President Donald Trump is eager to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin with full diplomatic bells and whistles when the two are in Germany for a multinational summit next month. But the idea is exposing deep divisions within the administration on the best way to approach Moscow in the midst of an ongoing investigation into Russian meddling in the U.S. elections.
Many administration officials believe the U.S. needs to maintain its distance from Russia at such a sensitive time — and interact only with great caution.
But Trump and some others within his administration have been pressing for a full bilateral meeting. He’s calling for media access and all the typical protocol associated with such sessions, even as officials within the State Department and National Security Council urge more restraint, according to a current and a former administration official.
You know one would expect that a person under investigation for possibly colluding with the Russians to hijack an election, would avoid the leader of Russia like the plague, if for no other reason than simply the optics of such a meeting.
But Donald Trump's arrogance and ego simply will not allow him to recognize that this could backfire on him and only add fuel to the ongoing investigations.
Or...it could simply be that Trump is being summoned by his master who wants to demonstrate his dominance over the president of the United States, and Trump is simply too weak and compromised to resist.
Source http://ift.tt/2sKlaYq
