IN HELSINKI, TRUMP WAS TOTALLY OUT OF HIS ELEMENT

…The guy on the right was the winner in Finland

Trump obviously doesn’t understand how our government works.

Trump had a private meeting with Kim Jong Un, and without discussing it with his own military, without discussing with the leader of South Korea, Trump called off the yearly defense exercisers held between Japan, the US and South Korea.  These exercises are due to the fact that there has never been an official end to the 70 year old war between North and South Korea.

North Korea has been working on developing nuclear weapons to maintain their dictatorship, and to be able to threaten its successful democratic southern neighbor and Japan, whom the north dearly hates them both.

Trump had declared a “win” with Kim in Singapore for nullifying the North’s nuclear programs.  But due to the US observation satellites, they show that North Korea is still working to secretly improve their nuclear facilities and they are still working on improving their nuclear delivery rockets.  Trump's expensive Singapore trip did squat.

And now, since returning from the Helsinki Summit with Russia’s Putin,  President Trump has declared another “win” but he has been forced to walk back multiple statements he made about Russia.

First, was his negative comments about his own intelligence community's credibility compared to Vladimir Putin's. Then it was walking back his statement that Russia wasn't still interfering in US elections. Then it was his apparent agreement to allow Russia to interview Americans it accuses of crimes, including former Obama’s Russian Ambassador, Michael McFaul.

  Fortunately, even though Trump called this "interview" idea “an incredible offer from Putin”, Trump’s White House advisers shot that down by convincing him that there was no way the US would allow Putin’s people to interrogate US citizens or former diplomats.  In addition, Putin’s goons had seriously harassed Ambassador McFaul and his family while they were residents in Russia.  And Putin has also refused to let the US deal with those that have been indicted for interfering in the 2016 election.

These are all just giant wounds, self-inflicted by our own president, and all it did was precisely for what Putin had hoped.  It is also makes Trump look like what he fears the most, which is to make him look weak and ineffectual, which is exactly what it did.

Trump’s ignorance about our government was recently made clear when he had said that his older sister Maryanne Trump Barry who is an inactive Senior United States Circuit Judge.  But the president actually said his ”sister a former judge had signed similar bills as those being discussed today in Congress”.

What in the world is Trump talking about?  A judge signing Bills from Congress?

Our idiot president doesn’t even understand the difference or the functions between the three branches of the US government.

This idea of having US citizens being interrogated by the Russians is totally laughable to anybody who understands Russia and the former KGB Colonel who leads it.  It's clear this was a trap sprung by Putin in their private, two-hour meeting. (The ridiculous meeting with no other advisers present)

Let’s face it, the braggart Trump is a guy who likes cutting deals and to always walk away from a meeting with a deliverable. So a deal like this "interviewing", to a government neophyte like Trump, this probably seemed sensible. You talk to our guys, and we'll talk to yours. Why not, right?  And of course, it’s just casual talk about how your guys screwed us, and our guys screwed you, right?  Right…..nothing more than that!  Sure!

But the idea was seen as totally ridiculous from the start.  Even Republican lawmakers weren't about to let it happen.  They have even started drafting new legislation to express their disapproval. Trump was forced to back down on an idea that, according to his own comments, he thought it was fantastic.  Unfortunately, as expected, it was a total “amateur hour” idea.

By the end of this week, some Republicans were musing publicly about whether Putin might actually have something on Trump.  Rep. Will Hurd, a Republican from Texas, wrote a New York Times op-ed saying Putin is "manipulating" Trump. Ya think?

To the outside world, it all has to look like Trump went over his skis repeatedly, only to be reined in by Congress and by the news media. Especially in this last case, it looks like he has no idea what he's doing, which is correct.  Trump was completely out of his element when he tried to negotiate with someone like Putin.

If what we saw was the kind of image Trump is trying to project on the world stage, then it must be stated as: “mission accomplished”.

Copyright G.Ater 2018