudi Arabia in Yemen, supporting a coup in Honduras...). This does not mean Russia violations are acceptable, of course.
Since Trump came to the WH the US has expelled 60 Russian diplomats after the Skripal affair (not a very clear matter) sold lethal weapons to Ukraine, imposed sanctions on Russia, bombed Russia's ally in Syria and Russian mercenaries there. Not exactly soft nor collusive.
Crimea was seized illegally but then US bombings in Syria are not legal either. And if there were a referendum in Crimea, of course most people would vote to remain in Russia (except for the Tatars, maybe).
This editorial is part of the narrative: "we are good, they are bad". Even when the signs that "we" are not so good either are all over the place.
Autocratic Russia spends 10% of what the US does on defense, it is not a serious military rival. China is the elephant in the room.
2
Not mentioned in your editorial, although perhaps most important, is the fact that Putin is formidably effective at what he does. If Kim Jong Un, in his early 30s, ran rings around Trump, the mind boggles as to what will come out of the Trump-Putin meeting. Worse still will be the secret/unmentioned outcome.
1
The news each day of Trump's grotesque and traitorous misconduct and incompetence seems not to register at all with his supporters some of whom are narrowly focused on social agendas that accept bigotry and the decimation of civil liberties. We are a profoundly divided Nation now facing its demise yet where is there evidence that we have a well formulated strategic response to limit and ultimately remove him from office? The ONLY real patriots we have are Robert Mueller and his team executing their responsibilities with laser focus. Who else is so determined and competent? If our democracy survives Trump the credit will belong to one man, Robert Mueller.
6
And the people hitting the streets to protest the immoral policies perpetrated in our name...
...it's up to us!
We, the people.
The biggest mistake that we can make as Americans is thinking that Donald Trump is ever acting in our best interest when he meets with foreign advisories. When he meets with Putin he will be trying to undermine every institution of our democracy either because he doesn't believe in them, or because Putin has something on him. Either way in his short time in power he has done more damage to our democracy than any person or country in the history of our republic. He disgraces us all and this is what makes him an important historical figure.
1
If Trump and Putin can put an end to the civil war in Syria, the bombings in Yemen, they will jointly deserve the Nobel Peace Prize. That is if they are capable of thinking outside the box with clarity and not in the complex tedious way American foreign policy has operated in the past. America has used sanctions as punishment foreign aid as rewards and in each case the people who are hurt are ordinary citizens not the oligarchs and the terrorists.
3
'NATO as bad as NAFTA': I wonder if even General Mattis trusts his own boss. A fine mess that's going to be, that NATO summit.
The NATO-allies need to end their addiction to American military protection very soon. With an European defense budget of over $ 200 billion that's a matter of re-arranging the chairs and find new, more trustworthy allies like India and Japan. If you can't join them, beat them.
Trump is likely to ask Putin for help in keeping GOP domination of Congress. He’ll seek their aid in our November elections like he did in 2016. Even if this were recorded and released, Trump would deny his own words and his GOP sycophants would dimly nod their heads in approval.
2
Probably. But the most urgent reason for the meeting next week is undoubtedly the immedicate selection of the United States of America Supreme Court Justice to meet Mcconnells time scale--has to been done before the elections in November. Selection of the proper Putin-Trump United States Supreme Court appointee, like the urgent retirement pressure put on Kennedy, is of obvious great immediate importance to both Putin and Trump. I'm sure that working one-on-one together next week they'll be able to pick the right candidate to suit both their need to absolve any, and all, legal consequences of the Mueller investigation.
1
How very disturbing. Indeed how frightening. An entire editorial on Trump and Putin without a single suggestion that, based on the available evidence, the president of the United States demonstrates all the behavior of an agent in place for Russia. Many commenters mention it but not a hint in the editorial itself that something is wrong here. When our newspapers are that afraid of mentioning the obvious the rest of us are in a lot of trouble. Now that Americans no longer believe the American media, the media grow more cautious when instead they should grow more aggressive. It is one thing to say that Republican members of Congress are helping him, that they aren’t “patriots.” It’s another thing to call that what it is — what’s the opposite of a patriot? — and nobody wants to say that either. If the Times won’t do it, who will? And if their doing so would turn half the country against them, where does that leave us? The American republic continues its slow death and no one will stand up to the man who’s killing it.
1
It's much worse.
House Republicans put on a fealty show yesterday in the hearings questioning Rod Rosenstein which should alarm every American.
What they made clear was their collective willingness to undermine and disparage the Department of Justice in their embarrassing efforts to both curry favor with and avoid the wrath of Mr. Trump.
All of this is a planned karaoke to undermine Mr. Mueller and the FBI, if and when he provides us with his findings.
More likely it is the set-up to close down the Mueller investigation.
This would be treason.
3
The term "frenemies" is misleading. The only reason Trump, at least publicly, is not daily, hourly, snapchat best buddies with Putin is due to the shock and outrage the American public has shown toward this relationship. "Friends forever", might be a better fit, and perhaps the Special Council's investigation will conclude that "co-conspirators forever" is the right headline.
1
It's becoming increasingly evident that Trump prefers Putin and the Russian system to American-style liberal democracy as set forth by our Founders. This preference is encouraged especially by House Republicans, along with others.
Perhaps it's time to hear Trump (tweet tweet) and such water carriers as Devin Nunes and Little Jimmy Jordan expound on which system they prefer, and why. Perhaps it's time for politicians to make a choice -- publicly. Are we looking at something resembling treason??
2
Let's not fool ourselves - Trump is meeting with his best buddy to talk about next steps for enriching Trump, as well as lifting sanctions for Putin, which will then help Russia further enrich Trump and his cronies, including Wilbur Ross.
Let's not forget that Russia installed Trump, and therefore Trump is an illegitimate President. We all know that - that is why Congressman Lewis did not attend his inauguration, and he himself called the Trump presidency illegitimate. It therefore goes that anything done under this presidency has the taint of illegitimacy on it, including the Gorsuch appointment, and any further SCOTUS picks.
These are dark days for our Democracy. We are quickly spiraling into an Autocracy.
3
For Trump, meeting with Putin is a demonstration of his great negotiation skills. He doesn’t care about foreign affairs or foreigners. He want to use his meeting with Putin to pressure Europe on trade deals. “Either you buy all our stuff or we won’t defend you against the Russians” or something close to that. His way of negotiating has always been to bluster and threaten. If that doesn’t work, double down, if that fails, back down.
1
That's item #2 on the Putin-Trump agenda next week.
Selection of the proper Putin-Trump United States Supreme Court appointee, like the urgent retirement pressure put on Kennedy, is of obvious great immediate importance to both Putin and Trump. I'm sure that working one-on-one together next week they'll be able to pick the right candidate to suit both their need to absolve any, and all, legal consequences of the Mueller investigation.
They are much more than kindred spirits they are two members of a vast criminal conspiracy to undermine our democracy. Only the power of the office Trump holds and the violation by congressional Republicans of their oath of office has prevented the fate that anyone else would have met by now. I would bet everything I own that Mueller has more than enough evidence to send Trump to prison but unfortunately it will never happen. Trump represents by far the greatest danger our nation faces and he and his protectors and co conspirators should be viewed as enemies of the state.
1
When discussing Trump's interactions with leaders of other countries - any country - one must examine whether he has long-term business interests with that country. The Mueller investigation has revealed that Trump's long term business interests, in part, are dependent upon the cooperation (collusion?) of Russian interests. The LAST thing he is going to do is alienate Putin and keep him at arms length. In fact, we should expect him to get even cozier with Putin because he now knows that he can get away with it. There is no one to stop him. He can, and WILL, do what he wants. That should trigger members of Congress who are planning to stick around to take action to impeach him. Those Republicans, like Ryan, who are refusing to take action should be considered accomplices to Trump's crimes against the United States and treated as traitors.
Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater, the icons of conservatism, would be turning over in their graves. Where are the conservative voices of today? Cowed?
2
Reagan would admire Trump.
Unlike most Trump supporters and Americans who have no idea of what they're dealing with, I have no illusions about Vladimir Putin.
His plan to restore Russia back to its former Soviet glory is legend, and Donald Trump is either wittingly or unwittingly making it very easy for him.
I lived in Germany when it was still divided by a Wall and Mr. Putin was a KGB Intelligence Officer in the East Sektor, and anyone who lived through that time has no desire to return to it.
That is what Europe is up against now, and everytime Russia crosses a border they are once again reminded of a not-too-distant past when freedom and living in a democracy was something you risked dying for to attain.
Now we have a president threatening those very freedoms that Americans cherish as inalienable rights, fawning over a Russian dictator who is more than willing to take the place of this country on the world stage, now that we have estranged all of our allies.
For those who think this Summit next month isn't without peril, it's time to think again.
There is every reason to be very watchful.
And very afraid.
3
"should Mr. Trump agree to unilaterally lift sanctions imposed after Moscow invaded Ukraine and started a war, it would further upset alliance members, which joined the United States in imposing sanctions at some cost to themselves."
Oh, please! Don't abuse us twice! Those sanctions hit Europe as much as they hit Russia and Europe only adopted them due to strong US pressure. Many in Europe would love to see them end.
