President Donald Trump’s expected meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin this week is a crucial opportunity for clarity.
Thus far into his presidency, Trump has presented conflicting messages about the adversary that is Russia and about the United States’ commitment to its European allies. Because of that, any meeting with Putin in conjunction with a G-20 summit in Germany will generate the most closely watched confab between world leaders in decades, while also providing Trump an opportunity to assert his nation’s role as a diplomatic superpower.
Trump has demonstrated little grasp of the nuances required for such diplomacy, and a meeting with NATO leaders in May resulted in mocking eye rolls from other heads of state and an embarrassing shove to the prime minister of Montenegro. The stakes would be higher for a meeting with Putin and would call for a coherent message from the president.
That might be difficult, considering that Trump is facing a special counsel investigation regarding Russian meddling in last year’s election, along with questions about whether members of his campaign colluded with agents who were under the direction of Putin. Trump fired FBI Director James Comey early in the investigation and insisted that the action had nothing to do with Russia, then told an interviewer he was thinking of “this Russia thing” when he decided to make the move.
Trump then frequently denied that Russia meddled in the election, denouncing it as “fake news” despite consensus from the U.S. intelligence community that there was nothing fake about it. Yet when a report surfaced that then-President Barack Obama had been informed of Russian influence in the election and failed to act, Trump was quick to blame Obama for something he had long insisted never happened.
Trump’s mixed messages have undermined public faith in the election process. Rather than saying from the beginning that no interference would be tolerated and that a full investigation is needed to reassure the public and shore up our democracy, Trump has made a bad situation worse.
All of that provides some subtext for this week’s meetings with Putin and other foreign leaders. While Trump has dismissed allegations of Russian meddling — or embraced them in the name of political expediency — the assertions have diminished his power and effectiveness. They also have overshadowed other issues involving Russia.
The U.S. and Russia are at odds regarding the civil war in Syria, American support for NATO in an effort to stem Russian influence in Europe, and the maneuvering of troops and planes in Eastern Europe. As Matthew Rojansky of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., told CNN: “The momentum in relations between the world’s two big nuclear powers is now so negative, that it really is time to call a halt to anything that looks like further escalation or deterioration.”
Late last year, Obama announced stiff sanctions against Russia, including the expulsion of 35 diplomats and closure of two Russian compounds in the United States. The Trump administration has considered easing those sanctions and returning the compounds to Russian control, and any decision toward that end would embolden the president’s critics and reinforce the narrative that he is beholden to Putin.
Those are the issues facing Trump as he prepares to meet with Putin. While those issues are complex, even by geopolitical standards, a clear message from the president will assure the public that he is, indeed, putting America first.
