By Avi Gutfreund. On Monday, President Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland to discuss a host of geopolitical issues. After a one-on-one meeting and then a second meeting with their respective teams, the two leaders held a joint press conference.
During that press conference, President Trump blamed both countries equally for Russian actions, equated the United States with the regime of a murderous kleptocrat in Vladimir Putin, and sided with the Russian president over U.S. intel regarding Russian election meddling saying, “President Putin was very strong and powerful in his denial today”. The U.S. Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives, and every U.S. intelligence agency has concluded that Russia did, in fact, interfere in the 2016 U.S. elections.
Dozens of current and former national security figures came out swinging against Trump’s statements. DNI chief Dan Coats, House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, and many others made public statements pushing back on Trump’s stance.
The entire saga is confounding. President Trump has had multiple opportunities to call out Russia and Vladimir Putin for their nefarious activities. Instead, the President has blamed the United States for it’s strained relationship with Russia, he declined to support the assessment of his own intelligence community that concluded, without any doubt, that Russia interfered and is continuing to interfere in U.S. elections, and he continues to decline personal backing of law enforcement attempts to reign in Russian aggression.
The question is, why? Why would a man, known for his toughness in dealing with people, especially adversaries, act so meek and weak in front of Putin? Why does President Trump continue to side with a despot who literally has his political opponents murdered over the CIA, FBI, and multiple other U.S. and Western intelligence agencies?
I believe the only plausible answer is that Trump is compromised. Anyone who hasn’t been living under a rock has heard of the salacious allegations made against Donald Trump in the infamous Steele dossier. It is also widely recognized that Trump has not exactly been a role model when it comes to his conduct in his personal life. Is it such a stretch to believe that Putin has information which compromises Donald Trump, causing him to side with Putin, even when it is not in the best interests of the United States? I don’t think so. In fact, I think it is the only feasible explanation for Trump’s otherwise befuddling behavior when it comes to Putin.
This raises a far more concerning issue: a compromised President poses a serious, legitimate threat to the United States. What are the implications of Vladimir Putin holding complete control over the U.S. President? Only time will tell.
(TLS welcomes your letters by submitting them to [email protected])
Seriously?! While I agree that the press conference was a disgrace and made the USA look weak, this conclusion can only be reached if your already convinced of this and are looking for confirmation of your belief.
According to your logic, Obama (and every other weak prez) was compromised by Iran, Cuba, Russia, etc.
Weakness is bad, but does not automatically equal being compromised.
I doubt he’s compromised because of the infamous tape – he doesn’t seem to know the meaning of embarrassment. Rather, I believe he’s compromised by the significant Russian investments into his businesses. He famously went bankrupt in the 90s and had a huge influx of Russian cash in 00s.
Please post your nonsensical opinions on CNN , do not pollute whatever frum minds are left out there . You have been affected by the liberal media greatly whether you will admit it or not/
Trump derangement syndrome in its naked form
I disagree totally with Mr Gutfreund. There’s something called diplomacy. The reporter asked a stupid question: Will you tell Mr Putin in front of the whole world to stop meddling in US elections ? Trump should’ve said – Not now, sorry. He’s not gonna rebuke or embarrass Putin in front of the whole world !! And we need him to help with China, North Korea and Syria. And why should Trump support the US intelligence agencies ?? They’ve been on a witch hunt against him for almost 2 years !! Actually, I was upset Trump recanted !! He got it right the 1st time.
@DES – well said. I agree 100% Put this on CNN. Their viewers will buy it.
How about publish the transcript of President Trump’s and Putin’s press conference instead someone’s repeated nonsense? When I heard all the idiots’ noise about treason etc., I read the transcript to see for myself. Had Obama said the same words, the press would still be singing his praises. Commentators DES and yisroel are on the ball.
Fake news
You must love the man more than the law.
What is going to happen when our president defies the Court and Congress and, like the Roman consul, becomes an emperor (princeps)? Will you stand behind the constitution?
What’s gonna happen when our president DOESN’T do what you just hoped he would do, and DOESN’T become an emperor? Will you then admit you were wrong?
I’m not writing about Trump. We are not even close. However, when the day come that children stop learning American history and put their leaders before their nation, and it will likely come within several centuries, then we will be a dictatorship.
It took the Romans about 110 years to destroy their republic.