1
This life-long cynic, editorial board, writes that Donald Trump was hastily summoned to Helsinki by his master, Russian president Vladimir Putin, so he could hand out his 18-month benchmark grades for his time in office.
Perhaps also on the agenda is Mr. Putin's reminder to the American president that he, Putin, controls the scales that Mr. Trump tipped in Russia's behavior for (alleged) indiscretions while a private citizen.
I also doubt seriously that "senior Congressional Republicans" are in alarm about this meeting, one which can have grave security implications for the United States. These people have, by their supine acquiescence to Donald Trump's presidency, emboldened him to run amok and leave his mistakes behind him for another to repair. Worst of all is that the president has no idea that Russia is still a potentially lethal enemy. All he apparently sees is another headline-hogging photo op. He reminds this observer of the childhood story of the country mouse who went to the city to visit his cousin.
Read the story to see how that turned out.
3
Benedict Arnold met with the Brits to sell out Westpoint, Trump will meet with Putin to sell out our allies. The patriots caught Arnold and chased him out of the country. Where are today’s patriots? Who will answer the alarm.
"Mr. Trump reportedly told his fellow heads of state that Crimea is Russian because everyone there speaks that language." Wow, that means the US is still part of the UK. Who knew?
2
This article does a disservice to the nation because Trump and Putin are not friends: the former serves the latter, is owned by the latter.
Times has a lot of hutspah misleading the populace when it knows he's being investigated for collusion. This collusion, involving tolerating a Russian cyberinvasion isn't a friendship it is subserving Putin.
1
Lets be honest that Putin is the handler, and Trump the agent.
America is in grave danger of being destroyed with all the democratic institutions that has been constructed over history, and Putin and Russia always wanted to dismantle American global power and influence - now Trump is doing Putin's job.
America's national security is in danger, and the enemy is within.
1
This year US taxpayers will spend $700 billion on the most powerful military force in world history. No other nation comes close to challenging America's military might. We alone have the capacity to wage wars simultaneously in the Pacific and the Atlantic and to project US military power -- actual boots on the ground -- anywhere in the world in a matter of hours. We can just as easily spot and kill a single target in a small village 8000 miles away and watch as it happens anywhere in the world from 24/7/365 satellite surveillance feeds.
To justify our massive investment in military overkill, we need threats commensurate in size and threat such as China, North Korea, Iran and Russia. Apparently Vanuatu's naval armada of outriggers doesn't fit the bill.
Here's the reductio ad absurdum: the greatest immediate threat to US national security and its $700 billion worth of guaranteed invincibility is its erstwhile Commander-in-Chief Trump alone with Putin, the ruthless spymaster-tyrant of a failed nation state that floats on a sea of oil and oozes on the slime of billionaire scale corruption.
These days Russia isn't so much an ideological or military threat as it is a vector of corruption and deceit, with Putin as Typhoid Mary and Trump highly susceptible to infection because of his weakened ethical system and past history of chronic villainy.
Will Trump sell his birthright for a mess of Putin's pottage?
Or is Helsinki his second helping?
2
Where are the Republicans and their House Committee on Un-American Activities? In he 1960s when I grew up, even an interest in the USSR was suspect.
After Trump's meeting with Kim and his declaration that there was no longer a nuclear threat from NK, I realized that what he was really saying was that NK would have no reason to attack us if we did not interfere with what they were doing. Trump clearly admires Kim and is pulling back US support for South Korea (and as noted in this article, from all alliances). So why should NK threaten us if we keep that stance? Russia is different since they are big enough to see an advantage to directly challenging the US for their own interests. I would not support it, but if Trump decided to form a new global structure by forming alliances with China and Russia, that would at least make some sense, since they are major rising powers. But if his policy really is for the US to stand alone in an increasingly interconnected world, that is just dumb. There is a good reason that all countries throughout history have formed alliances, and that is even more the case today.
No matter what Trump does, those "responsible" in the White House and in Congress will do absolutely nothing to impede him. They continue to look at him as the gravy train for their agenda. They will win lots of battles over time, then lose the ultimate war. Then, and only then, will they stand up and say.....now you have gone too far. But it will be much too late to undo the damage. Isn't it kind of ironic....they held a meeting just after Obama was elected to block him every step of the way.
Then Trump gets elected. There is no question in my mind they held a similar meeting to let Trump do anything he wanted as long as they got to implement their agenda. They allow him to throw all the sand in the sand box at the others who want to play there. Eventually the sand box will be empty. You cannot degrade and insult whole groups of people: minorities, the press, the justice system, women, foreigners, among others and think you can get away with it forever. And Trump will feel more, not less emboldened to continue to do so. I don't care what Mitch and Paul and the others think or say. There will be a price to pay sometime, somewhere. That is why they won't use the nuclear option and eliminate the filibuster. They need to remember.....there are a lot more of us than there are of them. And we will not forget. Please, America, vote!!!!
Please, Editorial Board, read Timothy Snyder's The Road to Unfreedom, published in April. Fundamentally Trump works for Putin, has been funded by him and Russian oligarchs for years. They did massive interventions in our last elections, and will do so again. Any speculations as to the purposes of this upcoming meeting are disingenuous without this perspective. With Snyder's carefully researched analysis widely available, it should be a baseline for your work.
3
Why is it so hard for Democrats in Congress, on the stump and in the media to call a spade a spade. Trump takes the word of Putin over 11 American security agencies that chronicled Russian involvement with the American election. He praises Putin and slams the Canadian prime minister. He makes excuses for Putin for invading Ukraine and wont play nice with the G7 because Putin was properly kicked out for the invasion, shooting down a passenger jet in the process. He responds to a question about Russia killing dissenters by saying America kills people as well. I believe the dictionary would call that treasonous and I believe we should start defining Trump as a traitor. The Republicans never had a problem manufacturing lies that painted their opponents as traitors, I don't see why we should remain mute when the evidence is compelling, obvious and, in fact, the truth. We have to make it uncomfortable for the people who deny these facts.
Donald Trump owes Vladimir Putin. He laundered hundreds of millions in money from mafiosi and oligarchs close to Putin for years. That's on the public record. Trump came to the White House with Putin's massive interference in the election in his favor. His code word "adoptions" meant "removal of sanctions." Trump tweets Putin's denials of interference and attacks the FBI and CIA. Trump's interest (and the Republicans') lies in continued Russian meddling in the mid-term elections this year. Trump's foreign policy is to weaken America's traditional alliances, attack its allies, and give comfort to Russia in its ambitions. A man who serves another country's interests against his own is a traitor. Trump has no loyalty other than to increasing his wealth and his family's. He is incapable of understanding any policy area, he despises experts, knowledge, and facts. He is unable to distinguish between his appetites, illusions, and distortions on one side and any world of reality to set against them. America is in great danger - Congress covers for Trump and attacks the Mueller investigation. The presidency divides and weakens America, stirring up hatred and resentment on ethnic and racial grounds with repeated lies. The Supreme Court may also soon be behind this president who could conceivably pardon himself even if treason, collusion, and corruption are proven with copious evidence.
2
First, a nod to your use of the word "frenemies." Ironically, it was first coined on the HBO series Sex and the City. We could have fun with that if the premise of this editorial was not so serious.
The sad truth, I believe, of this upcoming so-called summit will have little to do with Putin's aggression and thuggery and certainly nothing to do with his interference in our 2016 election. Instead, Trump will use it to intensify his loyalty to Mother Russia for reasons we have yet to learn. We can be assured that he will give what Putin wants and return with nothing for the US. My fear, in fact, is that Trump at the "request" of Putin will finally make good - or bad - of this threats and pull out of NATO. We will see, but let us not forget that in his own impulsive and profoundly ignorant way, Trump can be just as dangerous as his Russian counterpart.
2
This is the weirdest op-ed I've ever read. Paragraph by paragraph, the editors outline Trump's actions and attitudes that appear aimed at undermining (or even destroying) the bastions of the post-WWII order that has reigned in Europe and Asia -- all of which strengthens Russia's hand. And, this is detailed without mentioning that Trump has a clear-as-day record as a liar, a cheat, a serial philander, and an ardent fan of Putin and his totalitarian regime, and, over the years, has surrounded himself with a cast of characters who are finding their way to jail for various crimes that appear part of a vast conspiracy to cooperate illegally w/ Russia to win elections and launder money. A similar pattern is appearing in the Brexit vote, again leaving little doubt about Russian actions.
We are way past Chamberlain and "Peace in our Times." Is the NYTimes whistling in the graveyard, or shilling for Trump for reasons no one can think of?
2
The sooner we realize that Trump and Putin are kindred spirits the better. The Republicans and the right wing media may screech about a witch hunt to bring down a legitimately elected president, but the reality is much different. Trump is actually a criminal who didn't need to force his entry into the White House as the GOP had smashed the gates of democracy long before he came along. The reason why Trump and Putin get along so famously is that they both believe in oligarchy as the foundation for an emerging global order. The idea that Trump could ever truly represent America's interests is just a pipe dream of America's increasingly fanatical right wing.
1
Trump is used to see Russians as his friends, when the rest of the world had dropped him. Why were there so many Russians at the inauguration and everywhere around Trump? He's had connections to oligarchs and even Russian mobsters for decades. Follow the money trail. And finally get his tax reports!
https://newrepublic.com/article/143586/trumps-russian-laundromat-trump-t...
