This morning, President Donald Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin one-on-one.
That our president requested that no one be witness to the discussion is troubling.
Mr. Trumps memory, after all, is as leaky as a sieve and very selective.
Just this past week the president denied hed said anything derogatory about Theresa May in an interview with the British tabloid The Sun.
When audio of the interview recorded Mr. Trump saying Britains prime minister had wrecked Brexit, the countrys plan to extract itself from the European Union, Mr. Trump called it fake news. Mr. Trump then mansplained away saying he had told her how to do it, but she didnt listen to me.
Mr. Trump also lauded one of Ms. Mays strongest critics, the bumbling Boris Johnson, saying, He would make a great prime minister.
Thats a most unusual way to treat a staunch ally. That Ms. May is a woman is not lost on us. Similarly, Mr. Trump dissed Chancellor Angela Merkle, saying her leadership has put Germany in a sad situation, and that it is under Russias thumb because it buys 60-70 percent of its energy from Russia.
Not so. Germany relies on natural gas for less than 20 percent of its energy needs, according to experts. And more importantly, as someone who grew up in East Germany, Ms. Merkle is fully aware of Russias revanchist goals.
That truth, however, doesnt fit into Trumps narrative of what it means to be a leader, which of course predictably segues to Vladimir Pecs Putin, president of Russia, who, in Mr. Trumps opinion, exudes leadership by shedding his shirt for photo ops and poisoning people.
When a British reporter asked Mr. Trump this weekend if he regarded Putin as a dictator, the president replied, I assume he probably is. I think we could probably get along very well.
That Mr. Trump eagerly identifies with Mr. Putin should scare out of our wits those of us who cherish our freedoms.
DESPITE THE evidence of espionage, Mr. Trump continues to view the indictment of 12 Russian intelligence agency officials of interfering with the 2016 election as more fake news and a rigged witch hunt.
The indictments are proof that Russian intelligence infiltrated our election system on both national and state levels by gaining access to U.S. computer systems. On the state level, the conspirators gained access to state boards of elections and the offices of secretaries of state and their voting rolls. Russian officials also targeted the Democratic Party.
Instead of demanding the foreign perpetrators be held accountable, Mr. Trump prefers to put it in the context that the Democratic Party, especially, lacks sufficient safeguards.
I think the D.N.C. (Democratic National Committee) should be ashamed of themselves for allowing themselves to be hacked, he said.
