* He said/he said would be too simple an explanation for what transpired at that Trump-Putin G-20 sideline summit. It’s what happens when a KGB-trained professional prevaricator and a pathological liar sit down to shoot the self-serving shinola. From Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, we know that Trump “pressed” Putin on Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential U.S. election. We know from Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that Trump agrees with Putin that Moscow didn’t interfere with that election.
What we probably do know is that at some point both principals said in the universal language of summit diplomacy: “Whatever.”
And we know–stop the presses–that Trump has agreed to some sort of cybersecurity partnership with Russia, our foremost cybersecurity adversary. Whatever. We also know that international third parties accorded the advantage to Putin, the one who had to defend the indefensible. Whatever.
But a scheduled 30-minute sit-down that lasted for more than two hours? That must have made for a lot of back and forth and ultimate agreement on their common enemy. ISIS? North Korea? No, the media.
*Imagine, if–for all of his bluster, arrogance, misogyny, unhinged temperament and blatant lack of preparation–Donald Trump–as has been assumed by his adoring base–had truly mastered the art of the deal? Think Russia, China, North Korea, Syria, Iran, trade and immigration. It would almost be worth it. Almost.
* Another Russian-connection shoe drops. That John McCain centipede metaphor just won’t go away.
This time it was the revelation that a couple weeks into last year’s presidential campaign, Donald Trump Jr., son-in-law Jared Kushner and campaign chairman Paul Manafort met at Trump Tower with a Kremlin-connected Russian attorney with an agenda that included sharing information about Hillary Clinton that would be “helpful to the Trump campaign.”
The Trumpsters deny wrongdoing, if not collusion optics. Besides, it was, according to the Trump Administration, mainly about American adoptions of Russian children. It was a “big, nothing burger,” said Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff and short-order political cook. Moreover, the presidential candidate was not there, nor was he aware of it.
Two points.
Increasingly, the Trumps seem like a half-assed Mafia family. Junior and Jared had seemingly free rein to negotiate and cut foreign deals and were deemed more important than professionals who would know what they were doing–and when to say “nyet.” This is as inappropriate and dumb as it is worrisome. And nobody was vetting Kremlin insiders, including those reaching out to collude?
The Richard Nixon inner circle was circumspect, professional and classy by comparison.
And, second, until a couple of days ago, President Trump was, as noted, unaware that such a blatantly problematic meeting had been held. There should be a statute of limitations on plausible deniability.