It’s (Practically) Unanimous!

Very clearly all of the major media outlets, pundits, and intelligence bureaucrats hate Trump. Today there are editorials, columns, op-eds, blog posts, and comments condemning Trump’s remarks in his joint press conference with Russian President Putin in Helsinki. His commments have been called “disgusting” and “treasonous”.

In his column in the Wall Street Journal Walter Russell Meade has a somewhat more tempered reaction:

Why does Mr. Trump seem so determined to defy his advisers and play a Russia card that costs him dearly in Washington and nourishes the suspicions of the investigators probing his Russia connections? His fiercest critics are sure they know the answer: Vladimir Putin has “compromised” the president, leaving him no choice but to appease the Russian dictator.

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Mr. Obama’s policy in particular bore similarities to Mr. Trump’s. Both men held Washington’s foreign-policy establishment (“the blob” or “the deep state”) in contempt. Both came to the job with a belief that their unique life stories and personal qualities would enable them to transform global politics in a historic way. Both were willing to accept a Russian presence in Syria and to overlook Russian complicity in Bashar Assad’s atrocities. Long after the 2009 “reset” failed, Mr. Obama was willing to flout domestic public opinion to make concessions to Russia. As he whispered to Russia’s then-President Dmitry Medvedev in 2012: “This is my last election. . . . After my election I have more flexibility,” on issues like missile defense.

While the press celebrated rather than pilloried him for it, Mr. Obama also made overtures to a U.S. adversary (Iran) over the heads of longtime allies (Israel and the Gulf states). Mr. Trump’s Russia overtures over Germany’s head are just as ill-considered.

What differentiates Mr. Trump from Mr. Obama most sharply is his approach to Europe. Mr. Obama saw Europe as a rich and generally well-intentioned part of the world that punches well below its weight in world affairs. Mr. Trump’s view has been profoundly influenced by hard-core Brexiteers like Nigel Farage and anti-Islamist campaigners who see in the EU a mix of fecklessness in defending Western values and ruthlessness in promoting its own bureaucratic power.

My views on Europe comport more closely with President Obama’s while I’ve already expressed my views on Russia. We’ve bungled our relationship with Russia over the period of the last 25 years. The Russians were never going to be our friends but it will now be extremely difficult to engage in any sort of strategic partnership with them and it could have been much better than it is.

Also, be careful about whom you’re cheering. Following the advice of some of Trump’s most vehement critics will lead to war not just with Russia but with Iran, North Korea, and maybe even China as well.