"at the Group of 7 meeting in Quebec this month, Mr. Trump reportedly told his fellow heads of state that Crimea is Russian because everyone there speaks that language."
I guess Mr. Trump would be ok if Germany takes over Austria, parts of Switzerland or Spain takes over Mexico and most of South America.
Does our president really have no more sense of logic than that?
1
President of the United States Donald John Trump is the grateful supplicant to the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.
This"summit" will not be a meeting of peer friends nor enemies. Putin is the master. Trump is the servant. Taking orders requires no preparation. Trump has spent a third of his time in office on vacation and playing golf on his properties.
Putin has free reign to rule on par with his St. Petersburg home town hero Czar Peter the Great. While Trump fights by tweeting and speaking slurs, the foes of Putin end up in hospitals, mental institutions, prisons, urns and coffins.
Putin is leading an aging shrinking nation of 145 million against a nation whose annual GDP that is 15x Russia's and whose annual military costs is 9x Russia. Trump is primarily focused on profiting from being President while hiding his personal and family income tax returns and business records from the American people.
Putin is a professionally trained career former KGB agent and former head of the FSB. Putin was born to modest family circumstances and rose by personal merit qualifications. Trump was born to inherited wealth and played a businessman on a reality TV show.
1
Has anyone asked the question about these two cons,
and what are their true intentions?
Are they plotting a mob boss merger to try and control the world?
Mob bosses in New Your City have always merged when they
saw profits filling their wallets, and power.
1
I would feel a smidgen less than frightened if I at least knew Trump matched Putin in intellect. He does not read, listen to anybody, knows NO history, lacks the dearth of experience that Putin does, and the tweet that he still believes Russia didn’t meddle? Nothing good will come out of this.
1
Let’s hope we don’t get any “deals” like the Iran nuclear giveaway. As bad as Trump is, at least he some experience negotiating. The last crowd had no clue.
No, the deal Putin-Trump make at their meeting next week is most likely to make sure that Russia gets who Putin wants as Trump's selection for the United States of America Supreme Court. They both have strong common interests in getting their "best" for that appointment.
1
Hello Fox News!
Trump cannot be trusted with such people. he can very well sell national secrets and strategic plans to help him financially or to win elections. He should be under constant surveillance by appropriate Congressional committee entitled for security briefings during all such meetings.
2
While I agree with this editorial, I had to laugh (especially at the last sentence). Before the meeting with Kim: "President Donald Trump on Thursday said he didn’t feel a need to prepare for his historic June 12 meeting with North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, arguing that the high-stakes nuclear talks would be based more on “attitude” than advance legwork." So Trump will not feel a need to prepare for his meeting with Putin, despite what anyone advises him. After all, old friends and cohorts have a great deal to talk about, don't they.
10
canceling military exercieses with South Korea is WELCOMED by some South Koreans, as opposed to many (imagined) concerns of US media and experts without South Korea experiences. there's no assurance that no military drill means South Korea security threats directly. rather, it has been more true that drills were the ones that have PROVOKED North Korea nuclear activities. (far-right conservatives in the South deny it with an aversion to the North)
so, why don't you try to see and understand what's really happening in your ally? actually, there's no staunch conviction among many South Koreans that US-Korea military drills would keep them safe from the North. that belief is confined to some right-wing groups, security fundamentalists.
6
Is there any doubt left that Trump's campaign colluded with the Republicans and their money to get elected. The formality of a report from the Mueller investigation is all that is needed to make it official.
The frantic antics of Republicans in congress to try to smear the FBI and the Mueller investigation can only verify that they also believe Trump is guilty.
29
Tom -- and where is the evidence for collusion. That's just loony.
The "antics" of the Republicans in congress, seem to also reflect that the Kremlin has supplemented Trump's existing leverage to blackmail Republicans via Twitter, the National Enquirer and Fox, with the might of the FSB, Wikileaks, and the KGB Komprimat archives of GOP corruption.
The GOP is terrified that a successful revelation of Trump's corruption and fealty will reveal their own hypocritical stance toward Russian influence of our election.
This man who constantly utters the word "loyalty" could easily throw Europe under the bus in a New York second. He's too gutless to get into Putin's face with a "back-off or suffer the consequences" regarding the hacking of our election and energy systems. Putin's kompromat has him totally stitched up. Trump is a Russian sock-puppet.
28
Calling Trump "gutless" in his relationship with Putin is the wrong way of looking at it. Actually, Trump appears to be playing a very dangerous game in his conspiring with Russia. For what ever reason - and there are many theories - Trump has decided Putin is a better partner than our traditional allies. If and when the 'why' comes out it could blow up in his face and he could be impeached, removed from office or even putin jail. (And no spellchek, that's not a mistake - I meant to put "put" and "in" together.)
Seriously compromising the US sovereignty and national interests, alienating the US allies, and eagerly seeking company and comfort in meeting the world's dreaded authoritarian rulers is what sums up the foreign policy priorities for the US President Trump, be it his Singapore summit with Kim Jong-un or now the planned Helsinki summit with Putin. Basking under the protective shadow of the dictators really makes Trump a more comfortable and relaxed while the presence of leaders of the democratic countries makes him irritated and uneasy.
31
This Editorial reads like a complaint in search of grievance. Crimea, Ukraine and Assad in Syria; done deals all, get over it. What ever happened to real politic. The people of Crimea barely even shrugged when Russia took over, Ukraine hardly amounted to a war – maybe a mild border skirmish and Assad has won the civil war in Syria; if such a term could be used. Is the NYT really suggesting that we are still at a point where the United States should be prosecuting a war of regime change in Syria. Russia interfered in the 2016 election and will do so again in the future, we have to build our defenses. Russia is not a benign presence in world and never will be. However, Russia is hosting the World cup as we speak, oil prices are going up and Russia is selling its oil around the world.
4
Yes, access to an ice-free year round port has been an issue for Russia for centuries. It doesn't consider itself a world power without one.
I think Putin engineered a regime change here in the USA to keep Crimea.
19
In other words, you think the U.S. should stop safeguarding those things that it has declared to be in its interest. You vote for capitulation. Fine. But you should know that those are not the policies of the national security establishment, and if Trump weren't a quisling they wouldn't be his policies either.
Steve -- the only person that engineered a regime change here was HRC. She ran such a poor campaign and was such a poor candidate that you could infer that she wanted Trump to win.
There are differences between the two.
But in the way they operate, and want to operate, and would operate if all things were held constant, is/would be identical.
Frenemies? These two, with the power to do no good, with the intent only to glorify themselves, but with the power to unleash misery on everyone and everything - are twins.
I am sure they will get along great together, form their mutual-admiration pact, and be regarded as heroes by about half of all people on the planet. I suspect they will talk about how no one understands them, how they are the victims of bad people, and how they - if unleashed - would change the world. They would indeed.
16
"Mutual Admiration" is a misnomer.. who was it that Putin's predecessor Stalin once characterised as "useful idiots?"
These meetings and others should be part of the public record as with White House communications which are preserved for the Archives. Most administrations understand the concept that they are not acting as private citizens in the White House. The Archives has had to pay individuals to reconstruct (scotch tape) documents that are part of the public record Trump has been destroying at the White House. ( It his apparently his habit to get rid of all evidence.) These "summits" are also part of the historical record of this country and not private business dealings and therefore should be witnessed. Trump is so confident in his faction in Congress he flaunts his "dealings" with Putin even while he is under investigation. Any hope that he can be held accountable for his actions may have died yesterday when Kennedy turned the Supreme court over to him.
35
Do you really expect Trump to obey rules that he will claim Hillary violated first?
She was not and is not the president.
No mystery here.
Real Estate development runs on huge amounts of borrowed money. No-one in the US will lend to Trump, because no-one trusts him. So he has had to go begging to the oligarchs of Russia, China and the Middle East. That's why he courts their autocratic leaders. And, of course, Trump's base doesn't give a hoot about his foreign policy.
65
The only established bank that will do business with Trump is Deutsche Bank. That would be the same Deutsche Bank that, a year and half ago, paid a $600 million fine for running a money-laundering operation out of its...wait for it...Moscow office. There are many dots to connect here, and Robert Mueller knows it. He's already subpoenaed Deutsche Bank records.
1
The fools who voted for Trump without seeing his tax returns don't even know what "due diligence" is.
That dependence on money laundering converted Trump into Putin's asset for most of this century. Trump is now a controlled agent being summoned to report to daddy. Note that it is always Russia that announces Putin / Trump meetings even here in our own White House. Diplomacy 101: Russia is the dominant partner in this unholy alliance. We 'elected' a traitor.
2
Two thoughts ...
1. The NSA and FSB will be the only groups who know what Trump and Putin talk about, so none of us will know what really happens -- and we know Trump's word is totally untrustworthy.
2. I don't understand the U.S. obsession with Russia taking over Crimea, given the U.S. record since WW2 of endlessly destablizing and overthrowing governments. I once would have said the difference is that we don't occupy the countries we wreck, but Iraq and Afghanistan show that is no longer true.
15
How's this sound? "I don't understand the U.S. obsession with Russia using nuclear weapons in Syria, given the U.S. record in WW2 of dropping nuclear bombs on Japan." A country doesn't need to have a spotless record in order to have national security interests to protect.
