Russian officials confirmed on Wednesday that a deal has been reached on holding a summit between President Trump and President Putin. Though the two have met twice on the sideline of international events, this will be the first direct summit with the Russian leader of Trump’s time in office.
Officials have said a date and time are set, but what they are has yet to be made public. Reports have suggested it will take place “in the next few weeks,” however, and will be in a third country, with Helsinki, Finland suggested as a probable location.
With allegations still swirling about Russian “meddling” in the 2016 election, President Trump has been very cautious with his diplomatic ties with Russian officials. This has meant that, despite substantial issues to be addressed, the US has much less engagement with Russia than in years past.
John Bolton, who was in Moscow negotiating this summit, says that President Trump will be raising a “full range of issues” during the summit. He downplayed the significance of the meeting, saying he didn’t view the summit as anything unusual.
Which normally it wouldn’t be. US and Russian presidents meet often. That Trump hasn’t done so formally in the last 18 months is much more unusual, however, and the political circus still swirling around the election will likely make the summit controversial, particularly for Trump’s political opponents.
I’m sure all the haters will find something to attack Trump in this news…
Well, this Trump opponent at least is glad to hear he will be talking with Russia, and thought he should have done more of that already. But I don’t disagree with the article’s speculation.
Trump should have done more of it already? What the hell do you think he has been trying to do? And what do you think the Dem Party, the GOP Elite, the MSM and the mindless segment of the pwogwessives have been trying to do but stop him? Trump has been attempting to establish rapprochement with Russia since the beginning of his Presidency, but Russiagate was stood up in order to stop that. Let us hope that this spells the end of Mueller’s Witch Hunt and a return to some semblance of sanity on the part of those pwogwessives who claim to be for peace.
Stroke of genius to let Bolton be the front man for this. Will Trump’s adversaries claim that Bolton is a peacenik or a dupe of Putin? No doubt some will, but will they ever look stupid.
Yeah, if talking with enemies were easy, everyone would do it. And the even more radical question – is Russia really an enemy and why? And wouldn’t any process of trying to make them not an enemy involve TALKING TO THEM? I guess to some Russia being an enemy is gospel fact, because they’re too narrow-minded to consider anything else, or in some cases just don’t WANT it to change. Too much money to be made, too helpful as a political weapon to distract from real issues that are less comfortable.