Donnie and Vlad
Trump had a second, secret conversation with Putin at the G20 meeting.
The hourlong conversation in Hamburg, Germany, took place at a private dinner among world leaders at a concert hall on the banks of the Elbe River during the Group of 20 economic summit meeting, with only a Kremlin interpreter present to listen to the exchange. It followed a formal meeting between the two presidents that lasted more than two hours earlier in the day, and included their foreign ministers for a fraught discussion about Moscow’s attempts to interfere in the 2016 American elections.
Only a Kremlin interpreter – so it’s like when Trump had the private meeting with Kislyak and Lavrov in the Oval Office…only more so, because this is Putin, and there was no one else there except the Kremlin interpreter.
This guy. I swear.
But the intimate dinner conversation, of which there is no official United States government record, because no American official other than the president was involved, is the latest to raise eyebrows. Foreign leaders who witnessed it later commented privately on the oddity of an American president flaunting such a close rapport with his Russian counterpart.
“Pretty much everyone at the dinner thought this was really weird, that here is the president of the United States, who clearly wants to display that he has a better relationship personally with President Putin than any of us, or simply doesn’t care,” said Ian Bremmer, president of the Eurasia Group, a New York-based research and consulting firm, who said he heard directly from attendees. “They were flummoxed, they were confused and they were startled.”
I wonder what he gave away. Did he tell Putin to help himself to the Baltics? Say the US really doesn’t care what he does to his own people? Offer him a few spare nukes?
In a statement, a White House official on Tuesday described the meeting as routine and brief, and explained the lack of an American translator by noting that the president was accompanied by a Japanese interpreter who did not speak Russian. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that any insinuation that the White House has tried to hide the encounter was false.
A second White House official confirmed that the meeting had occurred but did not offer any details, and insisted on anonymity because the discussion was private.
Private?? What do they mean private? He doesn’t get to go having “private” secret just-him meetings with Putin. They’re not lovers, they’re heads of rival states.
Russia specialists said such an encounter — even on an informal basis at a social event — raised red flags because of its length, which suggests a substantive exchange, and the fact that there was no American interpreter, note taker or national security or foreign policy aide present.
“We’re all going to be wondering what was said, and that’s where it’s unfortunate that there was no U.S. interpreter, because there is no independent American account of what happened,” Stephen Pifer, a former ambassador to Ukraine who also specializes Russia and nuclear arms control.
“If I was in the Kremlin, my recommendation to Putin would be, ‘See if you can get this guy alone,’ and that’s what it sounds like he was able to do,” added Mr. Pifer, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington.
Because Trump is that stupid…or treasonous.
What’s the big deal? Meetings between agents and their handlers are always held in private.
https://www.facebook.com/144310995587370/photos/a.271728576178944.71555.144310995587370/1604818882869900/?type=3&theater
“… explained the lack of an American translator by noting that the president was accompanied by a Japanese interpreter who did not speak Russian. ”
Why all the fuss? If there is any issue, we can just ask that interpreter for an account in Japanese of what Trump said to Putin.
It would probably make just as much if not more sense that way than Trump’s own account of it in Trumpese.
Why is this an issue?
Don’t we pay these people to represent their respective countries to each other? Talking is what they ought to do.
Of course, their officials might be furious if they start talking together without them being present. perhaps that’s what the problem is…?
Don’t forget, Putin speaks excellent English, probably better than Trump. He famously uses interpreters even when he doesn’t need one. They’re FSB agents. Ask yourself what they were really doing there.
Claire, yes, Putin speaks excellent English. Trump, not so much. The interpreter could just as easily have been there translating Trumpian Bafflegab into English.
Acolyte of Sagan – lol. In which case I hope the translator asked for danger money – one could quickly descend into madness trying to wrestle Trumpish into something coherent.
What boggles my mind is, even if you put aside your dislike for Trump or his politics (such as they are), for any politician embroiled in a scandal involving a hostile foreign power to do something like this makes no sense. No matter how innocent or how utterly nefarious Trump’s dealings with Russia turn out to be, singling out Putin in this way is the worst PR move he could possibly have come up with.
Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo came up with an axiom he calls Trump’s Razor, back when he was just a candidate. The basic premise is that whatever is the stupidest explanation for an event or action is usually the answer when it comes to Trump or his campaign/administration. And it works shockingly well, time and again. So what is the stupidest explanation for what happened at the G20? My money would be on playground-level ‘I do what I want, you can’t tell me what to do’ rebelliousness. He was at the dinner, he was bored and maybe the other leaders weren’t buttering him up sufficiently or showing enough awe of his overall greatness. So he sulked off to chat with the one person in the room who a) was being openly nice to him and b) he knew he ought to keep a diplomatic distance from. Because he’s the president and you’re not.
Trump’s Razor! Absolutely brilliant.