Donald Trump is upset. He’s upset that his sieve-like White House spilled that he ran over his own advisers in his haste to pass his congratulations to Vladimir Putin. And he’s upset that Americans don’t immediately agree with him that it’s only right to give Putin some sugar at this particular moment.
The news media, and the people in Trump’s own White House, are upset because Trump called up Putin to chit-chat and give him a morale boost in the middle of a crisis in which Putin authorized the use of a weapon of mass destruction on the soil of America’s closest NATO ally. And yes, President Obama did offer congratulations to Putin … which happened not in the middle of a crisis in which Putin had authorized his agents to spread nerve agent around England.
If by this Trump means that Russia can be the chief supplier of the North Korean regime, help Assad in mopping up the last resistance in Syria, work closely with Iran, and put that arms race in overdrive by announcing a new generation of “unstoppable” missiles—then absolutely. In fact, they’re “helping” with those things right now.
Perhaps next time Trump gets ready to call Putin for talky talk fun-time, one of his advisers might let slip that Vladimir actually thought Arnold made a better host on The Apprentice. That might finally get Trump to take Russia seriously.