22h48 – The rapprochement with Putin awakens opposition to Trump's diplomacy

Disillusioned allies, contended opponents, American political clbad in turmoil: Donald Trump's European tour and his attempt to merge with Vladimir Putin accelerated the great diplomatic upheaval desired by the iconoclast President of the United States, but also seems to have created new resistance in Washington.

– What future for US-Russian relations? –

The highlight of the trip, Monday's summit in Helsinki with his Russian counterpart, did not lead to a decision on the many international crises, from Syria to Ukraine, Iran, or disarmament. It is almost a cause for satisfaction for Western observers, who feared a surprise concession Donald Trump.

On these issues, the two men promised to offer a fresh start to US-Russian relations at the lowest

It was an election promise by Donald Trump, who had hitherto stumbled on the suspicion created by the Russian affair: Moscow's interference in the 2016 US-certified presidential election, and suspicions of collusion between the Republican candidate's team and Vladimir Putin's Kremlin, all under investigation that poisons the billionaire's mandate in the White House.

But the performance of Donald Trump at his a press conference with Vladimir Putin, during which he seemed to give more weight to the Russian president's denials than to the reports of his own intelligence services, may have increased this suspicion tenfold. Especially since the master of the Kremlin admitted to having wished the victory of his counterpart.

"He did not hide his cards enough and his Helsinki performance turned into a booster shot in the United States" , says AFP Erwan Lagadec, a professor at George Washington University. Consequence: Donald Trump will probably have to put again the parenthesis the American-Russian warming.

As of Tuesday, he had to justify himself, pleading the slip and displaying his confidence in the American intelligence, without one knows if that will be enough to appease the controversy. And the White House has issued a note grading all the measures taken against the "harmful activities of Russia", a bad omen for the much desired rapprochement.

– Who are the allies and who are the opponents of the United States? –

Helsinki was the last leg of a tour that severely tested Washington's allies. NATO, the European Union, Germany and the United Kingdom have been entitled to criticism from the US President, like Canada and the G7 before them, against the backdrop of a trade war.

The contrast was therefore striking with the agreement reached with the President Russian, supposed opponent of the United States, after, already, the warm images with the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in June.

This tour "revealed that the president has no longer any limit and acts in accordance with what he viscerally believes should be America's role in the world, "said Thomas Wright of the Brookings Institution think tank. And this includes, according to him, "opposition to alliances and free trade, and his support for authoritarian strong men and Russia."

The effort given at the beginning of his term to some members of the administration, sometimes nicknamed "the axis of the adults", to "contain" the president, "failed", still regrets Thomas Wright.

For Erwan Lagadec, "finally, Trump is quite predictable: he is convinced that he must hold his promises, whatever their limits, "and" he wants to be the anti-Obama "by erasing the decisions of his Democratic predecessor. And it does not matter if it involves turning the page on decades of diplomatic traditions.

– Can Trump go after this great upheaval? –

The issue with Putin could however have shown the limits of his approach: the voices to support Trump are rare in Washington.

Some, like the former diplomat Aaron David Miller, even make a parallel with his " performance on Charlottesville ", when, after violence in this American city, the president had chilled the political clbad by putting on equal foot racist and anti-racist demonstrators. This time he put America and Russia on an equal footing. "Two days of infamy in which a US president spoke of moral equivalence, failed to condemn an ​​opponent of Americans and hate groups, and betrayed American values ​​and interests," he said on Twitter. [19659002But"RussiaisaredlinefortheRepublicanestablishmentitisthedropofwaterthatwillwakeuptheresistance"warnsErwanLagadec"He'sgoingtofaceanimmediatebacklash"

According to the professor at George Washington University, this episode could even change "the internal balances of American politics" because "Congress will be forced to take over the and to confront the executive power to frame Trump and his foreign policy. "

The chair of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, Bob Corker, seems to agree with him. "The dykes let go, finally," the Republican senator told Twitter after criticism by many of his colleagues in the presidential camp. "It's time for Congress to move up a gear and take back our prerogatives."