Trump too cozy with Putin

American relations with Canada, Mexico and many of our allies have soured because of Trumps tariffs and other statements.  He called Canada’s leader weak and showed disdain for our allies at the G-7 summit and in remarks about NATO.  Yet, Trump makes sure his relationship with Russia is maintained and strengthened.  No conservative Republican would do this.  Is Trump in some kind of bromance with Putin?  Does he feel an affinity for dictators?  Does Putin have some ‘dirt’ on Trump (Perhaps video of  Trump and a prostitute in a Moscow hotel room)?

WASHINGTON -- One of the enduring mystery off Donald Trump's presidency is his soft spot for Vladimir Putin and Russia. Over and over, he has rejected the consensus of U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia meddled in the 2016 election. He's lauded Putin as a strong and effective leader.

Sen. John Cornyn, for one, isn't sure that Trump is sufficiently clear-eyed about the former KGB colonel ahead of a summit set for July 16 in Finland.

"Honestly I'm a little confused by the reports I see," said the Texas Republican, the No. 2 Senate majority leader. "On one occasion the president concedes that Russians tried to meddle in the election. And then I've read reports where he says they did not. I'm confident that they did."

Cornyn has no objection to the summit in Helsinki. The two nations have plenty to discuss, and a variety of areas in which they cooperate, including in the fight against ISIS and on space endeavors. 

But he said, "I'm hopeful that the president goes into this understanding what he's dealing with and who he's dealing with. It's somebody who I would not trust any further than I can see him."

From Cornyn, that's a fairly tough statement. He's not one of those bomb throwers who typically chides members of his own party. He rarely voices any criticism of Trump.

Trump has repeatedly downplayed Russian misdeeds, from its meddling in the 2016 election to its aggression against Ukraine and others.

On Thursday, shortly before the White House and the Kremlin announced the summit, the president again soft-pedaled concerns about Russia's actions in 2016.

"Russia continues to say they had nothing to do with Meddling in our Election!" he tweeted.

Trump had long refused to affirm the universal judgment of U.S. intelligence agencies regarding the 2016 meddling by Russia, often deflecting the allegations by speculating that any such interference more likely was meant to help Hillary Clinton than him.

On Friday, he told reporters flying with him to New Jersey aboard Air Force One that election interference will be among the many topics he raises with Putin. 

"We're going to be talking about Ukraine, we're going to be talking about Syria, we're going to be talking about elections. We don't want anybody tampering with elections," he said. But he also shrugged aside the idea of confronting Russia over Crimea. "President Obama allowed that to happen. ... It could've been handled much differently."

In the last few weeks alone, as The New York Times noted, Trump has called for readmitting Russia to the Group of 7 -- the club of western industrial democracies that ejected Russia after it invaded Ukraine and annexed Crimea. That was especially remarkable given how far Trump went to antagonize fellow G-7 leaders over trade policy at their recent summit in Canada.

He's suggested that Russia had a legitimate claim in Crimea because of the many Russian speakers there.

The Trump administration has provided lethal aide to Ukraine. And it has imposed financial sanctions on many in Putin's inner circle. The State Department has condemned Russia for cyberattacks. And at times Trump himself has aimed stern rhetoric at Russia. But mostly, he has refrained from any public lashing of even the most egregious behavior by Putin, leaving national security experts concerned about how he'll approach the summit.

It's a concern that Cornyn shares.

"Make no mistake, President Trump agrees Russia interfering in our election is something they simply cannot do," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said this week.  "When the president meets with Vladimir Putin, he will make clear that meddling in our elections is completely unacceptable."

Vice President Mike Pence, traveling in South America, predicted that Trump would raise the issue in Helsinki. "He's discussed that with President Putin before. I would anticipate that he will discuss that with him again," he told Bloomberg.

But Trump himself has projected more eagerness to butter up Putin than to lay down markers or draw red lines -- whether in Crimea or Syria, or in the American social media battle space and electoral tug of war. And he'll be the one sitting with Putin in Helsinki.

At a rally in Fargo, N.D., on Wednesday night, Trump repeated his complaint about special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, which began with allegations of collusion between his campaign and Russians.

"They go after us for a Russian hoax. It's a witch hunt hoax," he said.

As for his outward friendliness toward the likes of North Korea's Kim Jong Un and Putin, he told the crowd, "Getting along with countries, getting along with China, getting along with Russia, getting along with these countries is a good thing. It's not a bad thing. Not a bad thing."

Cornyn readily agreed that keeping good relations with adversaries can be helpful. He speculated that when the president downplays Russia's meddling in the election, he's focused on the conclusion that Russia's actions, whatever they were, didn't affect the outcome or undermine the legitimacy of his win.

"I'm also confident that it did not change the outcome of the election, which may be what he's referring to," the senator said.

And he agrees that a summit with Putin could be useful.

"There are items of common interest between us and the Russians. Clearly they are an adversary of the United States. They're an existential threat to us, according to Gen. Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff," he said. "They're aggressive, as we've seen in Crimea and Ukraine and now in Syria, and are allied with some of the worst actors in the planet, like Iran, along with groups like Hezbollah."

He noted that Russia has backed Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian autocrat and "butcher ... who's killed hundreds of thousands of his own people in that terrible civil war, aided and abetted by the Russians."

Trump does not refer to Russia as an adversary or an aggressor.

"I do think there are some items of common interest, for example ISIS," Cornyn said. "So I do think that there are things that the president and Putin can talk about."

But he said, "They are not our friends."”

Cornyn is a true conservative Republican—Trump is not.