What If Trump’s Embarrassing Performance In Front of Putin Was His Most Viable Option?

It seems like the entire world watched the joint press conference between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin this week. And the reviews aren’t great.

There were plenty of things wrong with what Trump said at that Helsinki summit. For starters, he complimented Vladimir Putin, a murderous thug, by calling him “very strong” and “powerful.” He said “both countries” are to blame for the worsening relationship between the U.S. and Russia.

Of course, his biggest blunder from Monday was when he suggested in taking Putin’s word over our own US intelligence regarding who was responsible for the meddling in the 2016 election. He also bent over backwards not to hold Putin’s feet to the fire that, so much so that he bizarrely hounded the DNC for not handing over their hacked server to the FBI and blasted the “witch hunt” that is the Mueller investigation. He also trashed Peter Strzok, and continued to boast his election victory over Hillary Clinton in his effort not to hold Putin accountable.

Frankly, he came off as self-serving and weak. And his so-called “clarification” the following day was comical. While he struck a stronger tone during his CBS interview, it was too little too late.

What continues to be remarkable is the “good cop, bad cop” dynamic President Trump and his administration have demonstrated when it comes to Russia. While Trump’s rhetoric has always been soft, even friendly, with Putin, his administration policies have actually been very tough. From increased sanctions, to the expulsion of Russian diplomats, to arming Ukraine forces, they’ve held Russia to account, and that includes U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley‘s strong talk toward Russia on U.N. matters.

But the question we’re still struggling with today is: did Trump behave the way he did in the first place?

Well, if you listen to the Trump cynics, they’re now even more convinced that Putin is holding dirt over the president like the infamous “pee tape” referred to in the dossier. It’s pure speculation.

What isn’t speculation, though, is Trump’s frustration with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe. For the past 18 months, the mainstream media and the Democratic Party have been obsessing over the idea that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians, and that has led the President to obsess over their obsession, dismissing most reports on Russian meddling as “fake news.”

The reason why Trump cannot stop tweeting about the “witch hunt” is because he knows that many of his political adversaries don’t believe he is a legitimate president. Despite beating Clinton fair and square, much of the #Resistance insist Trump is some sort of “Manchurian candidate” and that if it weren’t for Russia’s meddling, he wouldn’t have gotten elected. And fueling this narrative of collusion, which to this day there’s still no evidence of, Trump felt the need to deflect to Dem-related controversies instead.

Monday’s press conference was certainly humiliating for the president. But what if that humiliation would lead to the most desirable outcome?

Before the two leaders took questions from the press, they first met one-on-one with only interpreters in the room. They subsequently held a bilateral luncheon meeting with both leaders’ top advisers. The fact is, we don’t know what was discussed during the face-to-face time. We have no idea if Trump seriously confronted Putin about the meddling allegations or if he warned him he’d face consequences if he meddled in our elections again, or brought up Crimea, or just chatted about the weather. It didn’t get disclosed at the presser, all we saw was the embarrassing lack of confrontation. But here’s the thing: in practice, what good would it have done if he had confronted Putin at that press conference?

Even President Obama told reporters at his final press conference in December of 2016 that “public shaming” of Putin on the world stage wouldn’t be an effective strategy. Obama said there would be no point, since Putin continues to deny the allegations. Now it’s being reported that Trump was briefed before his inauguration and knew all along that Putin himself ordered the cyberattacks against the United States. Even if he openly called Putin a liar at that summit, what good would it have done? If anything, it might have escalated tensions towards a war nobody wants.

Yes, Trump could have sent a stronger message than he did, demonstrating that any entity attempting to interfere with our democracy or adversary that tried hacking into our electoral process would have hell to pay. And while it was a grave error for Trump to essentially take Putin’s side on the fact of the meddling during the Helsinki summit, calling his performance “treasonous” is still over-the-top and moronic.

Obviously, Trump wants to improve relations with Russia, which is something the American people largely support. And more importantly, he needs Russia’s cooperation in facing some of the world’s biggest problems the world faces, like Syria, Iran, and North Korea. Perhaps those ongoing conflicts were discussed behind closed doors and perhaps progress was made for a potential partnership in these major global conflicts.

If that’s the case (and that’s a big “if”), then it would have been wise for Trump not to step on Putin’s toes. Like his summit with North Korean Dictator Kim Jong Un, it serves no purpose to publicly call out the ruthless leader’s misdeeds if it may jeopardize the chance at world peace and prosperity for both nations.

Leave the condemning of Russia to DNI Dan Coats, Sec. of State Mike Pompeo, National Security Advisor John Bolton, and UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, If this summit, if playing good cop, ultimately leads to foreign policy achievements that benefit the U.S., Trump is willing to take a few punches politically in the hopes they’ll pay off down the road.

We simply don’t know what we don’t know. We don’t know what the two men discussed and we don’t know what’s to come. If it leads to positive results, then Trump will yet again prove how the world continues to underestimate him. But if nothing good comes out of this summit, then that press conference will leave a nasty stain on his presidency.

[image via screengrab]

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.