When Putin says jump, Trump asks how high.
Trump's buddy-buddy summit with Russian leader Vladimir Putin next month in Helsinki, Finland, is quickly shaping up to be a colossal giveaway by America.
As Trump continues to defend Russia's interference in the 2016 election, reports are surfacing that he is preparing a list of concessions to Russia.
Meanwhile, foreign policy experts worry that Trump once again will be in over his head dealing and negotiating with another head of state, one-on-one.
Specifically, there's speculation that Trump is willing to acquiesce to Putin's desire to extend his power in the war-torn country of Syria, overseen by its brutal dictator Bashar al-Assad.
"President Trump appears ready to embrace a policy that will validate Assad, an authoritarian leader who has gassed his own people, and abandon a Syrian opposition that was partly trained and supplied by the United States," writes David Ignasius in Friday's Washington Post.
"Trump’s willingness to accede to Russian power in Syria — and to give up hard-won U.S. gains — troubles many Pentagon officials, but they seem to be losing the argument."
The summit comes just weeks after Trump urged America's closest allies to welcome Russia back into the G-7 group, even though Russia was banned from the economic community after it annexed Crimea. (Trump has suggested Russia unlawful takeover of Crimea was OK because people there speak Russian.)
Further, in March, the Kremlin was accused of being connected with the murder of a former Russian operative in London, where dozens of people sought hospital attention after the nerve gas attack.
Meanwhile, "If the U.S. President raises this issue, the Russian President absolutely will be ready to repeat once again that Russia had nothing to do with it and could not have anything to do with this thing that is surrounded by so many insinuations," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Friday in Moscow.
Putin can rest easy since there's little indication Trump will do anything with regards election interference during the summit.
Last November, after Trump met privately with Putin at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, he vigorously defended his Russian pal.
"He said he didn't meddle. I asked him again. You can only ask so many times," Trump stressed to reporters.
On Thursday morning, Trump once again posted Putin's talking points on Twitter, stressing, "Russia continues to say they had nothing to do with Meddling in our Election!"
Trump's rabid defense of Putin is completely contradicted by the finding of multiple U.S. intelligence agencies, and by over the more than one dozen indictments that have been handed down against Russian operatives by special counsel Robert Mueller, whose office accuses them of trying to sabotage the 2016 elections.
Trump just wants to be Putin's errand boy.
Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.
