Donald Trump met Russia’s Vladimir Putin on a variety of occasions during his first term, though most were relatively brief interactions on the sidelines of G20 and APEC gatherings. There was, however, one summit between the two leaders.
As Trump and Putin prepare for their second summit in Alaska, it’s worth remembering just how badly the American president failed in his first attempt.
In July 2018, ahead of a bilateral meeting in Helsinki, White House officials provided Trump with a lengthy briefing book, intended to steer the Republican into taking a firm line with his Russian counterpart. Trump either didn’t read or chose to ignore his own team’s guidance.
After a private meeting with the Russian leader in which the American president confiscated his interpreters’ notes for reasons that were never explained, the Republican held a disastrous press conference in which Trump defended America’s adversary, took cheap shots at his own country, and sided with Putin over the judgment of American intelligence professionals.
Soon after, The New York Times reported that U.S. intelligence officials “were unanimous in saying that they and their colleagues were aghast at how Mr. Trump had handled himself with Mr. Putin.” One official summarized a consensus view, concluding that it was clear whose side Trump was on, and “it isn’t ours.”
Former CIA Director John Brennan argued at the time that Trump’s performance in Helsinki exceeded the threshold of “high crimes [and] misdemeanors,” was “nothing short of treasonous,” and offered timely evidence that “he is wholly in the pocket of Putin.”
Then-Sen. John McCain went so far as to call Trump’s appearance in Helsinki “one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory.” The Arizona Republican, a month before his death, added, “No prior president has ever abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant.” Politico reported around the same time that the bipartisan consensus on Capitol Hill was that Trump “thoroughly embarrassed the United States.” In some circles, the diplomatic gathering quickly came to be known as Trump’s “Surrender Summit.” In theory, it shouldn’t be too difficult for the second summit between these two to be less of a disaster. In practice, it remains to be seen whether the Republican can manage to avoid disgracing himself again. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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