Editorial: Words mean little to this US President

Opinion

COMMENT:

Some of his best friends in American politics have called Donald Trump's press conference with Vladimir Putin the most serious mistake of his presidency so far, though when you add them all up the latest always seemed the most serious. Before long Trump trumps it with a further embarrassment. But the press conference in Helsinki this week was one of those performances so bad that Trump has tried to rescind it.

He said he "misspoke" when he doubted US intelligence that Russia interfered in the 2016 US election. He meant to say he did not have any reason to doubt Russia interfered in the election. He added, "I accept our intelligence community's conclusion that Russia's meddling in the 2016 election took place. Could be other people also, a lot of people out there. There was no collusion (with the Trump campaign) at all."

Those words need to filed for quotation the next time he denies Russian interference, as he surely will. He does not want to believe it because he thinks it takes some of the shine off his election victory and might even cast doubt on the legitimacy of his presidency. He seems so worried on that score that it is a wonder he wanted a face-to-face private meeting with Putin at this moment.

By all accounts, he knew before he went on his European tour the FBI indictments against 12 Russian military intelligence officers were about to be handed down. A normal US President would have known this was no time for a summit even if there was no question of collusion with his election team. Nothing was to be gained by protesting to Putin in person, as Trump recognised. As soon as he knew of the indictments he should have cancelled the summit, as many advised him to.

The fact that he did not, the fact that he gave Putin superpower recognition on the world stage, and gave him more credence than US intelligence in that appalling press conference afterwards, has only strengthen the suspicion of Democrats that, in the words of House minority leader Nancy Pelosi yesterday, "The Russians have something on the President, personally, financially or politically."

It does not help that Trump had stated no clear purposes for the meeting and said little afterwards about what he and Putin discussed. Trump likes to establish a personal rapport with certain leaders, and there would be no harm in that if it were not for the fact he appears to find a rapport with autocrats rather than leaders of liberal democracies.

But at least when he met President Xi of China and Kim Jong Un of North Korea he had clear issues to resolve. And he appears to have had some success. China became more helpful with sanctions on North Korea and in his meeting with Kim, Trump took the useful confidence-building step of suspending US military exercises on the Korean Peninsula. Some good may yet come of that.

But at the Helsinki news conference Putin offered access to Russians accused of meddling in the US election in return for a Russian investigation of Kremlin critics and Trump was impressed. He seemed anxious to say whatever Putin wanted to hear and that is the worry.