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.
