Trump did an excellent job in Helsinki

Oh please, he has investments all over the world.

That has no impact on his decisions.

He owns a shitload of stuff in Britain but doesn't have a problem pissing them off.

 

They wanted Trump to attack Putin for interfering in the election so they could feel validated in their 3 year temper tantrum about Trump's presidency being illegitimate. They had the copy ready to go and Trump let them down.

 

That's right. It's all about the money. That's why he donates his salary. I think the Tower in Russia will be better than the one in North Korea.

 

I just like the tactic. Same as Brexit.

Conservative parties are facing a split between internationalist establishment types and populists. The media ignores this entirely and plays it off as dissent within the ranks, as if there's no interior factions here.

It is completely unsurprising that Jeff Flake would think this is a disgrace. Same goes for McCain. Boy the GOP dodged a bullet in 2008, could you imagine a tea party uprising with McCain as President?

Anyone with a cursory knowledge of US politics knows all this.

 

He donates the money as a tax write off because it is coming directly to him so he plays tax avoision, but don't worry he doesn't turn down all the other freebies nor does he shy away from charging taxpayers for his own trips to Mar-a-Lago.

 

I have often accused conservatives of being led by propaganda. Yet it seems to be worse than I thought. How is it that American conservatives went from "better dead than red" to Russian loving defenders of the ruthless dictator that runs that country.

Is this what we get when Russian propaganda joins up in partnership with American conservative propaganda?

 

Because we aren't Russian lovers, that is a lie made up by the left that you have fallen victim to.

This whole thing came from the left when Hillary lost.

We didn't create it.

And as the left accuses us we must defend ourselves which makes you think we are on their side.

Do you see the problem yet?

 

It came from my own observations. Over the past few years I have been noticing a clear shift on the right in favor of Russia.

It is quite telling that Trump supporters are not appalled at Trump's behavior. Why does Trump snuggle up with dictators while bashing our allies? Why do his followers tolerate such behavior?

Is it that the looney right, with that foul Trump at the helm, knows full well that without Russian interference, you all wouldn't be in power.

It is quite obvious which side Trump and his minions are on. And it isn't the side of democracy, fairness, equality, honesty, or freedom.

 

Spooky I think it is a bit naive to think that Trump's decisions as President are not impacted by personal and business interests. Try taking a look at his life before he became president. He has always been a pretty self serving guy. Hell, he was talking Beach condo deals between Peking and Pyongyang with Kim a couple weeks ago. His son in law has been going around the world using the presidency to try to get funding for his New York real estate debacle on 666 Broadway. I'm not saying it is unusual for politicians to use their position for personal gain. Look at Bush, Cheney and Clinton. But to suggest that Trump has suddenly turned from a total opportunist to a patriotic altruist is pretty silly.

 

Fair enough but Trump is a narcissist he's not avaricious.

This has been evident throughout his whole life, he needs the spotlight, he needs to be popular, he needs to be the best.

I think money is a distant second to that, in fact, I think Trump only cares about money because it gets him what he really needs.

To this end I think he has every intention of going down as the best president ever, which will help us because he actually needs to do it, so I don't think he cares about the money aspect at all.

Trump, so far, has made the right calls, he's been successful or at the least, not been damaging....my concern is that this need for him to become a legend may ultimately, one day, lead him to make the wrong call that does put our nation in jeopardy.

Over the last year and a half we have gotten to know Trump better and it seems he is an all or nothing president.

That can be great or disastrous. Its a gamble.

He is certainly no Obama who we knew would never get us into conflict.

 

After what Bush got us into, Obama did a pretty good job of stopping most of the bleeding over there in the Middle East and ramping down Bush's trillion dollar disaster. Do you remember Wolfowitz before the war telling us that the war would more than pay for itself? I do...Not getting us into bloody, costly conflicts is one of the things that Trump ran on. Also his National security team has done a hell of a lot better protecting us than the pack on idiots Cheney/Bush hired. So far he has kept the peace and his national security team has not been caught with their pants down.

 

I kind of disagree about Obama toning it down.

He basically maintained Bush's policies there, even ramping it at a time.

He maintained the drone strikes and was very active which ultimately led to him finally getting Bin Laden.

The draw down was already negotiated by Bush, it wasn't Obama's call and he didn't interfere with it.

Obama's lack of intervention in the Arab Spring is still shocking to me. I don't know what effect it would have had if he had supported it but his choosing not to obviously made it fizzle.

As for Trump...I am a bit surprised here.

Other than the little attack on the Syria airfield he has done nothing militarily.

He wants to increase spending but everything else from him is talking about reducing our presence around the world. I actually expected him to be using them constantly but he isn't.

The more I get to know Trump the more I see how he has an isolationist/protectionist belief.

He wants the big guns but doesn't want to use them.

This is both bad and good from a world perspective.

 

It's the left that has a long history of intelligence community hate from Nicaragua to Iraq and all in between. Now you are CIA fan boys

 

True, I can't get her stupid reset button summit out of my mind.

 

We're you equally as troubled when Hillary went to Putin with her reset button?

 

We should give that tactic a name. Trump uses it all the time as well.
Yep. It deserves it's own catchy phrase.

 

$77,000 up front to his golf club in Scotland for his golf outing when he should have been working.

 

putin hates hillary because she has bigger balls than trump and wasn't afraid of him...but then Putin hasn't got any pee pee videos of hillary with prostitutes

 

Putin hates Hillary for the same reason all men hate Hillary

 

Trump was supposed to carry the flag for the pencil dicked neocon/ banking/ defense contractor war machine. Anything less is a "disaster"

 

Reasoning with Trump loyalists is futile. An atheist may as well argue religion with the pope. There is now a new religion in the land, Tumpianism. The Evangelicals and RW conservatives worship on the alter of Trump and any effort to challenge its tenants and beliefs results in fierce defense of the godhead. Don't bother.

The Trumpits have circled the wagons and surrounded it with a moat filled with acids and alligators. Nothing can get in and all that gets out is a barrage of dead animal carcasses. It's a messy situation and the crumbling castle is sitting atop useless land anyway. Walk away.

 

Scarcely a dimes worth of difference between the CIA and the KGB.

You got to hope you can get through life without meeting any of those spooks.