CreditYuri Kadobnov/Agence France-Presse
The aftermath of the Trump-Putin meeting in the headlines of US media can be summed up by former CIA Director John Brennan’s comment on twitter: “Nothing short of treasonous”, while Senator John McCain angrily stated, “Today’s press conference in Helsinki was one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory.”
Surprisingly even Fox News, who seldom criticize the President over “throwing his people under the bus” and openly siding with Russian intelligence community and law enforcement agencies.
Neil Cavuto of Fox Business calls Trump’s press conference “disgusting” and something that has set the US “back a lot”. Fox was the only network given interviews with Trump. Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson both did not criticize, rather sided with the president and partook in conspiracy theories regarding Peter Strzok, the FBI agent at the center of the Russia investigation, and the “13 angry Democrats” in the special counsel probe.
In their article regarding the summit, Fox News states that President Trump made several critical errors. Firstly, the visual – while Putin seemed totally in control, Trump lacked focus and authority, avoiding questions and praising Putin, instead of condemning him for allegedly meddling in the elections and annexing Crimea. Secondly, rather than confront the Russian leader on the allegations of meddling in the elections he openly supported him and called the allegations false. Third, Trump made an error in assuming that the relationship between Russia and the US was due to equal and mutual responsibility. Accepting that the US mistakes in international politics were equal to those of Russia in the face of annexing Crimea, the alleged shooting down of a civil airliner, the “aggressive” behavior towards NATO allies and the alleged poisoning of Sergei Skripal. However, his fourth, and according to Fox, biggest mistake is that Trump was unwilling to support his intelligence agencies and also offered to cooperate with Russia on cybersecurity – something Fox News call “the foreign policy equivalent of inviting the fox into the hen house to safeguard the eggs.”
CNN have dubbed their article “Putin’s Poodle”, after The Mirror’s headline of the day after the July 16th summit. They review global newspapers all of which announce Putin’s resounding political victory over the confused Trump. He, according to Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, quoted by CNN, sounded like he was “a hostage forced to read something.”
CBS review on the summit presents the shock and disgust at Trump’s conduct at the press conference. Quoting Arizona Senator Jeff Flake “I never thought I would see the day when our American President would stand on the stage with the Russian President and place blame on the United States for Russian aggression. This is shameful.” The entire article quotes various political allies and enemies criticize Trump of how, at least, visually fails to “understand” that Putin is not his friend, nor his ally. They also mention that the one-on-one meeting had no resolution to tensions between Russia and the US. What Trump seems to find important, according to CBS, is that Putin was “strong” in his denial of the US election meddling. On the most important questions such as the denuclearization Trump was vague, Ukraine was not even mentioned. The biggest criticism CBS has for President Donald Trump is that most of the criticisms he had were saved for America itself.
The Guardian reiterates what other medias have also said, it confirms the condemnation from all political sides, media and citizens. Furthermore, quoting Republican senator Lindsay Graham after Putin’s gift of a World Cup to Trump, who said he would give it to his son, Baron. Her exact words were “I’d check the soccer ball for listening devices and never allow it in the White House,” which also carries the entire notion of US media and political figures that Russia is not a friend, it is not an ally, despite what Trump allegedly thinks.
The New York Times, reviews opinions on the Left and Right, by quoting various authors. While some of them are in support of the idea to improve relationships with Russia, all of them agree that Trump approached it entirely incorrectly and has most likely caused much more harm than good.
The Huffington Post, however, has one of the more interesting articles on the subject of the summit. They quote Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen who calls for a hearing with the US Interpreter who was present in the meeting. The reason behind the request is that Congress needs to know what Trump “promised to Putin on our behalf.”
All major US headliners are condemning Trump’s conduct at the press conference and the meeting, while foreign editions are openly mocking the President of the US.