1
"Prepare carefully" is not something I can envision Trump doing for anything. That said, two things work against Trump doing what would be best for the country. One is that his desire to be "loved" by Putin makes him very susceptible to the dictator's flattery and very needy of believing that there was great "love" and comradery at their meeting. No way will he had the awkward or difficult conversations because then he might not be 'loved' enough.
The second thing is that Trump's base most loves it when Trump creates chaos and angers our allies. For some reason (unfathomable to me) that base seems to think that chaos and sticking it to all of the grown-ups on the world stage is a sign of Trumpian & American "greatness." They believe Trump when he says that the world is now "respecting" us again. Since he very much plays to his base, which feeds him with cheering rallies, Trump will continue to act will the spoiled, petulant child on the world stage - he (and his base) thinks that alienating our allies means Trump "wins." That is, of course, the only real goal.
39
Close to 300,000 of our soldiers lost their lives in WWII alone fighting for democracy and the sovereignty of our allies. Leave it to Trump, his deplorable base, and sycophants in the Republican Party to dismiss those sacrifices.
1
Uh, Russia was our ally in WE II and suffered an even greater number of casualties. Without Russia the war could not have been won. It’s interesting, however, that Germany even though it started the war is now our great ally and is lecturing not only Putin but Trump on foreign affairs.
1
We must ask ourselves - what in either man's known history makes it remotely reasonable to think this meeting is about improving the lives of their citizens or making the world safer? One is a known murderous kleptocrat, the other is under strenuous investigations for obstruction, fraud, and collusion. Both are megalomaniacs, both psychopaths. That no other national officials will be in attendance is at once absurd and extremely telling.
This world is moving rapidly toward some type of climax. That much is certain. Because none of this is at all normal.
77
I and many other Americans despised Obama who I am sure you worship Probably the worst President in history whose many mistakes included doing nothing when Crimea was seized and allowing Russia to bring a massive military buildup to Syria. There is no evidence whatsoever that Trump colluded with Russia and comparisons between him and the dictator Putin are preposterous Never once did I or most other Republicans call the incompetent Obama a psychopath Keep it up you are guaranteeing the re election of this man you so despise
1
Trump, Putin, Xi, Kim, and the like are mere bumps on the highway of human history - but they're hazards who pose serious threats to successful navigation for next generations.
My dad was a WW II tank mechanic. My wife's dad skippered a PT boat. My mom's second husband served aboard a minesweeper. I ask myself whether this mess is what they fought for, and I can only think that we've abandoned their dreams and their memories.
76
Wake up republicans. The weakening and dissolution of NATO is happening on your watch, right under your noses. If you think the country will be stronger after that you are sadly mistaken, Fulfill your oversight duties. You guys will investigate a dirty diaper if were off a Democratic baby. Do your jobs for once.
120
I suspect Putin doesn't actually care about Trump.
He has kept his own council as he used Yeltsin to get back in the halls of power, his oligarchs to fund the tools of that power.
Putin would not put up with Trump for one second as a citizen in Russia. Trump's only use to Putin is to be exploited to diminish the US in the world. And what a success that has been!
I doubt any of the autocrats Trump envies would waste any time with him if he weren't use to them. They play him like a fiddle, and he doesn't see it.
Our cowardly bully in chief, making America small and mean, diminishing it every day to feed his phony ego. Sad.
164
Putin might care about maintaining the Power of Trump right now as being essential for pitching a few Russian tents in America. He is astute enough to look after the well-being of this president, even indulging on rare occasion of feeling sorry for such a lost man.
What is happening to the Will of The People in view of the above is proving that Putin has been right in forecasting that we are easily diverted and have an affinity for remaining in discontent; grousing about our rights; our national pride; while resting on our laurels and falling on our crowns.
3
@ Susan Anderson: "I suspect Putin doesn't actually care about Trump."
I would agree. The label "useful idiot" jumps to mind. To be used and then discarded when he becomes a liability.
3
Trump has an overwhelming need to dominate the news cycle. So we can expect amazing announcements out of the Summit.
Trump sees no enemy in Russia, rather an ally against the emerging power of China.
When Putin first came to power in 1999 he floated the idea of Russia joining NATO thereby assuring a defensive backstop against encroachment by China. Something in this direction could be one of the amazing developments of the summit.
Another amazing development will be further Russian confirmation of support for the denuclearization of the DPRK. Trump may not want a unified Korea rather two Koreas neither with the power to challenge Trump. But, to denuclearize the DPRK, Trump needs to get China to do the heavy lifting. So possibly some shift of Russian priorities towards Trump and away from China could be among the announcements from the summit.
6
Dump is a global danger on so many levels; it needs to be dealt with swiftly and decisively in unified agreement by world powers.
15
Trump does not and never has hidden his intentions. The US will soon withdraw from NATO and NAFTA and probably the UN. Russia will grab the Baltics with the US's blessing. Two and a half years is long enough to see where Trump is going.
The Republican Congress is not spineless, it is complicit and it is time to acknowledge this. They know Trump is acting against the countries interests and they don't act to constrain executive overreach when they have the power and duty to do so. They aren't waiting to intervene when they think it has gotten so bad they have to act. They have no intention of acting. You can only assume that they want this.
Now they get another Supreme Court nominee. Is it coincidence that Kennedy retired now or was he "cajoled"? The Court was potentially the only backstop remaining but all soon all doubt will be removed that the Court is partisan.
Yes, the elections offer a possibility to reverse some of this but the chance of success even with a majority of support from citizens is very difficult. It is nothing more than a hail mary pass. The US and Russia will carve up Europe and this will happen much faster than we expect.
84
@Roxane -
I must disagree. Congress IS complicit but they ARE spineless. How else can you explain their willing failure to act, in any way, to counter or control Trump? He’s too stupid to create policy himself so he’s enabled Congress to pursue some of their own darker dreams.
A spineless Congress and a regressive Supreme Court spells disaster for America as we know it.
1
And 90% of Republican voters approve of Trump’s policies. This is how low we can go as a nation. What a dumpster fire this country has become.
Vote in November.
1
With such 'really great' enemies, you don't need friends.
If Trump thrives on chaos and disruption, he will be an enemy to all smaller countries like mine, but also to a world order of organized cooperation on trade and safety. Prepare for a new economical crisis caused by destabilisation of the current world economic order, raising costs of trade, less use of cheap labour in and from developing countries, and diminishing confidence among investors.
It will cost us all a lot.
24
By seeking rapprochement with Russia, Trump is undermining his European 'allies', western democratic values, and the basis of a seventy five year of successful post war alliance. In Trumpian foreign policy towards Europe there seems to be no friends, just enemies - walking away from the Paris climate accord, trashing the G7, exiting from the Iran nuclear deal, lukewarm on NATO, approval of populist nationalism in Italy, and now friendship with Russia and its kleptomaniac political system that has actively sought to undermine western democratic processes.
36
Which EU allies are against reprochment with Russia?
We in EU are much more interested in reprochement then anybody alse.
This conflict in Ukraine was done by US and not by Europe and is not in interest of Europe.
1
UK, Germany and France at least believe Putin only understands a tough stance against his constant attempts to undermine democracy and weaken NATO
GOP realized in 80s that Democracy is not a way they will have power for ever. Since then they planned for American DUMA and power grab to maintain power forever.
I am not sure if any election going forward can change the power away from GOP.
If they loose; it's rigged else it's ok - that's how election will be done going forward.
25
“It’s clear that Mr. Trump isn’t a conventional president, but instead one intent on eroding institutions that undergird democracy and peace. Mr. Trump “doesn’t believe that the U.S. should be part of any alliance at all” and believes that “permanent destabilization creates American advantage,” according to unnamed administration officials quoted by Jeffrey Goldberg in The Atlantic.”
Trump is not a Republican or Democrat or anything else suitable for the two party system we operate under. He is a Putin/Kim wannabe Autocrat with dictatorship aspirations. Our problem is not only Trump but the acquiescence of the GOP that is giving Trump the space to destroy what this nation stands for politically and internationally.
81
...and 35 percent of Am voters who think this is just fine because they are filled with hatred of the “other”, and resent anyone they call an “elitist”.
2
“...what this nation stands for politically and internationally,” needs past tense. We no longer stand for much in the world. Terribly sorry.
1
The Russians said they'd resumed use of the intermediate range missiles as a counter to the American introduction of anti-ballistic missiles, when the US abrogated the treaty prohibiting the ABM.
The ABM is seen by nuclear strategists as a tool that makes more possible a disarming first strike. The intermediate range mobile missiles make that far less possible. The idea is that a disarming first strike need not get every single one of their weapons, if the ABMs can knock down a few that survive. In reaction, the many smaller missiles overwhelm that plan.
The two treaties were related to each other, in the sense that they fit together in nuclear strategy. Then the US dropped one treaty, in a way that threatened the Russians. The Russians then countered in a way that removed that threat.
So if we want to get back to the one treaty, we'd have to go back to the other. We won't. So give it up. They are not going to agree to be vulnerable to our attack.
This is far from an ideal solution. We could instead move the ABMs away from Russia, as one example. But instead we put them right there on the Russian border, in Poland.
This is not a simple matter. One sided proposals that ignore the action/reaction of those events won't get us anything but propaganda.
