It's a show. A horror show.

It's a show. A horror show

by digby




My Salon column this morning, written before the summit:

By the time you are reading this, the much anticipated (dreaded?) summit between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will have begun. In an interview with CBS news anchor Jeff Glor on Sunday Trump was asked about his goal for the meeting and he replied, "I'll let you know after the meeting," which certainly does offer him plenty of room to declare it a success. Trump did say that "nothing bad" would happen so we can all rest easy on that count.

The indictments of twelve Russian military intelligence officers on Friday on criminal hacking charges put this entire spectacle in a different light than it was in when Trump set off for the NATO meeting last week.  According to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, Trump was aware of the coming indictments which means that trash talking the investigation as a "witch hunt" during his trip and attacking the NATO alliance and Teresa May were all done knowing that the noose is tightening. What seemed to be an aggressive play for dominance now looks like someone acting out under tremendous stress and anxiety.

His reckless interview with the UK tabloid The Sun in which he insulted the prime minister for no good reason bears out that impression. The reporter claimed that he rudely shooed away his aides who were trying to protect him from himself as he rambled on with a self-destructive rant that sounded as if he were trying to convince himself that he was in control.

In his joint press conference the next day he apologized to May, which was unusual but naturally he also lied and said that the newspaper hadn't quoted him in full claiming that he had a recording and could prove it, all they had to do was ask the press secretary. Of course the paper had already released the audio of the interview. And requests for the White House's version have gone unanswered.

He was agitated and belligerent, confused at times,picking fights with the press, acting churlish at having to address the Russian interference in the election. He said he would ask Putin about it but he didn't expect Putin to confess, there would be no "Perry Mason" moment, there's nothing he could do.

But he knew that the Special Prosecutor's office was about to hand down an indictment that told the story in great detail. He knew that the scandal was about to shift into a higher gear.

His performance was extremely odd, even by his standards:

Trump’s last 2 attempts to discuss foreign policy have been complete and utter disasters https://t.co/LCqwmX1xq7 pic.twitter.com/Sq896OUdNn
— ThinkProgress (@thinkprogress) July 15, 2018


Pressed again on what he'd like Putin to do in Syria, Trump starts bashing Obama, and eventually gets around to praising himself.

The president is simply incapable of discussing foreign policy at any level of depth. pic.twitter.com/A8g4MFbqHI
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 13, 2018


Trump sounds tired, is struggling to read pic.twitter.com/zA3a4a9MHf
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 13, 2018




After the press conference mercilessly came to an end he and the first lady met Queen Elizabeth and it could not have been more awkward. On one side of the screen was Rod Rosenstein handing down indictments that detailed foreign intervention on behalf of Donald Trump in 2016 and on the other side the president was making it obvious that he was clueless about how to behave around a 92 year old woman, much less one accustomed to formal protocol. The whole world held its breath as he zigged and zagged in front of her terrified that he was going to somehow knock her to the ground.  It wasn't the worst moment of the English leg of the trip but it was certainly the weirdest.

He was obviously relieved to get out of there and head to his usual week-end gig doing personal appearances at his commercial properties. The Turnberry Golf Course is an interesting choice since it's garnered a lot of press attention because nobody can figure out where Trump got the massive amount of cash he paid for what is an ever growing money pit.

He golfed and he tweeted. He blamed the Obama administration for the hacking.  In his interview with CBS he said:
I heard that they were trying, or people were trying, to hack into the RNC too. The Republican National Committee. But we had much better defenses. I've been told that by a number of people. We had much better defenses, so they couldn't. I think the DNC should be ashamed of themselves for allowing themselves to be hacked. They had bad defenses and they were able to be hacked. But I heard they were trying to hack the Republicans too. But -- and this may be wrong -- but they had much stronger defenses.
The Intelligence Community, the Senate Select Intelligence Committee and the indictments handed down last Friday all make clear that the Russian agents were helping Trump. Let's just say it's unlikely they would have felt the need to try too hard to break into the RNC for that purpose.

As for what's going to happen now, nobody has a clue, not even his national security adviser John Bolton who seems a little bit dazed and confused which is not something we've ever seen before.

National security adviser John Bolton on whether he thinks Pres. Trump should trust Russian Pres. Putin:

"I’m the national security adviser, I'm not the national security decision-maker...He's going to make the decision how to handle this" https://t.co/0ZJlbNSM7i #ThisWeek pic.twitter.com/r6kYhEcAQF
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) July 16, 2018


National security adviser John Bolton tells @jonkarl he finds it "hard to believe" that Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin was unaware of Russian interference in 2016 presidential election https://t.co/lcky4rNR2f #ThisWeek pic.twitter.com/Fw2Tp96ePP
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) July 16, 2018


ABC: Following Mueller's indictment, do you have any doubt that Putin knew about the election meddling that was going on in 2016?@AmbJohnBolton: Well, when we met, Putin told me he didn't, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ pic.twitter.com/CaQKumw08j
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 15, 2018



The single biggest unanswered question of this whole strange odyssey is why are they having this summit? Trump's meeting with Putin alone is obviously suspicious. Considering all the evidence of some sort of collusion that is already in the public domain, it seems reasonable that he has nefarious motives. He certainly behaves like someone with something to hide.

But he also desperately whirling from one spectacle to another --- summits, reality show supreme court nominations, meetings with world leaders, rallies for the faithful, more spectacle. Whatever he did with the Russians to get elected, it's obvious that he has no idea how to do the job of president so he's just putting on a show. This is how he's gotten through his whole life, bluffing his way through, teetering on the edge of disaster, always on the brink of having everything blow up in his face. He's dancing as fast as he can but you can see that he's starting to flag.

So the question isn't what does Donald Trump want out of this summit. He will tell us afterwards that it is a great success because as long as he's on TV meeting with Vladimir Putin, it's "yuge." The question is what Vladimir Putin wants out of this summit. He's giving Trump his extravaganza and he'll certainly expect something in return.


Update: It was far, far worse than anything we expected. Even right wingers seem freaked out by it:

Asked whether he believes US intel or Putin, Trump goes on tirade against FBI over "DNC Server", says it's not clear who to believe. pic.twitter.com/d7Viw1Vn4B

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) July 16, 2018


Putin gives non-denial denial about the pee tape. (we had a good run, folks. nothing lasts forever.) pic.twitter.com/4D3G42yBXn

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) July 16, 2018


Trump denounces Peter Strzok and "witch hunt" at conclusion of Putin handler review. pic.twitter.com/1gvSM2hGYr

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) July 16, 2018


Trump: "My people came to me, [Director of National Intelligence] Dan Coats came to me, some others, they said they think it's Russia. I have President Putin. He just said it's not Russia. I will say this, I don't see any reason why it would be." pic.twitter.com/p6kfkGw5pC

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) July 16, 2018


Here are Anderson Cooper’s words about the ‘disgraceful’ Trump performance pic.twitter.com/N25D5GyCA0

— Roland Scahill (@rolandscahill) July 16, 2018



Jesus H. Christ. Even I didn't expect it to be this bad.


.