Donald Trump’s bizarre new belated response to Russia’s expulsion of U.S. diplomats

| 1:46 pm EDT August 31, 2017
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Weeks ago, after the United States recommitted itself to sanctions against Russia for its interference in the 2016 election, the Kremlin responded by expelling hundreds of U.S. diplomats. After a prolonged silence, Donald Trump and his administration are bizarrely just now finally responding. There are two possible explanations for why Trump suddenly cares about this, but either way, his response is tellingly tepid.

When Vladimir Putin was trying to send a message about how unhappy he was over the sanctions bill, he announced he was expelling 755 U.S. diplomats. It’s since been pointed out that the U.S. never had anything close to 755 diplomats in Russia, but that’s just how serious of a message Putin wanted to send; he expelled so many U.S. diplomats, he even kicked out the ones that don’t exist. So how did Trump decide to finally respond today? By shutting down a Russian consulate in San Francisco and closing a couple annexes in Washington DC and New York (link). Not only is this little more than a slap on the wrist, it’s not even being framed as anything more. It gets weirder.

This is the rough equivalent of trying to punish Disney World by shutting down one of the rides of EPCOT. As weak of a response as it is, the larger question may be about the timing. I wrote this morning that, four full days into the Trump Tower Moscow scandal, Donald Trump still hasn’t bothered to even try to fight back (link). He’s not yelling “fake news” at anyone. He’s not trying to create a distraction. It’s possible that this is a feeble attempt at demonstrating to the American people that he stands apart from the Kremlin after all. If so, it’s stunningly weak. There is also another possible explanation.

Yesterday the Kremlin put out an official statement confirming that Donald Trump’s attorney really did reach out during the election for help in getting Trump Tower Moscow built (link). There was no need for Putin to throw Trump under the bus like that, and it came across as an intentional attempt at finishing Trump off. It’s possible that Trump has figured this out, and he’s genuinely angry at Putin, and today’s consulate retaliation was a legitimate attempt at pushing back. But even if so, it was a profoundly weak gesture. Then again, Trump has come to be defined by his tepid weakness. If you find Palmer Report valuable, make a donation.