Election meddling: Trump sides with Russia against FBI
●US President insists no reason why Putin would interfere in American vote
Donald Trump has sided with Vladimir Putin against his own intelligence agencies by denying Russia interfered in the 2016 US presidential election.
At a summit between the two leaders in Helsinki yesterday, Mr Trump said the Russian collusion investigation has been a “disaster” for the United States and has kept the two countries “separated”.
He reiterated there had been “no collusion” and that he ran a “clean campaign” and beat his Democratic presidential rival Hillary Clinton “easily”.
The American president said it is a “shame” there is a cloud over his administration, but said he ran a “brilliant campaign and that’s why I’m president”. Mr Putin said the “socalled Russian interference” was brought up by Mr Trump.
He said: “The Russian state never interfered, and does not plan to interfere in internal American electoral process.”
Mr Putin said of the collusion claims that there is “no evidence when it comes to the actual facts”. The Russian president made an “incredible offer” to allow Russian and US investigators to work together on allegations of Russian cyber attacks, Mr Trump said.
He added that Mr Putin suggested the US should provide its intelligence to the Russian military so Russia can determine the truth of what happened.
Mr Trump said he has “great
confidence” in his intelligence agencies who have concluded Russia interfered in the election.
But the US president said Mr Putin was “incredibly strong and powerful today” in his contention that Russia had nothing to do with election interference.
The Russian president also rejected allegations that Moscowhas collected compromising material on Mr Trump or his family.
Dismissing the claims as “sheer nonsense”, Mr Putin said he had not been aware of Mr Trump’s visit to Moscow a few years before his 2016 election.
The former KGB agent scoffed at the notion that the Russian security services try to gather incriminating materials on business figures, saying: “Do you really believe that we try to shadow every businessman?”
In general, the Russian leader said, the talks with Mr Trump took place in an “open and businesslike atmosphere” and he characterised them as “successful and useful”.
Mr Trump told the press conference that the US and Russia must find ways to “co-operate in pursuit of shared interests”. The US leader said a productive dialogue between America and Russia is good for both countries and “is good for the world”.
Mr Trump added they had discussed disagreements between their countries “at length”, and accepted that relations between them have never been worse.
However, Mr Trump added that he thinks “that changed as of about four hours ago”.
He said he is sure that he and Mr Putin will meet again often in the future.
Mr Trump confirmed that he addressed meddling by Russia in the 2016 US election with his Russian opposite number, but the US leader is not condemning Moscow’s conduct publicly.
He said his message was “best delivered in person”, adding that he “spent a great deal of time” talking about election meddling.
Mr Putin feels strongly about the issue, Mr Trump claimed, and “has an interesting idea”.
The summit comes days after the US indictment of 12 alleged Russian military intelligence agents for sophisticated hacking in the 2016 election.
Mr Putin said he and Mr Trump have agreed to continue detailed discussions on arms control issues.
The Russian leader said Russia and the US should discuss a possible extension of the 2010 New START nuclear arms reduction treaty and the implementation of the 1987 Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty.
Mr Putin added that other issues that Russia would like to discuss in the arms control sphere are the US missile defence plans and the weaponisation of space.
The two leaders said they are exploring ways to protect Israel from conflict raging near its border in Syria.
There was no commitment to any specific actions, but both said that ensuring Israel’s security was a priority.
Israel is deeply concerned about Iran’s presence in Syria, where Iranian forces and proxies have been fighting on behalf of the Syrian government, which is also supported by Russia.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has appealed to both Mr Trump and Mr Putin to eliminate the Iranian presence, which the Jewish state regards as an existential threat.
On the question of nuclear tensions on the Korean peninsula, Mr Putin praised the US leader over efforts to resolve difficulties with North Korea.
The Russian leader said: “It’s good that the gradual resolution of the problem of the Korean peninsula has begun.”
He continued, saying: “In many respects, this became possible due to the fact that President Trump personally got involved in the resolution, building dialogue in the spirit of co-operation, not confrontation.”
Mr Trump, when asked about a Russian gas pipeline to Germany, noted that the US and Russia compete in the energy market.
He said that when he referred to Mr Putin as a competitor, he meant it as a compliment.
An apparent protester was seated with the American press corps holding a sign about nuclear weapons. The man identified himself as a reporter from the liberal magazine The Nation and was escorted from the press conference by security.
Why haven’t we seen a sharper rise in farright activity north of the Border? Because we have a very robust spoken-word poetry community. It occurred to me to make that joke at the Trump rally in Glasgow – at which I performed – then I remembered, jokes at the expense of the Left are no laughing matter.
