Keeping the Trump-Russia theories alive
Devotion.
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At Politico, the Trump-Russia theories live on.
Politico published a report this week co-authored by reporters Natasha Bertrand (yes, her again) and Daniel Lippman (yes, him again) hyping the fact that President Biden’s team has access to the Trump-Putin call transcripts, which, the story’s authors suggest, means we may soon know the true nature of the previous president’s relationship with Moscow.
“Trump hid his calls with Putin,” reads the article’s headline. “Now, Biden has access to them.” Its subhead adds, “What was said between the two leaders is a great mystery, one that advisers to the current president say is imperative to find out.”
Yes, we’re back to this again, the preposterous notion that the Trump presidency may have been a plus for Russia.
“Few Trump-era mysteries are as intriguing as what the 45th president said to Vladimir Putin in at least a dozen rambling, off-the-cuff calls and meetings over four years,” reads the Politico article’s opening lines. “Understanding what was said between the two could help illuminate whether Trump ever revealed sensitive information or struck any deals with the Kremlin leader that could take the new administration by surprise.”
It adds, “Now that President Joe Biden is in the White House, he can see for himself.”
There is more wink-winking where this comes from, including lines such as “Trump’s interactions with Putin and other Russian officials were certainly far from the normally carefully choreographed talks between world leaders” and “Trump went to particularly great lengths to keep his in-person conversations with the Russian leader private, from confiscating his interpreter’s notes to forgoing American translators and notetakers altogether in their meetings.”
The story also includes the sentence, “Trump closely guarded his private conversations with foreign leaders while in office,” but this detail is neither the focus of the article nor treated as a particularly interesting fact.
The Politico report continues, alleging that understanding the “shadow diplomatic campaigns that flourished during the Trump administration” is a top priority for Biden’s team.
Possible “shadow diplomatic campaigns” and secretive deals with Russian President Vladimir Putin? What is Politico on about? U.S.-Russia relations approached Cold War-levels under Trump. Indeed, there was outright hostility between the White House and Moscow for all four years of Trump’s presidency.
In 2019, for example, the Trump administration approved a $39 million sale of defensive weapons to Ukraine so that the Eastern European country may better defend itself from its overtly aggressive neighbor. The United States later provided an additional $10 million to bulk up Ukraine’s naval capabilities, a direct response to Russia’s activities near the Kerch Strait.
The Trump administration also imposed several rounds of devastating sanctions on Russian officials, punishing them for everything ranging from a bank hacking scheme to the Kremlin’s meddling in the 2018 U.S. midterm elections.
The Trump administration expelled some 48 intelligence officers from the Russian Embassy in Washington. The Trump administration also shuttered the Russian Consulate in Seattle. Trump’s White House likewise expelled 12 intelligence officers from the Russian Mission to the United Nations in New York.
The Trump administration imposed export restrictions on Russian companies Novator and Titan-Barrikady.
The Trump administration shifted an additional 1,000 U.S. troops into Poland “to bolster NATO’s eastern flank against Russian aggression,” as Military Times put it.
Lastly, and this is a big one, U.S. troops during the Trump presidency “killed hundreds of Syrian forces backed by Russian mercenaries (as well as Russian private military contractors),” the Brookings Institution notes, reminding us of this little-known detail. “The American bombing was launched in response to a surprise attack on a U.S.-held base in the oil-rich Deir Ezzor region in Syria.”
U.S.-Russia relations were historically poor under Trump, and he put no effort into repairing them. And this is to say nothing of the hostile actions that Moscow took against the U.S. during the Trump years!
Yet, here is Politico with a report suggesting that the former president may have secretly struck mysterious “deals with the Kremlin leader.”
We’re being asked to believe that the previous administration may have engaged in “shadow diplomatic campaigns” with Russia all while expelling its agents from U.S. soil, leveling sanctions against its top government officials and businessmen, arming its neighbors, and killing its mercenaries and military contractors. Makes sense!
It is amazing that after everything the Trump White House did to box in Russia, and even after the implosion of the “collusion” dud, some in the press are still devoted to the idea that Moscow had a friend in the Oval Office starting on Jan. 20, 2017.
Don’t stop believing, guys. Hold on to that feeling.