Unforeseen Contingencies

Nothing has done more to convince me that facts and reason are irrelevant to people's beliefs than watching reactions to the Trump Presidency, and there's no better example than the reactions to the Trump-Putin press conference in Helsinki today.  The reactions are outrage and hysteria.  Conservative Ben Shapiro called it "disgraceful."  A bunch of Republicans were incensed.  Democrats, as always, were insane, with traitor and oath-breaker John Brennan calling it "treason" and some random Democrat Congressman calling for a military coup against Trump.  (The Congressman should be arrested and charged.)

I carefully went over the entire transcript of the press conference.  There's nothing objectionable at all.  The vast majority of things people are complaining about are complete misrepresentations of what was said.  Quite a few of the critics seem to have wanted Trump to do something like condemn Putin and threaten him, or maybe just turn and punch him.  Instead, both Trump and Putin said they completely disagreed on a number of issues, and Trump denied -- understandably -- the utterly unfounded "collusion" charges.  It's shameful that this stupidity was even brought up, when it is obvious that the FBI leadership attempted to sway the election and then bring down the winner, and that the "collusion" claim is an artifact of this effort.  As for Russian meddling in the "election" (actually in the campaign, which is not the same thing), Putin shrewdly asked why it is that law enforcement rather than the judiciary gets to make the final conclusion on what happened.  Good point.

I don't trust the Russians, and I hate Putin, but all the current Russophobia is fake.  The current Russophobes tend to be the same people who, when Russia invaded Crimea, pretended not to know who the "little green men" might be, and when Russia then invaded eastern Ukraine, accepted the general refusal of Obama and other western leaders to provide weapons to Ukraine.  These are same people who were silent when Barack Obama canceled missile defense for Eastern Europe, and when he told Dmitry Medved to relay to Putin that he (Obama) would talk tough about Russia during the election campaign but afterwards be cooperative.  These are the same people who said nothing when Obama allowed Russia to effectively invade Syria and then claimed Russia eliminated Syria's chemical weapons, a claim that turned out to be a lie.  And when Obama's Iranian deal "went through" (somehow neither the U.S. nor Iran actually ratified it) Russia immediately began sending anti-aircraft systems to Iran, and allowed stepped-up Iranian involvement in Syria.  Few of Trump's critics cared about all that.  These current Russophobes actually don't care at all about Russia.  They simply want to get Trump and their claims that he's soft on Putin and maybe even Putin's agent make no sense at all.

Contrast what has happened under President Trump.

• Sanctions have been increased on Russia, Russian diplomats expelled from the U.S., and a Russian consulate shut down.  
• One quarter of Syria's air force has been destroyed by the United States, mostly in a reprisal for Syrian chemical weapon attacks... while under Russia's "protection."
• U.S. forces killed 200-300 Russians in one battle in Syria.
• Trump authorized provision of deadly weapons to Ukraine. 
• Trump has pressed hard for NATO to strengthen its forces, he has pushed for a stronger U.S. military, and he has surrounded himself with tough advisors like Bolton, Mattis, and Pompeo.  
• Trump has pushed for development of U.S. LNG shipments to Eastern Europe, and has opposed the German-Russian Nordstream 2 plan for gas pipelines from Russia to Germany that would bypass Ukraine, and strengthen Russia's ability to dominate Germany via energy.

These are facts.  If a person notes them and still believes Trump is "disgraceful" or "treasonous" or a "Russian agent," they are beyond facts and reason.

And all this is crucially important.  For the first time, Putin is dealing with a western leader who isn't an unprincipled pantywaist.  For all his nice talk, Trump has been willing to get tough with Russia, including killing a few hundred Russian contractors.  There's one other tough leader Putin recently faced -- Benjamin Netanyahu, who happens to have a very strong relationship with the Trump administration.  It's hard to overestimate how important this is.  Everything I read from the Middle East suggests that Putin has agreed to sell out his Iranian ally.  In Moscow, Netanyahu drew a line, insisting Syria will not become an Iranian base.  Since then, Russia has acquiesced to Israeli air raids on Iranian and Hezbollah targets, and Iran is being crowded out of Syria.  This undercutting of Iran is crucial for non-proliferation and reducing risk of nuclear war.  Russian cooperation -- or acquiescence -- is crucial for this.

Trump's masterful foreign policy has energized the Saudis, who under MBS' guidance are reforming internally, explicitly weakening the Wahhabist Islamist influence, and deepening their connections with the Israelis.  The criminal regimes of the PA and Hamas are tottering, and with pressure from the Saudis, Egyptians, and Emirates, it's conceivable there could actually be some sort of peace deal.  The Iranian regime is likewise tottering.

How is it that people cannot see all this?  Instead, they are outraged that Trump didn't get into a spitting match with Putin at the press conference.  If you're playing hardball -- as Trump is -- there's no room for stupid gestures.

I've seen two good non-TDS analyses of Trump-Putin, and I highly recommend them.

The first is from American Thinker's Gary Gindler.  He argues that Trump dislikes Putin and is boxing him into a corner.  I think Gindler is right.  I've always said Putin has a very weak hand but plays it well against feckless Western leaders.  Trump is not feckless.

Not as serious but quite fun is Toni Williams' piece on Victory Girls Blog. She suggests Trump and Putin were in part trolling the press.  That's certainly true.  I particularly liked that Putin kept everyone waiting - a technique he regularly uses to dominate those waiting for him -- and that Trump beat him at the game.

But I especially liked Williams' comment that "Putin and Trump should have refused to come into the room until a few reporters with an IQ above that of hamburger showed up."  Of course, if they did that, we'd still be waiting for the press conference.

Photo: Trump grabs Putin's ball.