And, when it comes to Trump, the sensitivities are understandable and justified. This is a man who fired the starting gun of his presidential campaign by conflating Mexican immigrants with rapists. In that infamous press conference, he gave a green light to every possible variant of knuckle-dragger that it was safe to come out from under their rocks, as “Making America Great Again” became a by-phrase for making it whiter.
This political sleight-of-hand became the mechanism by which blame for the excesses of unfettered capitalism could be pinned on those very people for whom its toxic effects are most acute. Trump’s campaign was about deflecting responsibility for an economic model which favours the billionaire class onto the poorest and most vulnerable people in the United States. African nations were described as “s***holes”, jovial admissions of his sexually predatory behaviour were “locker-room” banter and Trump even mocked a reporter with disabilities. But these malignant stupidities were just the iceberg’s tip.
For now, let’s set aside the political dimension of Trumpism, the racebaiting and the conducting of US foreign policy on Twitter. Let’s park the fact that US withdrawal from the 2016 Paris Agreement on climate change – signed by nearly 200 countries to address global warming – is regarded by Trump as an achievement. And let’s pass over his beta-male slavishness to Bond villains like Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin and his ill-fated executive order to pull up the drawbridge for people entering the States from a few majority Muslim nations.
Instead, consider the primary reason Trump sits in the Oval Office: his car-crash personality, from which even his most impassioned haters cannot avert their eyes. His madness is magnetic, his incoherence legendary. These personality traits made him an American celebrity, launched him into the presidential race and sustained his campaign. They are why he received more media attention than probably any candidate in political history.
Trump has admitted to never having a drink, citing his brother Freddy’s death from alcoholism as an example of the harm this merciless condition can do. To my shame – and this may offend – sometimes I wish Trump would lift a drink. Not because I want him to die, or even to suffer, but because a quick descent into alcoholism might be the only thing that could humble a man of such apocalyptic grandiosity.
A common misunderstanding of alcoholism is that its effects are only present in the sufferer while they are drinking – that all a drunk must do is abstain and the problem is solved. In truth, addictive, compulsive behaviour is often triggered, not necessarily by lifting a drink, but by a certain personality type that becomes overwhelmed by the unmanageability it endlessly manufactures. A specific configuration of frailties and defects that most alcoholics share creates the kind of discord for which chemical relief becomes a temporary solution. Selfcentredness, self-pity, resentment, grandiosity, a hyper-sensitive victim complex and a mindless pursuit of fleeting gratification become the combustible engine of our reactionary personalities. You don’t have to drink to suffer from alcoholism.
In this context, alcoholism is just one of many words or phrases that describe conditions of mind, body and spirit which, if untreated, may embroil the sufferer in a torrent of emotional and psychological chaos. This unmanageability becomes the factory setting to which we return, due to adversity, trauma or sheer genetic or environmental chance.
Many mental health professionals have speculated about Trump’s disordered personality. I’m not qualified to offer anything but an opinion. However, from where I’m sitting, Donald Trump could do with getting some recovery into his life. He bears the hallmarks of an obsessive, self-seeking, deeply vulnerable, spiritually disfigured human being, whose personality is so unbearable he’s managed to become the most powerful man in the world because we can’t take our eyes off him.
Perhaps he reflects something back at us to which we could pay closer attention? For me, Trump is a mirror, a mirror in which I see clearly the kind of man I am capable of being should I become unvigilant in the face of my glaring absurdities.
At the Trump rally, I couldn’t offer any morally righteous insight. For it would have been deeply hypocritical. I just told the crowd that observing Trump’s behaviour made me want to be a better man. Drunk and sober, I’ve behaved poorly. I’ve lied to people to preserve a false selfimage. I’ve mistreated those I love, whether family, friends or partners in relationships. I’ve engaged in “locker-room banter” and co-signed misogynistic and racist “jokes”.
I did all those things, without a modicum of self-awareness, because the ego I constructed to fortify my demoralising insecurities was so huge that when it came time to hear a bit of sobering truth, I was ill-equipped to take incoming calls. I wonder how many people, at these rallies across the country, are pondering similarly uncomfortable truths about themselves?
So, by all means, let’s condemn this man for his toxic rhetoric, his racism, misogyny and a political agenda that may change our world beyond all recognition. But if the personal is political, let us not lose sight of the excruciatingly inconvenient fact that Trump’s chaotic inner-world, despite his immensely visible power, wealth and success, is no more than an extreme example of that monster that dwells within all of us, should we become blind to the light of the truth of ourselves.