10
Maybe the U.S. has an isolationist future, if European alliances continue to weaken. Nevertheless, polite admirations override any tension at the upcoming meeting. After all, it is peacetime, so celebrate. What tensions? Military tension in Syria? Maybe there is a bright spot, which could be building a Trump hotel in some Russian city. This meeting would go a long way to securing a bright future for the U.S. contracting work handed off by Russians. Micro drops of nerve agent will not be present. Business as usual. Accentuate the positive.
6
Nice piece -- but irony died several years ago, and, I reckon, even NYTs readers can't be trust with a "modest proposal."
For me, one of the hardest things to stomach about all this is that the real effects of Trump’s actions and "policies" won't be known for years. Some of it will be seen and known in the short term because it’s often so dramatic and unprecedented, but actions affecting the economy and foreign relations (not to mention the environment, remember that?) usually take years to play out.
Others (Democrats, what's left of them) will be blamed, facts will be obscured, etc., but that will all be academic; the simple fact is that, within a few years, America will be a very different nation with very different standing in the world. We won’t be in a good place, but I’m fairly confident it’s where we’ll remain for the rest of my lifetime.
52
You'r right. Things are sometimes hard to foresee.
Take president Reagan. His policy had two core elements: liberalisation of the economy and a harsh confrontation with the USSR.
Towards the USSR he understood the signs of the time and when its economy was on the verge of collapse he played his role in the dismantling of the 'evil empire'. A great succes from which Europe and the USA still benefits every day.
The liberalisation first brought successes, but also crises, immigration, export of factories to cheap labour countries, economic adventurism, the rich getting much richer. In its slipstream came the populist movements and nationalists adopting political elements from both right and left extreme politics.
And now Trump.
Stability is a virtue, chaos a Macchiavellian asset.
11
What a pleasure it is to read a well-written article! That is rare these days. The first paragraph says it all: the problem is not that Trump and Putin are meeting. The problem is that they are kindred spirits.
28
Shared personality types can often form powerful psychological bonds. It's the same sizzling chemistry that can transform a crowd into a mob. A shared racist animus seems to be a particularly powerful group stimulus.
But Trump and Putin appear to have the particular chemistry that animates criminal capitalists, an occult society based on certain communal dark secrets that generate great wealth. Trump probably feels the same natural attraction to all Eastern European oligarchs, not just Putin.
The question of whether this natural affinity has been translated into a specific joint criminal activity is a separate issue. It is possible that Trump's fondness for Putin has never been consummated on the criminal level. It is likely that such contacts, if they do indeed exist, predate the 2016 election campaign. It is possible that a pre-election working relationship was sufficiently advanced that explicit new arrangements were not wholly necessary.
Trump's real estate empire went through decades of poor investment decisions, bankruptcies and loan defaults, yet new money always seemed to show up. Eastern European oligarchs siphoning wealth from the carcass of the fallen Soviet empire had heaps of cash in need of laundering. It might have been love at first sight.
But, despite the glitz, successful oligarchs tend to be junkyard dogs. A back alley knife fight is a comfortable venue for them. Principled opponents risk being paralyzed by revulsion at the demands of their task.
59
Trump is no street fighter, just a wannabe. Putin will carve him up like a ripe melon.
1
There are so many problems inherent in this relationship but the one thing that stands out to me is how many Russians have been involved with Trump during the election and since. It doesn't seem normal that they are everywhere in Washington, for the inaugural, at his hotel, in the White House.
Why would they be there? There have been no concessions or apologies from Russia and what are they getting out of this 'special relationship'.
If one were to guess I would say that Trump is owned by Putin because he is using him and Trump will finally get that Moscow Tower he's been working for over the years.
Flattery will get you everywhere with Trump. You are suddenly best friends.
Trump's goals have become Putin's. What this means to NATO and our alliances is hard to say but it doesn't seem fruitful.
It's fine to have good relations with the Russians but until they can be trusted, they are not friends. They are adversaries.
If John Kelly is leaving that means Trump has decided he knows more than anybody.
Quoting Alexander Pope, 'a little learning is a dangerous thing.'
With Trump it's a disaster waiting to crumble what we hold dear.
26
Nobody in Seattle is sleeping well any more. This is all so hard to take in. One plausible hypothesis is that Trump will give away the store but get nothing from Putin in return--which is what happened with North Korea. Another plausible hypothesis is that Trump and Putin will come to an agreement pertaining to the midterm elections, sanctions, etc. One assumes Trump will not press Putin on election interference, Ukraine, or anything else pertaining to American interests. Given the following:
This morning "... Mr. Trump tweeted, 'Russia continues to say they had nothing to do with Meddling in our Election!' " Trump believes Putin but does not believe the consensus opinion of all of our intelligence agencies.
Trump tells us that he discussed adoptions with Putin at their last no-Americans-present meeting, during the Group of 20 meeting. That was the same lie they gave us about the secret Trump Tower meeting. Who believes that?
At no-Americans-present Trump meeting with the Russian foreign minister and the ambassador, Trump gave away top secret material that made its way to Iran via Russia. Plus, Trump told the Russians that he fired Comey in order to derail the investigation.
As for sleeping well here in Seattle, the major American city that is closest to North Korea, "... experts say satellite imagery shows the North is actually improving its nuclear capability." Which is apparently happening even as I write this.
97
I'm so old, I vaguely recall handing coins to little monkeys seeking donations for their monkey grinders. This leads me to Putin and his pet Trump.
69
Is this editorial seriously wondering in its last few paragraphs what progress can be made? If there is progress, it will be Putin interceding with trump's Russian mob creditors for more time to pay, in exchange for trump sowing more discord in Europe by vilifying the EU and most of its member states while, no doubt, courting its more authoritarian leaders.
If trump were educable, he might while in Helsinki learn something from the Finns about their history with Russia.
34
After 18 months a discernible Trump Doctrine is emerging. Harking back to the 19th century it is one of realpolitik shaping the world based upon great power arrangements. This view challenges the post World War 2 rules based system of which the US was the principle architect. It regards such multilateral post-WW2 pillars as the UN, WTO and NATO as impediments to direct dealing so Trump bypasses them. Where the European Union files a complaint with the WTO against Chinese trade practices Trump slaps unilateral tariffs.
This doctrine predicts that Trump will place far greater importance on the meeting with Putin than the NATO summit which it precedes. Expect Trump to attempt a loosening of sanctions against Russia and quietly drop concerns about Crimea, accepting it is as part of Russia's sphere of influence. Similarly the South China Sea will gradually be ceded to China. Bilateral trade agreements, in which the US will always be the strongest party, are favoured to replace multilateral arrangements such as TPP.
From the 1815 Congress of Vienna such Darwinian realpolitik worked for around 100 years before WW1 blew that political world apart. We now have the capacity to literally blow the world apart.
37
Wow. Yeah, no, you give him waaaay too much credit. He a cheap con man.
And sadly this cheap con man took down/out The United States of America in 18 months more or less depending on your level of fan-hood). That's how bad a job the founders did in making it durable. It's a joke, but no one is laughing. Well, OK, Don Jr, Ivanka and Eric are laughing. Daddy, apparently, is too much of a sociopath to understand laughter.
1
Peter J. - Crimea wants it's autonomy and relationship with Russia, it rejects the corrupt fascists in Ukraine. It could easily cause Russian hell if it did not, and it does not.
Try looking at a map sometime, and perhaps a history book, before making ridiculous neocon/neoliberal comments about nonexistent problems in Crimea.
Trump acts as if he's constantly taking his marching orders from Putin, which he may well be. it's reported they talk on the phone frequently in calls with no "readout".
Trump's affinity with how Putin "governs"dating years back, likely when he was bailed out of debt with Russian money and got exposed to the wealth and style of Russian oligarchs.
Maybe he's even paying off his debt by pursuing Russian goals.
One thing for sure we know: other than passing a huge tax cut to please American oligarchs, Trump seems to be more interested in pursuing Russian interests over those of the United States.
276
Passing those tax cuts is not in the best long term interest of the US. They will further destabilize our society and foment unrest. Which is in the best interest of Russia.
10
You're misinformed. What we know - that is, what those who follow military matters and foreign policy closely know - is that this is the most aggressively anti-Russian administration we have seen in 30 years.
Here are facts regarding this administration's ACTUAL policies toward Russia. Contrary to his tweets and to the bogus narrative about being Putin's puppet, Trump has hit Russia hard on every front. The list is extensive:
- Trump reversed Obama's policy of refusing lethal military aid to Ukraine, and approved (Apr. 30) selling the extraordinarily effective Javelin anti-tank missiles to Ukraine. Like the Patriot missile sales, this is a game-changer, and the Russians are infuriated by it.
- Trump reversed Obama's policy re. sales of our most potent missile defense system to both Poland and Sweden. Putin fears this military weapon more than any other in our arsenal.
- Trump reversed Obama's Syria policy and directly confronted Russia on the ground, killing or wounding hundreds of Russian mercenaries and soldiers in Syria.
- Trump more than tripled defense initiatives to deter Russian aggression in Europe, including staging maneuvers on Russia's borders. and increasing the budget for same by ~50% over what Obama allocated.
- Trump sanctioned ~40 oligarchs and Russian officials, expanded the Magnitsky sanctions list, closed two consulates, diplomatic annexes, and expelled 60 diplomats.
