Helsinki

Scott Hardie | July 19, 2018
What are your thoughts on Trump and Putin in Helsinki?

Steve West | July 20, 2018
Being an international embarrassment does not constitute a high crime and misdemeanor. Pity.

Samir Mehta | July 20, 2018
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Scott Hardie | July 21, 2018
Helsinki seemed to me like Trump making it nakedly obvious that Putin owns him. He has long deep financial ties to Russia but rarely acknowledges them. At that press conference a few days ago, it seemed very clear where Trump's loyalty is.

And yet, while I've read about a few Trump supporters shaken by this display, the majority continue to stick with him. From comments I've read online, some are convinced that his Helsinki comments are part of some grand scheme, some plan that we can't comprehend because Trump is such a better deal-maker than us. I agree: Trump indeed appears to have a scheme to make a great deal, a deal to enrich himself at the expense of American security. :-(

There is no American interest served by cozying up to Putin. There are no goods that we import from Russia that we cannot get cheaply elsewhere, and we export even less to them. They have no strategic partnerships with other nations that we need for leverage. Putin is a murderer many times over. He behaves much more like an organized crime boss than a responsible head of state. How badly compromised Trump must be to be this friendly with him. Any normal president would have been driven from office long ago with such moral stains upon his character, but we live in extremely abnormal times.

Samir Mehta | July 21, 2018
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