Here’s the thing about the Trump-Putin summit
The mysterious Trump-Putin Summit is scheduled to take place in Helsinki on July 16th. Why this summit, why now? No one knows. Trump and Putin saw each other at the Asia-Pacific summit and found many excuses to be alone together, which is probably already more time than any other U.S. leader in recent history has spent with Putin. We don’t need anything from them, but they screwed themselves with their illegal annexation of the Crimean Peninsula and the resulting worldwide sanctions against Russia. So why is Trump kowtowing to Putin’s demand to meet in Helsinki?
Sure, Helsinki is a logical choice to meet as it has repeatedly served as a neutral ground for U.S.-Russia relations. What does this billionaire dictator want from Trump though? Oh, nothing much, just his soul and absolute control. In all reality, even though Putin may be the richest man in the world, his country and the majority of his people struggle to make ends meet, therefore he has good reason to court or coerce Trump to do away with sanctions against Russia.
The question du jour is, does Putin have kompromat on Trump, or is Trump just experiencing a dictator crush on Putin? Honestly, it’s hard to tell sometimes. On the one hand, Trump is a walking faux-pas and on the other hand, he speaks in glowing terms of people who rule with blunt force trauma. So, it’s a bit of a lose-lose situation for the American side. And of course, state controlled Russian media is quick to pick up on our seemingly weaker position, bragging on air that they elected Trump.
This brings us back around to the question, why the hell are they meeting in the first place? Will Putin ask Trump to remove or reduce sanctions? Or will he simply instruct Trump on how to make it happen? Perhaps he’ll promise to be a good boy in Syria if we would just leave him to it. Now, we know Donald Trump is such a strong negotiator. Just look at how he “handled” Kim Jong-un in Singapore. So nothing to worry about, eh? Trump left with a page of empty promises, and Kim Jong-un promptly began rebuilding his aging nuclear platform. Unfortunately, the Russians are very aware we have the weaker man, so chances are they will continue to make their play, and Trump will continue to thrill to the touch of Putin’s kind and ever so patronizing attention.