Educate yourself.
We're on a war footing with Russia.
Stop spreading lies.
1
I keep asking this question: what is the end game? Does Trump have a policy goal? Why are we playing nice with a dictator who has stated that he wants to return to those thrilling days of Yesteryear when the USSR threatened the free world? As a former cold warrior I don't see much change in Russia's goals from those post WWII actions that helped create NATO. I guess it is true that the President thinks he knows more than the intelligence services that have been watching the Kremlin since before Trump was born.
37
Trump needs Putin's help in the November midterm elections to keep the Democrats from taking the House of Representatives. Putin wants to continue eroding American democracy and NATO. Putin and Trump: perfect together.
57
Summits cannot go well when the junior partner(Trump) hero worships the senior partner(Putin). No matter what happens Trump will claim that the meeting went well. That he and Putin agree on most things.That their are bright days ahead. That it was the best summit ever. That Putin can occupy all Russian speaking countries. Putin will agree that Trump can build his wall at Mexico’s expense. Two peas in a pod.Trump will again congratulate Putin on his re-election. And when they are alone Trump will thank Putin for his help in the American election. Finally they will design together the fabulous new Trump tower in Moscow.
74
So, I guess England can reclaim control of the United States because we speak English. Or is that too much to hope for this "Independence Day?"
1
It was made clear by today's hearings in the House that Russia is no threat or enemy of the US. The real threat and enemy is the FBI and the Justice Department.
7
I hope you are being ironic. A sad day when the Trump propaganda machine makes the FBI and Justice Department out to be greater enemies than Russia, which did meddle in our election.
15
Did we watch the same hearing?
1
What House hearings did you observe? If the FBI and the Justice Department are such threats as you write why doesn’t Trump and Congress do something about them? They have the power.
1
That Trump should consult cooler heads about Putin surely means that he won't. He scoffed at a note telling him not to congratulate Putin on a staged election. Trump thought that he could handle Kim Jong Un with his "touch" and "feel." He's not just about to second guess himself.
In a sane world, Trump might warn Putin not to interfere in our elections this year. But in Trump's upside down reality, when they met last year, he just parroted Putin's denial of meddling, despite all the evidence. Why would Trump change now?
And, of course, Congressional Republicans should caution Trump about Russia's cunning leader. But those same individuals should have long since sounded the alarm about Trump's infatuation with Putin.
The only real certainty in this is that Trump won't treat Putin to the same extended temper tantrum he gave to the other G7 members weeks ago. You know, the one where he pined for Putin to participate...
15
There are no “clear-eyed” Republicans in the Senate. There are milquetoasts and co-conspirators aplenty, but no leaders of vision, no statesmen looking to the future of our democracy. The patriots are nowhere to be seen.
125
John McCain is a patriot but alas, he is battling cancer.
1
Complicit co-conspirator traitorous treasonous fascist enemies.
1
Read today's article by Adam Liptak and Maggie Haberman claiming that Justice Kennedy's son Justin worked as a manager for more than a decade at Deutsche Bank - Justin Kennedy became the bank's "global head of real estate capital markets and worked closely with Mr. Trump when he was a real estate developer" eventually loaning Trump 1$ billion after Trump wore out his welcome with U.S. banks with his repeated bankruptcies.
Trump defaulted on a 640$ million loan from Deutsche Bank which sued Trump in 2008 but Trump took out a loan from Deutsche Banks private wealth division to pay back the 640$ he owed the real estate division. Deutsche Bank is embroiled in a scandal about laundering money for Russian oligarchs. A German newspaper reported in December that Mueller's office has subpoenaed Deutsche Bank for "documents and data pertaining to people or entities tied to the president or those close to him."(Newsweek, 12/21/17). This seedy world is more interconnected than most of us can imagine.
What is Mueller looking for in the Russian money laundering scandal ongoing with Deutsche Bank? Does Anthony Kennedy's son Justin assisting Trump in borrowing 1 $ billion from Deutsche Bank look just a little bit seedy?
258
This, to me, is front page news. Could this have anything to do with Kennedy's decision to retire?
2
"back off, daddy, if you know what's good for you. Why don't you just 'spend some more quality time with your family'?"
1
Mr.Trump will not prepare for this summit and will not heed his advisors advice.Remember the cue cards that said,"Do not congratulate" when Putin won his sham election.They will talk about "adoptions" which is the code word for lifting sanctions.Mr.Trump will pose for cozy, chummy pictures with Putin which Putin can use for propaganda purposes.Mr.Trump has wanted an audience with Putin, they have so much in common, none of it beneficial to the United States.
50
For years the world has been torn between two pages, wouldn’t it be nice for once to all be on the same? For those who can’t live with that there’s always that other place for them to go.
1
what on earth are you talking about?
1
Trump is fixated on and infatuated with Vladamir Putin.
The passion consumes him. He's seemingly obsessed, despite it makes him seem quite guilty of electoral collusion!
It ties in with what Trump said about Kim Jong Un----when the North Korean dictator speaks, his people sit up and listen. Then said I would like 'my people' to do the same.
Recall that multiple psychiatrists + psychologists held a discussion on “The Increasingly Dangerous Case of Donald Trump,” believing they had a duty to inform us.
That duty under ethical standards traces back to the Roman Hippocratic Oath: "We believed Trump's mental state presented a danger to the public and felt we had a duty to warn them."
9
Did Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld join the editorial board?
“Mr. Trump has signaled his desire to withdraw American troops from Syria, a move that would leave the country more firmly in the hands of President Bashar al-Assad and his two allies, Russia and Iran.”
So the NYT would like us to do what? Confront Russia, Iran, and/or Syria militarily? How long should we keep our military in Syria? What is the end game?
Perhaps we should also confront Russia militarily in Crimea and eastern Ukraine?
“Moreover, what would deter Mr. Putin from pursuing future land grabs?”
I’ve got a crazy suggestion. How about our NATO allies, notably Germany and Canada, meeting their 2% defense spending commitment? That could provide a credible deterrent. But every time Trump pushes for this, the NYT claims he is upsetting our NATO allies.
8
Why do you think that withdrawing U.S. troops from Syria would not somehow strengthen the positions of Assad, Russia, and Iran?
1
Sorry, my mistake. It was Peter Navarro who wanted to assign our Prime Minister to the nether regions, not Larry Kudlow.
1
So if I read you correctly, you base your treatment of your NATO allies on their defense spending. If they don't meet your target, you assign them to "a special place in hell" (thanks Mr Kudlow). I guess you weren't flying back home from Europe on 9/11.
1
What happens in Helsinki, stays in Helsinki.
5
The truth about this is that we don't know what are Mr. Trump's plans if he has any. But, his visit coincides with a critical situation in Western Europe, where the EU may fall apart, one of Putin's major goals, and, perhaps too Mr. Trump's goal ( I admit I am speculating here).
4
If Crimea is Russian because everyone there speaks that language, then I suppose we should prepare ourselves to hand the Brighton Beach area of Brooklyn over to Prince Vlad. As for the rest of us, I guess we're all English and should be paying even more attention to what goes on in the House of Windsor than we already do.
69
Germany takes over Austria. Switzerland is split between France and Germany. Belgium goes to the French and the, um, Flemish....where are they? Where is Flanders now? And South America goes to Spain or Portugal.
Canada to France and, well, since they speak American I guess they can go to Minnesota, because they speak sorta the same variant of American.
Wait, what?? We don't speak American? So we go back to the British monarch? Really? Could we finally get Mitch McConnell off our backs if we take that deal? Please? I'd gladly take that over his tyranny.
1
Let none tell Spain, lest they get ideas, please!
1
Donnie meets Vlad once again, after months apart and coos 'Vlad, you're hot!'. To which the Russian leader says 'I know'.
The Donald has yet to meet an autocrat he does not have woo woo feelings for, as when he said what a 'great honor' it was to meet North Korea's Kim. Don proclaimed that if only the plebeians back here in the USA were as subservient and showed the same adulation for him, that Kim's people show to Kim, all would be right in the Donald’s world.
This KGB man understands well the rotund American, all he has to do is reassure him that he is roundly admired, and Don will fall into a swoon. For Trump, what can be better than the false flattery of another autocrat?
90
Tim B - there's more than Trump's admiration for autocrats in his relationship with Putin. It involves money, either a loan from Russia to cover Trump's debts or Trump's desire to build his hotels in Russia. This is quite problematic as Trump has to dance to Putin's tune and appease him by disparaging NATO and denying Russian involvement in the US elections.
14
For Trump, what can be better than the false flattery of another autocrat? You ask?
Possibly a bucket of greasy KFC.
3
I am not a Trump supporter but it time to get realistic- Russia will NEVER retreat from Crimea. Strategically, its their only warm water naval port. Can we just accept it and move on.
7
Maybe- if the Russians would stop intervening in the rest of eastern Ukraine.
22
Russia’s quest for a warm water port may not in Crimea. There remains the old Russian dream of unimpeded access to the Mediterranean. What does Putin have in mind for Turkey and for the Balkans?The tragedies wreaked by Putin’s tsarist predecessors—men he greatly admires—should give us all pause. Putin is brutal, but he knows his history. Our president, for all his brutality, does not.
1
But then Russia would never retreat from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The US didn't accept it and--after nearly a half century--Russia did move on and out.
