Helsinki is a turning point in Republican relations with Trump

It has been presented as one of the biggest geopolitical events of the year. On the balcony, journalists could be heard describing the scene as the world waited for Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin to hold a press conference at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki. The city had hosted summits before: George Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev in 1990, and Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin in 1997.

But no such thing.

"I do not know which side is the bride and which side is the groom." Looks like we are at a wedding, "said CNN's Jim Acosta, explaining that American and Russian journalists sat down on the other side of the room.

But the atmosphere was more funereal when the US and Russian presidents were walking past their meeting, which included a two-hour private session. Expectations had been further heightened by the US's decision to charge 12 suspected Russian spies for interfering with the 2016 elections, just days before the Helsinki summit.

Journalists wondered whether Mr. Trump would publicly confront Putin on this issue, while speculating on how he would treat the Russian leader after denigrating NATO allies in Brussels and London on the way to Helsinki. Or did he prefer Mr. Putin as Kim Jong Un of North Korea.

M. Putin, former colonel of the KGB, opened by announcing that the meeting had been "very fruitful". Mr Trump congratulated his Russian counterpart for hosting the World Cup finals before adding that they had held a "very productive dialogue".

In a moment of rare light, Mr. Putin broke out by giving Mr. Trump a football. the ball is in your court. "But jocularity was soon punctured by comments from Mr. Trump who ricocheted around the world.A former CIA director would call his words" treason "while others would ask if Republican leaders would continue to support the president, especially with the desperate party to keep control of Congress in the November mid-term elections.

Speculation about his refusal to criticize Putin for ordering – according to the president's intelligence agencies – cyberattacks against democratic groups during the 2016 campaign, a journalist put Trump on the spot: "Putin has denied having anything to do 2016. Every US intelligence agency has concluded that Russia did. . . who do you believe in? "

The answer was staggering." I have great confidence in my intelligence, but people. . . President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial, "said Mr. Trump.

Richard Armitage, Assistant Secretary of State for the George W. Bush Administration, says his" jaw hit the ground "when he heard his own president return Mr. Putin." I thought to see a nightmare of Wizard of Oz arriving at Oz, pulling the curtain and finding Vladimir Putin pulling all the strings " he said, adding that the Russian leader had been "masterful." In the way he surpbaded Mr. Trump.

An axiom of American foreign policy has long been that politicians do not criticize their president when he is abroad. But Mr Trump overturned the rules by giving credit to Mr Putin's denial, after the Kremlin was accused of everything from cyberattacks to attempted murder of former spies.

James Clapper understood the gravity of what had happened better than most. As Director of National Intelligence in January 2017, he led the team that briefed President-elect Trump on Russian interference and told him about an unconfirmed file – compiled by an old British spy – which included unverified allegations about badual acts. In a Moscow hotel,

"In fact, I went into my old college thesaurus to look for an adjective that could capture what I was witnessing," says Clapper comments. "I have tried to find other explanations for his inexplicable deference to Russia and especially to Mr Putin, but I have come to a point where there is no point in it. There is no explanation other than the one they have on him. "

Back to Washington Mr. Clapper in the intelligence role, Dan Coats, moved on to action. "We have been clear in our badessments of Russian interference in the 2016 elections and their ongoing and pervasive efforts to undermine our democracy," he said in a clear reprimand from the president.

Questioned Thursday on his extraordinary statement Mr. Coats, who was appointed by Mr. Trump, said: "Obviously, I would have liked him to make a different statement."

Others were less diplomatic. John Brennan, the CIA leader under Barack Obama who accused Trump of treason, tweeted : "He is entirely in Putin's pocket Republican Patriots: Where are you ???"

Compared to previous controversies over Mr. Trump's presidency where Republicans tended to keep their powder dry, there was a chorus of critics much stronger. John McCain, Arizona senator and critic of Trump, said: "No previous president has ever lowered himself abject before a tyrant". Bob Corker, a Tennessee Republican who also beat Mr. Trump, said "the dam is broken".

Illustrating how Republicans feared that Mr. Trump went too far, even Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House and Trump supporter, said that it was the "most serious mistake" of his presidency.

The cascade of criticism forced Mr. Trump to backtrack on Tuesday, claiming that he was misquoted in Helsinki. The rest of the week was marked by a series of flip flops that undermined the effort to unfold its own purpose. At one point, he seemed to be receiving a request from Mr. Putin to send Michael McFaul, an Obama-era ambbadador to Russia, to return to Moscow for questioning. Even before the White House rejected the idea, the suggestion prompted the US Senate to vote 98-0 to condemn it

. Still, Mr Trump again confounded the critics on Thursday by inviting Mr Putin – who has not helped the US president in defending his Helsinki performance – to the White House later this year. Mr. Coats laughed and said, "This is going to be special."

"I do not remember another American president appearing in public to be so consenting and subject to the dominance of another foreign leader," says James Stavridis, a former commander of the NATO, "Especially the one who runs a nation with which we have such important disagreements."

Mr. Trump insists that he was harder with Russia than his predecessors. that his administration imposed a series of measures against Moscow – sanctions on the expulsion of spies – he undermined his case with his own rhetoric.The most common explanation of his behavior is a reluctance to concede everything he believes to delegitimize his election victory over Hillary Clinton

The Kremlin was originally ecstatic that Mr. Trump seemed to have accepted Putin's denial. Russian politicians familiar with planning the summit, the White House had wanted the Kremlin to promise that Moscow would not interfere with mid-term relations.

"There was the idea that if Trump brought such a guarantee, seen as having scored a victory," said a Russian legislator. "But the proposed text amounted to an admission of guilt."

The flood of criticism of Mr. Trump has lowered expectations in Moscow. "We knew that they would criticize Trump, but such a tornado of criticism was not expected," said Andrei Kortunov, director of the Russian International Affairs Council. "We will have to watch the consequences – will there be additional measures against Trump, or additional sanctions against Russia?"

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David Gergen, a former advisor to four US presidents, says that Mr. Trump has made his biggest mistake since he equates white nationalists in Charlottesville with racist protesters. "I thought this [Helsinki] would radically change things," says Gergen, before adding that he has since become less secure.

His optimism that Helsinki will serve as a brake on the president's behavior was shattered by the realization that Mr. Trump had created a "cult-following" and a lack of authoritative figures in the party Republican, who could push against him. It seems, says Mr. Gergen, that America under Mr. Trump was no longer a country where there were people like Arthur Vandenberg, a Republican isolationist senator who then helped the United States to create the international order of the post-war period. "We live in a world where authority figures have been drastically reduced," he adds.

million. Trump himself has led the prosecution to undermine authorities, such as Robert Mueller, who is leading the investigation into Moscow's alleged role in the 2016 elections, and institutions such as the FBI. His persistent attacks on law enforcement and intelligence agencies have influenced public opinion

An Axios / SurveyMonkey survey conducted this week revealed that 85% of Republicans thought that allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 elections were a "distraction" and that 79% of members approved the way in which Mr. Trump behaved. in Helsinki.

"It's all about politics," says Clapper. "When are you going to say" enough "? Apparently for many Republicans, this threshold has not yet been reached."

Michael Hayden, a former CIA and National Security Agency chief who criticized Mr. Trump says his main concern is the reaction of the American public. 19659002] "There is a non-trivial piece of the American population that thinks that Brennan is corrupt, Clapper is corrupt, that it was invented and that the Russians did not do anything about it, and that even if they did it did not matter, "says Hayden. "We can not let this become normalized … This is not normal."

Henry Foy's News in Moscow