Addressing US-Russia ties in comments to the press today, President Trump defended his own record, saying that nobody is tougher than he is on Russia. He did, however, emphasize the importance of good relations between the two nations.
“If we got along with Russia, that would be a good thing not a bad thing,” Trump insisted. He added that the only people who disagree with the merits of better ties are “very stupid people.”
So far, the Trump Administration has seen anything but better relations with Russia. While Trump says he thinks he could have a very good relationship with Russia and with President Putin, but so far he seems to tread very carefully on ties with Russia.
That’s because even the most basic diplomatic contact with Russia raises accusations of inappropriately close ties to Russia. This has resulted in ever-worsening bilateral ties, and very few direct talks aimed at ameliorating the problems.
Trump’s sudden turn-around diplomatically with North Korea does underscore how quickly things could turn around for the better. The big question is if there is a willingness to make an actual effort at diplomatic rapprochement within the administration, knowing the political fallout that would follow.
It is sad that Trump gets away with so many domestic disastrous decisions for the people and the environment (only helping the rich) without much reaction, and the few times he tried to follow his campaign promises on Russia, the storm of negativity stops him, although the Mueller investigations seems to have yielded nothing at all pointing to Russian government involvement in the farcical circus called “US elections 2016”.
Stephen F. Cohen has been pointing out for years that the demonization of Putin and then for the last 18 months the charges of Trump-Putin “collusion,” which have gone nowhere, all have one overarching purpose.
They tie Trump’s hands in making deals with Russia. Detente involves give and take – in other words, concessions on each side. If Trump makes concessions, he will be accused of being “soft” on Russia or Putin’s “puppet.”
So Trump will have to be very brave and bold to break these propaganda chains. His recent 50% approval rating (by Rasmussen, with the average of all polls now somewhere in the low to mid 40% range) should make things easier. Amazing how he got these with the MSM dumping on him 24/7! Is that media assault actually helping him?
of all the things i did not expect in 2016, the most unexpected one was that i would actually pity trump and his impotent flailing against the establishment on Russia.