The editors, it should be stipulated in all fairness, don’t have the slightest idea what extent of “kindred spirits” exist between Trump and Putin. They probably have a pretty good bead on Putin’s character, because he’s held power in Russia for a long time and we can all see the results; but practically all that Trump is attempting with his presidency are a series of works in progress, and nobody – perhaps not even those closest to him – really understand his methods or even his intentions. A lot like LBJ in that respect, actually; and not so dissimilar even from FDR.
Is Putin playing Trump or is Trump playing Putin? Is this all in aid of superficially or profoundly opposed visions of a world order, or perceptions about how tactical objectives might best be jointly secured? Does Trump envy Putin’s ability to dispose of adversaries through artful use of polonium-210, or does he deplore it yet knows that condemning Putin for it won’t save the NEXT Russian dissident, yet COULD derail joint efforts in Syria, Ukraine or building a new Trump hotel in Moscow? Who knows? I don’t – but I’m pretty sure the editors don’t, either.
I’ve never had patience with Kremlin-watchers who used to consume so much energy trying to figure out who would NEXT be in power there by trying to identify the guy atop the Kremlin watching May Day processions who appeared sickliest. Trump and Putin will discuss cabbages and kings and may get a few practical things done. Let’s just wait and see.
2
Putin is playing Trump.
I would recommend that it might help to read some of the conservative foreign policy experts and academics about this topic if you are inclined to be open to the facts about this topic and not just one’s love of Trump.
There’s no doubt about this for anyone who’s knowledgeable about the Soviet Union and Russian politics and policy.
14
You're not paying attention. Putin is playing the game that he started at least a decade ago, to reconstitute as much of the Soviet Union as he can. He is undermining the West's institutions and alliances, and Trump is his willing partner in that. Trump is doing this with no comprehension of the damage he is doing to the West, because if he gets a handshake and a smile from Putin he thinks he's doing really well. With that phony agreement in North Korea, Trump thinks he's given away very little, but what he's actually done is handed Kim the credibility to remain an acknowledged, accepted nuclear power, permanently. This is the complete opposite of what Trump stated he wanted and thinks he's getting. While I think Putin has evidence of damaging, even criminal acts committed by Trump, I don't believe Trump is literally in the pay of Russia. But that just means they're getting all of this benefit very cheaply. When will you admit the Trump literally does not understand what he's doing? A blind man could see it with a cane.
4
Oh I think it’s pretty clear: Putin is playing Trump.
"Mr. Trump’s top national security advisers are more cleareyed about the Russian threat than he is. So are the Republicans who control the Senate. They have more responsibility than ever to try to persuade Mr. Trump that the country’s security is at stake when he meets Mr. Putin, and that he should prepare carefully for the encounter."
We all know that this is not going to happen. The Republicans would be happy to let Trump sell the country down the river just so that they can appoint more liberal Supreme Court Justices to take away abortion and gay rights.
23
Fine, hard-hitting editorial. A conversation about Trump is not one about geopolitics; it's one about psychology.
Trump is the egomaniacal, mythomaniac, fascist lunatic who listens to no expert and demands subservience from anyone around him. In turn, such a personality seeks comfort in those who would dominate.
Trump reveals his psychological condition in his terse, highly repetitive, mendacious hyperbole. I think that Putin well knows this and can use Trump's deviant psyche to his advantage, far better than Kim.
But in the end, Trump's undisclosed financial deals with Russian interests, along with Russian money laundering that employed Trump properties and his staff's associations with Russia, make this meeting with Putin exceedingly unsavory.
Trump owes Putin something. He's one of the planks on Trump's own political platform, the unofficial platform that the Republican Party *really* follows, not the Convention platform. Just as Trump wants his wall, court appointments, end of good health care, he also wants to give Russia something.
And Trump's followers are so dumb that they ask, "What's wrong with Russia?" These are the hypnotized people who cheer Trump on at his rallies. If Putin succeeds with Trump, then Putin has a connection to the voters in our heartland. It is an absolutely brilliant strategy.
The Electoral College is such a bad idea that even *Putin* can leverage it for his political power. Well, I speak some Russian, so I'll be okay.
144
I don't think it's that Trump "wants to" I do think he is obliged to repay Putin & the Russian oligarchs or suffer the consequences.
Trump is meeting with Putin to coordinate their strategies when the Mueller investigation breaks open. Trump takes of Trump and nothing else. This will be a here's what I can do for you, now what will you do for me meeting. That's how Trump makes deals. Everything is transactional and it's all about him.
How can I be so cynical? How can I accuse our president of cozying up to an adversary, one that heavily interfered in our last election? Because Trump tipped his hand and he showed his cards.
He has been trashing NATO for three years now and just did again. He is starting a trade war with our closest European allies. He keeps denying that Russia interfered regardless of all the intelligence agency reports. All of them. And the really big tell is he is dismantling the post WWII order that has kept the peace and security of the West for 70 years.
All of these actions are exactly what Putin wants. They diminish Western power and sow chaos and discord. They weaken the West's opposition to Russian power.
Putin couldn't ask for a better friend. He couldn't have planted a better agent.
Is Trump an agent? No. I won't go that far. But he is a fool. He is incompetent. He is a colossal egomaniac that believes he knows all and can do all. He is so out of touch he doesn't know what he doesn't know and frankly doesn't care that he doesn't know because he thinks he knows everything.
Putin will yank on Trump's leash and he will heel.
417
Everything Trump has done regarding Putin makes sense if you assume Putin is paying Trump a few billion dollars a year to run our government according to Putin's wishes.
21
Bruce, very well put.
2
I dunno, Robert, "Trump" may have the last laugh over Putin: "Trump" is now sole proprietor of the world's largest economy and military force. So he might wake up one day and realize he's top dog over Putin. Maybe.
A problem? Really? It’s not a problem to Trump. To Putin. To any Republicans in Congress. To any Trump enthusiasts. To whoever the Kennedy replacement on the courts will be. Sure, it might be a problem to all of our allies and to the majority of Americans, and to those duty bound to work for national security. But none of them/us exist to Trump, other than as folks whose distress is gleefully entertaining to the Trump-Putin team. Especially the evangelical Christians. They think Putin is cool, you know, “tough”.
127
Before this summit, the American public needs to know the extent of what Trump owes Putin and the litany of Russian Oligarchs. Because it certainly strains the imagination that Trump is doing anything other than using public policy to pay off his private debt.
208
I'll say it again: Everything Trump has done regarding Putin makes sense if you assume Putin is paying Trump a few billion dollars a year to run our government according to Putin's wishes.
31
It's a bad as you can imagine. Does that help?
1
"Mr. Trump’s top national security advisers are more clear-eyed about the Russian threat than he is. So are the Republicans who control the Senate."
I would substitute the word "clear-eyed" above with "blind-eyed" when referring to the Senate Republicans. All they care about is tax cuts for the rich, and now that they have them, you would think they would be more concerned with the autocrat Putin & the Russian threat to the stability of NATO & Europe. Putin has the goods on Trump, and will have Trump dancing to all of his tunes. Hopefully one of the tunes is not the sound of track vehicles rumbling through the Fulda gap.
37
If they were clear-eyed they wouldn't be working for Trump - clear-eyed in terms of their reputations, or clear-eyed about the well-being of the United States.
1
Two birds of a feather t'would seem
The Don in a treasonous scheme
Blithely overlooked
By Republicans hooked
To a POTUS out of a bad dream.
Those Russian bank loans are so apt
Graciously from Vladimir wrapped
The Don a kowtower
A Putin bowwower
How quickly the Don did adapt.
140
Senate Republican's "persuade" Trump? "Prepare carefully" for the encounter? On what planet do you live? None of this will happen. Trump will run roughshod over old alliances and give Putin whatever he wants. Why? Because they are the same person; narcissists who care only about their own perceived power and wellbeing.
Meanwhile, to see the GOP Congress so willingly sell out the American public they have sworn to serve is truly an act of treachery that will be remembered, long after Trump is a footnote in history.
298
But Putin is a whole lot smarter than Trump. Putin is using Trump to destroy the American threat. It is working like a charm. Trump can lie and lie to his followers while giving the rich the keys to the bank, and their future, and they will still defend him to the death....their own!!! While we, who know Trump's long checked past, watch in horror and sadness as our country goes backward into an abyss. "None are so blind as those that refuse to see."
With you 100% until the last few words. With the carnage Trump is leaving in his wake he will be far more than a footnote in history, he will leave a huge black stain.
Obama was a transitional President. Trump is a transformational President. Hate on Trump all you want. Do not attempt to diminish him. Do not make the horrible mistake of underestimating him.
He is changing our nation. He is changing our planet. Look at the single issue of climate change.
A footnote in history? Not hardly.
4
I think you mean "act of treason."
2
Mr Trump rolls up to these Heads of State meetings assuming that the other guy is just like him - a businessman with no real emotional involvement in the nation or her people. He truly believes he's chatting with another mogul equally disinterested in details, merely keen to enjoy the Cheval Blanc, then hit the links.
Problem is: the other guys are not at all like this.
33
The Republican Party has followed their fake, phony, fraudulent leader and left the surly bonds of American democracy to the touch the face of Kremlin corruption, rigged elections and unfettered oligarchy...and they love the unchecked power and total rejection of the will of the people.
