Hours before his summit with 65-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, 72-year-old Donald Trump tried to tamp down expectations. “Nothing bad is going to come out of it [Helsinki], and maybe some good will come out,” Trump, said. Only good things happened when he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. Now Trump completes the trifecta with Putin, accused July 13 by Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein with meddling in the 2016 presidential election with Russia’s GRU military intelligence unit. Democrats and their friends in the press want Trump to confront Putin with Rosenstein’s indictments of 12 Russian nationals working for the GRU’s hacking unit. Friday’s indictments accuse the GRU of hacking the email accounts of the Democratic National Committee [DNC] and former Hillary Campaign Chairman John Podesta.
Once Wikileaks’ founder Julian Assange released the hacks July 6, 2016, only two weeks before the Democratic National Convention, all fingers pointed toward Russian intelligence, leaping to the conclusion that Trump or his campaign associates must have colluded with the Kremlin. Trump asked why former President Barack Obama didn’t act decisively against Russia knowing that Wikileaks released emails from the DNC and Podesta damaging to Hillary’s credibility. Several press reports at the time suggested that Putin had a vendetta with Hillary for interfering with Putin’s 2012 election, accusing him of election fraud. Yet because the Obama Justice Department under former Atty. Gen. Loretta Lynch relied on Hillary’s paid opposition research AKA “the dossier” as proof of Trump’s collusion with the Kremlin, the FBI actively investigated the Trump campaign.
Hillary did everything possible during the campaign to tie Trump to the Kremlin, telling voters that Trump was a “Putin puppet.” Once Trump took the oath of office Jan. 20, 2017, he was a vigorous target of a DOJ, FBI and National Security investigation for alleged Russian collusion. But as the facts come out slowly at the DOJ and FBI, it looks more-and-more that Trump was unfairly targeted by Obama’s DOJ, FBI and NSA to help Hillary get elected. When that all backfired Nov. 8, 2016 with Trump’s victory, Democrats and their friends in the press continued the Russia conspiracy theory making it virtually impossible for Trump to reconcile relations with Moscow, after Obama drove relations to Cold War lows. Every time Trump mentions anything Russian, he’s accused by Democrats and press of colluding with the Kremlin. Now Trump faces the latest test, meeting with Putin tomorrow.
Democrats in Congress led by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) demand that Trump cancel his summit with Putin because of Rosentein’s indictment of 12 GRU operatives. Both have insisted, despite interfering with Article 2 [presidential powers] of the Constitution, that Trump’s meeting with Putin be chaperoned. Schumer and Pelosi insist that Trump demand from Putin extradition of the 12 GRU operatives, something so outrageous, so naïve, so counterproductive it would virtually destroy the summit. Putin has denied any Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. When Trump meets with Vladimir tomorrow, he’s likely to deny any Kremlin involvement in hacking the DNC and private email of Podesta. All hacks proved embarrassing to Hillary because she was engaged in nefarious activity.
Instead of letting Democrats hit the summit with a wrecking ball, Trump plans, like he did with Xi and Kim, to take a measured approach, primarily built on rapport-building, not accusations. Trump plans to raise the indictments to Putin, if for no other reason, to let the world know he’s undaunted by Putin. National Security Adviser John Bolton told the press today that Trump won’t likely demand Putin extradite GRU operatives to the U.S. Not only wouldn’t he do it, it would put the U.S. into a vulnerable position. Trump wants Putin on board to help support Kim Jong-un’s nuclear disarmament and contain runaway Iranian influence in the Mideast and North Africa. Looking at China’s incursions in the South China Sea, Trump wants Putin to lean on Xi to discontinue Chinese military activities. Trump wants Putin to help restrain Iran in Syria and Yemen.
When you consider all the pressing world issues in which Putin could prove helpful to the U.S., it’s outrageous that Democrats and the U.S. press want Trump to cancel the summit. Rosenstein’s indictments of 12 GRU operatives, whether they had Putin’s blessings or not, are all water under the bridge. Trump must move on trying to establish better U.S.-Russian relations. Trump rankled the European Union saying they were a foe of the U.S. due to their unfair trade practices. If Trump can help U.S. companies do more business in Russia, it would be a win-win for both countries. With world superpowers dealing with global terrorism, Putin could be a valuable asset to U.S. attempts to thwart Mideast terrorism around the globe. Letting Trump work his magic with Putin can only help U.S. influence around the globe. Keeping Obama’s Cold War mentality hurts both countries.
