Why won’t Trump speak for the US?

The last time President Donald Trump claimed that “both sides” were responsible for bad behaviour, it didn’t go well. That was nearly a year ago, after a march of neo-Nazis descended into violence and a white supremacist drove his car into a crowd of peaceful protesters, killing a woman.

On Monday, Trump again engaged in immoral equivalence, this time during a gobsmacking news conference after his meeting in Helsinki with Russian president Vladimir Putin. A reporter referred to the indictments of 12 Russian military officials for a co-ordinated cyberattack on the 2016 election and asked Trump if he held Russia responsible. “I hold both countries responsible,” Trump said.

Even in a presidency replete with self-defeating moments for the US, Trump’s comments, broadcast live around the world, stand out. The spectacle was hard to fathom: Trump, standing just inches from an autocratic thug who steals territory and has his adversaries murdered, undermined the unanimous conclusion of his own intelligence and law enforcement agencies that the Russian government interfered with the 2016 election with the goal of helping Trump win.

Even top Republicans felt moved to speak up. “The president must appreciate that Russia is not our ally,” Paul Ryan, the House speaker, said. “There is no moral equivalence between the US and Russia, which remains hostile to our most basic values and ideals.” Not to worry, Trump assured us: Putin “was extremely strong and powerful in his denial”. So he must have been telling the truth.

It remains a mystery why the president is unwilling to call out Russian perfidy. He has no trouble throwing his weight around when he is in the company of America’s European allies, attacking them as deadbeats and the EU as a “foe”. Put him next to Putin and other dictators, and he turns to putty. What is clear is that a president who is way out of his depth is getting America into deep trouble. New York, July 17