The meeting that everyone fears will speed up the end of civilization as we know it is now underway. President Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin are meeting behind closed doors in Helsinki, Finland and only the worst is feared. There is genuine concern that the President will just haphazardly spill classified information to Putin–who will use it to further infiltrate the American political process, drive more wedges between the US and its Western European allies and confound our efforts to bring peace and stability to the Middle East. Fortunately, reports state that the President doesn’t read nor understand the daily security briefings he receives–and therefore likely doesn’t have any viable information to provide to Putin–that is unless Fox and Friends discussed classified info recently.
What is happening behind those closed doors is the same melodrama that plays out anytime President Trump meets with other people of power: He will talk big about his private businesses, mistakenly state the position of the US, dismiss the importance of the other leader and demand full loyalty to whatever decisions and courses of actions that he might take in the future–even if they are contradictory in nature. If the world leader agrees to that, the President will publicly praise them and say the meeting went “great–best summit in Presidential history”. If the President doesn’t get his way–or the other leader challenges or questions his motives, there will be public attacks on that leader, sometimes with them standing right next to him.
The Washington Post had a great article last Friday on why President Trump struggles to get along with our allies–and wants to be so friendly with our enemies: because in his mind, international relations–like everything else in his life–is strictly about him. The President doesn’t go to summits seeing himself as a representative of America, he considers himself to be America–so when other leaders don’t capitulate to his demands or echo his sentiments on topics, they are seen to be “attacking America”. Nevermind that all other facets of relations between our countries are going great–if your leader isn’t “nice” to President Trump, our “relations have never been worse–and it’s the other country’s fault.
Vladimir Putin is no overmatched bureaucrat that rose to power in a political system. He is ex-KGB–and he is ruthless. Putin comes into this meeting knowing everything about President Trump–how to gain his trust, how to push his buttons, how to manipulate his love of the spotlight to advance Russia’s ulterior motives–while President Trump likely comes in knowing nothing about how Putin ticks. His strategy will be to brag, threaten and engage in passive-aggressive techniques that will play directly into the Russian dictator’s hands.
And once the doors swing open, we will see two smiling men shaking hands–one will be happy because another guy was nice to him and made him feel powerful–and the other one knowing he had just played his adversary for a chump.