With that said, we must remain vigil against those who put the man before the law. We are a nation of law not of men.
you mean like Obama did? and the Liberal fake new was singing his praises…
I have not looked at CNN since election night… i suggest the opinion writer do the same.
it isn’t healthy to live in a constant state of conspiracy theory.
Why wouldn’t you consider the reason Mr Trump didn’t call out Putin for election meddling is, because that would be admitting that he only won with their help.A big NONO if you know anything about Mr Trump.
Trump knows exactly what he is doing i wouldnt worry about it
We need to look at what he did for the survival of eretz yisroel. Our best preident in history. the russian stuff is pale compared to his relationship with israel.
Washington was #1 unquestionably. I think Jackson, T. Roosevelt are two and three, not sure what order, probably T. R. before Jackson (Jackson messed up with the national bank and was wrong to ignore the decision of the Supreme Court with the Indians). They made the nation strong. F. Roosevelt and Lincoln are up in there somewhere. I doubt Trump will be even above average. Historians forbid the ratings until after 50 years.
Every rank and file intelligence agent knows that it’s China that got Hillary and DNC’s server and not Russia. Imran Awan helped and Hillary and the DNC were persistently stupid and compromised national security. Everything else is a distraction including the Mueller farce. Let Mueller bring in the Russians he indicted into court and put OUR MONEY where his mouth is. Russia wants it. Let the corrupt US intelligence people go to Russian court. Fair is fair.
Or maybe he knows who the real meddlers were (Israel?) and knows it wasn’t Russia. The intelligence community has got it wrong before.
They previously accused China of hacking the Hollywood studios that were later proven to be an inside job.
They have no proof against Russia only assessments. That’s not the same thing. And while it may have been Russia putting ads on Facebook for Trump, it didn’t help, Trump lost the public vote.
Unless there is evidence that Russia manipulated the voting tallys then Trump is a legit president and we need to accept him.
Wasn’t Obama assuring us our systems were secure? Why are the states refusing to cooperate with the Federal investigation into voter fraud? Why hasn’t the DNC turned over the hacked server to the FBI?
The truth is that the Democrats manipulated the votes but miscalculated the electoral college angle, and they lost.
And how would he know that it was another country if the intelligence community didn’t know? And how about the CEO of Cambridge Analytica admitting on tape that he worked with the Russians to get Trump to win?
Hey TLS, look at the IP address of my previous comment. Lakewood. Now I’m in Russia, Da? please check for yourself. LOL.
Instead of looking at CNN fox and NBC listen to 710 and 770 . You would think that after a year and half the would have little more then a fake dossier. Trump is not a politician he is a business man he is not going to reveal his plan unlike the past president.
So you shot your arrow and then drew a circle around it, bulls eye! You didn’t like Trump before so we don’t need your opinion now. There is no right and wrong in the media, it’s Democrat (always right) and Republican (always wrong). I am thankful everyday that my kids don’t have access to msnbc and cnn, the propaganda they spew is so ridiculous it makes me laugh. Can someone tell me what Donald Trump has done other than win the election over that ‘reshanta’ that makes him be considered for impeachment. Obama gives $150 billion to Iran for a phony deal which the media considered the greatest thing in the world and now trump meets with Putin and they call it Treason?!?! It’s absolutely laughable.
I am trying to cut back on commenting, but this letter is just too moronic to let stand. If you want to say it wasn’t the best news conference, or that Trump was tired etc, that’s fine, he is human, but to draw a conclusion that he was compromised is what I would expect from playing connect the dots with a primate.
To suggest that Trump sacrificed $1 billion of his personal net worth (according to Forbes), and subjected himself and his family to daily abuse, just so he could do the bidding of Putin, is beyond the realm of rational thought.
The President in a press conference stated that he misread what was in his notes. I personally have no issue if he didn’t misread his statements. For some reason, the press, and apparently this writer, have taken the stance that to criticize the intelligence agencies of the U.S. is beyond the pale, and is a treasonous act.
To anyone who has been paying attention the past 2 years, it is quite obvious that these intelligence agencies are not worthy of such a lofty infallible status. They are also not a separate branch of government, the intelligence agencies, as well as the DOJ, all fall under the executive branch and work for the President, the fact that they are not,is in of itself, indicative that something is seriously wrong with them.