Grand Old Putinistas 2018
D for democracy; R for Russian-Republicans.
November 6 2018
328
"Putinistas" - right.
You don't have the faintest idea what you're talking about.
The truth is that we are now on a war footing vs Russia.
You won't read this in the Times or the hysterical anti-Trump press, but in recent months this administration has armed Russia's enemies with the most lethal and terrifying - to the Kremlin - anti-missile systems and anti tank weapons in our arsenal.
Trump has expanded the sanctions and the Magnitsky List. Closed Russian consulates. Identified Russia as the source of the NotPetya virus.
This administration has dramatically increased military spending aimed at Russia, has staged maneuvers in Russia's borders, and has killed or wounded HUNDREDS of Russian mercenaries and soldiers in firefights on the ground, in Syria.
Please stop spreading lies and disinformation.
Putin fears and loathes this administration. We are now on a war footing, and we should all be praying that the upcoming summit will enable both nations to climb down before a war breaks out.
Please stop feeding thIs hoax.
Ignore the tweets.
Trump is not Putin's puppet - he is tougher on Russia than any administration in 30 years.
1
I’ll be there or on my death bed.
1
By all means, let's continue punitive economic sanctions- a form of warfare- against a country with several thousand nuclear missiles, over Crimea, a territory that is fervently Russian and was delighted to rejoin Russia. And let's continue to pretend that Russia deviously influenced "low information" American voters to elect as president a man all right-minded coastal elitists despise. And by all means, let's pretend that we have any business whatsoever in Syria, or that what Russia is doing in Syria bears even a shadow of a resemblance to the horror and destruction we unleashed, illegally- but with the full-throated backing of the New York Times and Hillary Clinton- on Iraq. Because we're the good guys, and Russia is very, very bad.
22
The Russians in Crimea wanted to join Russia, not the Ukrainians. Like the Germans in the Sudentenland in 1938 wanted Germany to claim their land, nevermind that their country was Czechoslovakia.
And you forget, as Trump the Russians' dirty money launderer never really comprehended, that the Communist Russians have been our historical enemies for seventy-plus years because they hate everything about us. Unlike Russia, the US of A is the land of the free, with free elections. We don't let our Presidents become powerful dictators; but Putin enjoys that position. We don't murder political opponents; Putin does. We don't steal millionaires' millions by putting them on trial with trumped-up charges; Putin does. And we don't assassinate our former spies and journalists by poisoning or throwing them from highrises; Putin has all that done by his thugs.
So suuuuuuuure. Let's entertain Putin's oligarchical Russian friends as business partners -- yeah, that's the ticket. And watch as our American businesses become corrupted, intimidated, its corporate people murdered, and American workers become virtual slaves by Putin's Russian thugs.
No thank you, Paul McBride.
1
They are very bad, but that's not the point. They have a nuclear arsenal that can obliterate the USA and everyone else. They are murdering Syrian civilians or allowing it to continue on and on. But then that is nothing compared to what they are actually capable of doing. We blew it in 1945 and now we just have to live with this reality.
@Paul McBride - In case you've forgotten, the Crimeans were forced to join Russia after an armed takeover by Russia and a fake election, hardly delightful. Anyone expressing loyalty to Ukraine was arrested. Probably many Ukrainians and Tartars have left Crimea due to persecution. Invasion of eastern Ukraine and Crimea is just a first step by Putin who has expansionist ideas into former Soviet occupied countries. Yes, Russia has a very bad human right s record with many political prisoners, recently including a Crimean farmer who was flying a Ukrainian flag.
Mr. Trump tweeted, “Russia continues to say they had nothing to do with Meddling in our Election!”
Let’s all think about that – an American president continues to repeat a Putin canard, as if it were the truth – despite it being discredited with high confidence by all of our intelligence agencies, as well as members of Trump’s own national security team!
One hopes that the NSA has listening devices that can pick up on the one-on-one conversation between Trump and Putin at the Helsinki summit next month. Because Trump most certainly won’t be discussing “Russian adoptions” yet again, but most likely be giving away the store – agree to withdraw American troops from Syria, sunset the New Start treaty, and jettison the I.N.F. Fortunately, “readmitting Russia to the Group of 7” requires the approval of our European allies and Japan, so that is unlikely to happen anytime soon.
But before Trump welcomes Putin into the White House, it is imperative for our national security that special counsel Mueller find out why Trump is so beholden to Putin and Russia? Even if they weren’t exactly colluding before his election, it appears like Trump is hugging the Russian bear pretty openly now! The standard for treason certainly seems to have been lowered in the age of Trump!
181
All this, Mr. Nargundakar, from a person that predicted that Hillary Clinton would win in a land slide.
Sorry, you crystal ball seems to be defective. Put it back on the stand on your front lawn.
At the very least it is obvious to any objective observer that Trump is a Putin “asset.” We don’t need Mueller’s findings to prove that. Mueller’s report will reveal Trump’s motivations for behaving as he does. Is it to keep Putin from revealing embarrassing or illegal activities that Trump has been involved with? We will have to wait and see. In any event Trump swore to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. In serving as the most valuable asset of a major adversarial foreign power, while also serving as the leader of the United States, Trump is acting treasonably and deserves to be removed from office.
Putin, of course, has absolutely no reason to lie about interfering with US elections (where's the eye-rolling icon?) It disturbs me that Trump appears to be unable to even comprehend that this is a possibility, because it suggests that he is under such pressure from the Russians that he can't allow even the suggestion that they might be lying to appear. Putin outclasses Trump as a strategist just as much if not more than Kim does, and it appears increasingly likely that he also has leverage that Kim does not. So what will come out of this summit will be whatever Putin wants to come out...which will no doubt be Trump fawning over him and handing over the keys to the store. It's all very well that the Republicans are more educated on Russia than he is - if they accept him going in without preparing (which he won't), and don't subject him to any consequences, they are even more at fault than he will be. Whatever Mueller finds or doesn't find, he (and they) will be judged by what he does _now_.
Do the Times editors and readers know that we are now on a war footing with Russia? That Trump reversed Obama's Syria policy and has killed or wounded hundreds of Russian mercenaries and soldiers in Syria?
You would hardly know these things from reading the Times.
So much for the "Putin's puppet" narrative.
In fact, this is the most aggressively anti-Russian administration we have seen in 30 years.
Contrary to his tweets and to the bogus puppet narrative, Trump has hit Russia hard on every front:
- Trump reversed Obama's policy re. sales of our most potent missile defense system to Poland and Sweden. Putin fears this military weapon more than any other in our arsenal.
- Trump reversed Obama's policy of refusing lethal military aid to Ukraine, and approved (4/30) selling the extraordinarily effective Javelin anti-tank missiles to Ukraine. Like the Patriot missile sales, this is a game-changer, and the Russians are infuriated by it.
When Congress approved this sale, the Times buried the story.
- Trump has tripled defense initiatives to deter Russian aggression in Europe, staging maneuvers on Russia's borders and increasing the budget for same by ~50% over Obama.
- Trump sanctioned ~40 oligarchs & Russian officials, expanded the Magnitsky sanctions list, closed two consulates and many annexes, expelled 60 diplomats.
Please print the full story.
Your anti-Trump hysteria is blinding you and causing you to foolishly, recklessly push us toward a war with Russia.
20
Russia has two military bases and has committed far less aggression than the USA. NATO has surrounded Russia despite promising not to. Look at the real facts. I'm not Pro Russia, but I am not Pro USA either. We often more times than not are the cause of global problems.
If this is all true, Trump will certainly want transparency in his meetings with Putin and will enlist neutral reporters/secretaries to give U.S. citizens a window into his aggressive stand toward Russia.
2
Trump has weakened the defense of the United States.
He ignores his Sec of Defense, undermines NATO, rejects the United Nations, turns on Canada, Mexico, Australia, England, Germany, and France. Left S. Korea on a limb. Ignored Japan’s interest in the Pacific. Initiated a trade war with China. Bumbled ME negotiations. Weakens are CIA and FBI as bulwarks against foreign aggression.
This, while he praises and supports tyrants like Putin and Kim Jong-un.
Aggressive against Russia and Russia’s world objectives? I think not.
2
The fear we have as a free and democratic country is that Trump identifies and wants to be like Putin; a dictator controlling a country and its people. That Trump will have an unrecorded private meeting with Putin where there is the potential to conspire to create a new alliance should not be considered out of hand. He is clearly moving in this direction internationally by criticizing NATO, creating chaos at the G7 meeting and attacking our traditional allies with trade tariffs. Domestically his efforts to stack the supreme court, the strangle hold control of the republican party and his promotion of America First above all other nations where he is the sole leader of his followers is evidence of developing the essential elements of dictatorial control.
99
I would not be surprised if several countries (Britain and Israel, perhaps, and definitely Russia) attempt to bug Trump and Putin's private conversation.
Agreed. I share your fears. Of all the things Trump has done, this meeting with Putin scares me most.
Tick, tick, tick...........The new "non-aggression pact" dynamic is in motion (See Poland 1939). I have long thought that American hubris and arrogance would lead to World War III, not the typical "rogue's gallery" of dictators and non-democratic states. Oh, that is right -- we are now the leading player in that infamous pantheon!