The U. S. president, who refrains from criticizing Vladimir Putin, is known for attacking his opponents and treating those who help him especially well.<\/b>
\nPresident Donald Trump met with Vladimir Putin on Friday in an entirely predictable fashion \u2013 eyes fixed on his bottom line.
He told the Russian president sitting down together was \u00ab\u00a0an honor, \u00a0\u00bb his trademark term of ingratiation. He added: \u00ab\u00a0We look forward to a lot of very positive things happening.\u00a0\u00bb
Foreign policy experts had urged the president to sternly confront Putin over the negative thing that happened last year, when Russia conducted a cyber-attack on Democratic targets to help elect him. But diplomats from both countries made clear afterward that Trump had not.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said his boss began the meeting by raising the \u00ab\u00a0concerns of the American people\u00a0\u00bb over the matter, and \u00ab\u00a0pressed\u00a0\u00bb Putin in a robust discussion. But the two leaders, whom the secretary said had \u00ab\u00a0a very clear positive chemistry, \u00a0\u00bb then turned their attention forward.
\u00ab\u00a0There was not a lot of re-litigating the past, \u00a0\u00bb Tillerson said. On what he called their \u00ab\u00a0disagreement\u00a0\u00bb about hacking, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov went further to say Trump accepted Putin’s denial that Moscow had interfered at all.
If Trump did accept it, that would line up with his consistent refusal to criticize Putin and to publicly embrace the U. S. intelligence community’s unequivocal conclusion about Russia’s culpability. By reiterating his uncertainty in Europe even before their meeting, he again stood closer to a foreign adversary than top national security officials within the country he leads.
Trump’s history in business and politics suggests the simplest of explanations: Russia helped him. And that reality outweighs more abstract notions about U. S. institutions and security interests that veterans of past administrations fault him for not defending.
Trump has explained his transactional philosophy in both the positive and the negative. If someone hits him, he likes to say, he hits back \u00ab\u00a010 times harder.\u00a0\u00bb
He reciprocates assistance just the same. As he remarked of Putin last year, \u00ab\u00a0If he says great things about me, I’m going to say great things about him.\u00a0\u00bb
He praised television executive Jeff Zucker, who gave him a national platform with \u00ab\u00a0The Apprentice, \u00a0\u00bb then blasted him as a failure over CNN’s coverage. He ripped 2016 primary opponents Ted Cruz, Ben Carson and Marco Rubio in excruciatingly personal terms, then praised them after they endorsed him.
He called Paul Ryan \u00ab\u00a0weak and ineffective\u00a0\u00bb in response to criticism, then likened him to \u00ab\u00a0fine wine\u00a0\u00bb as they embarked on a shared agenda. Desperate for a victory on major legislation, Trump is now pressing for enactment of a health-care bill that would impose hardship on the white working class voters who powered his campaign.
That history foreshadowed the disappointment of those who wanted Trump to challenge Putin with assertions of wrongdoing and potential consequences. \u00ab\u00a0It is not enough to agree to disagree, \u00a0\u00bb said Richard Haass, a foreign policy aide in both Bush administrations.
\u00ab\u00a0He does not have grand theories or ideas, \u00a0\u00bb explained Danielle Pletka, a foreign policy specialist at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. \u00ab\u00a0Insofar as someone is useful to him they are fine. Insofar as they interfere, they are bad.\u00a0\u00bb
Whether Trump’s stance stems from a deeper source than surface-level back-scratching is the subject of investigations by Congressional committees and special counsel Robert Mueller. They are examining both financial transactions and contacts involving Russians and Trump associates.
But the administration’s actions, like Trump’s warm words for Putin on Friday, give no reason to expect a shift in tone. The administration has declined to embrace Senate-passed legislation stiffening sanctions on Russia, and is discussing the possibility of returning Russian facilities seized by the Obama administration as punishment for interfering in the election.
\u00ab\u00a0With Trump doing nothing, he’s enabling Putin, \u00a0\u00bb said Juliette Kayyem, a former Obama administration security official who teaches at Harvard’s Kennedy School. \u00ab\u00a0Trump wants Putin’s help in 2020. Just say it directly. It’s so obvious.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n

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