Did anyone else find it strange that Rosenstien decided to indict 12 Russians on the eve of the Presidents meeting with Putin? It was not based on newly covered information. congressman Nunes stated that all the information (plus more), that was included in the indictment, was already published in the Congressional oversight Committees report in February. the only reason to announce the indictment when they did, was to undermine the President, who all of the DOJ works for. Yet we are supposed to believe that these same unelected bureaucrats are beyond reproach?
As an aside, to the person who was questioning any connection to China. You must have missed the news this week. Lisa Page, the DOJ lawyer, stated in her interview with Congress, that China hacked Hilllay Clinton’s server, and that it was common knowledge among all DOJ and FBI employees working on the case. Every e-mail that went through that server, was also sent to an e-mail controlled by the Chinese Government.
This is a stupid conclusion from someone whom obviously doesn’t understand the psyche of a president who has made the president. Trump doesn’t cave into threats. He fights back. Trump was never in a more vulnerable position than when the offensive tapes came out. Instead of apologizing, Trump hit back – and hard. He called a press conference and sat on a dais with 4 women who claimed they were abused by Bill Clinton. When North Korea started talking about nuking us and their neighbors Trump responded that my button is bigger than yours! If you think that Trump is kowtowing to Putin because he’s being blackmailed you just don’t get him. Trump may be vulnerable to flattery, and Putin is probably shrewd enough to realize that. The next weakness of Trump is he seems to want to go the opposite direction of Obama all the time. It really is possible that Obama might have gotten something right ( I’m not sure what). Since Obama (and the democrats) have been against building up relations with Putin, Trumps natural reaction is to try to build up the relationship.
Trump is also disturbed by any perception that the Russians helped him win the election. He doesn’t believe that there is any truth to that. He refuses to accept that the Russians were involved in any way in assisting him. Therefore, he sees no need to broach the subject with Putin despite what the intelligence agencies are claiming, as he really doesn’t seem to trust American Intelligence agencies. This article writers conclusion was either written due to bias, or stupidity.
In conclusion, Trump is probably right that we are better off trying to reset our relationship with Russia. Together, these two superpowers can make the world safer in fighting terrorism, and with nuclear disarmament. Give Trump credit for giving good diplomacy with Putin a try. Trump is really trying to undo the damage of the past few presidencies, especially Obama. He really does have phenomenal instincts. The economy is growing, unemployment is down. He seems to really grasp the Middle East, and has wisely taken a very strong pro Israel position. He has quietly defeated ISIS. Illegal immigration is declining. He has been making excellent choices for Judges. Despite his ego, impulsivity, and his shortcomings in expressing himself,
He is exceptionally astute at sizing up a situation, and siding with the right side. He seems to grasp the issues in a way that other politicians don’t. I think he really is MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
The Russians are our adversaries (enemies) and have been since the Monroe Doctrine was promulgated to ensure that they do not expand into the Pacific Northwest.
Congress and the American people will not tolerate another president to make the mistakes that FDR made at Yalta (not that he had much of a choice; the Red Army had already destroy most of the German divisions and gained the territory BUT they were not in Korea until we dropped the bomb).
People, learn some history.
Before anyone criticizes me for getting my news from TV, I don’t own one. It is my preference to read news. That being said. Two weeks before his inauguration the President was briefed on the Russians meddling in the election. Prior to that President Obama and Mitch McConnell discussed the Russian meddling and McConnell chose not to make that info public. So the question is why did our current president lie about this? Well with tax returns Americans would see where the many millions of cash used to buy the Irish and Scottish properties came from. Or as one of his sons has repeatedly said, “We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.” Just something to think about.
Why can’t it just be that he messed up!
He thought that everyone would go with it and backlash was unexpected
Some people have it in their heads that the “Intelligence” community are somehow incapable of being wrong…remember those “Weapons of Mass Destruction”?
I sure do.
Several of my friends died in Iraq chasing after a figment of the Intelligence community’s imagination.
You can trust them if you want to; I have a folded-up American flag that’ll tell you to go to —-.
They are wrong more often than they’re right. The only people who think that a hot war between major nuclear powers is a good idea, are either crazy, complete (insert favorite expletive here), or military contractors.
Whatever happened to “Give Peace a Chance”?
Regardless of what President is in office (or how well you identify with their views), they should be supported, if they propose peaceful means as a way of avoiding conflict.