Well, Trump’s done his performance review. I guess we’ll see who he betrays next.
Since the fall of communism, every US President and VP who’s visited Warsaw has visited the memorial to the Warsaw Ghetto.
You know where this is headed without even clicking the link, don’t you?
Trump held a closed door meeting with Putin for two hours, with only interpreters, the Secretary of State, and the Foreign Minister of Russia present.
If Obama had made reservations, I guarantee Tmurp would have already canceled them out of spite.
I can’t get spelled up over the Warsaw Ghetto snub. The guy goes out of his way to not continue presidential traditions.
I will say that for a man so pathologically obsessed with his image, he’s remarkably blind to optics (or whatever the latest buzzword is for that stuff).
Yeah, darn that Obama!
Yeah, baby. 
He’ll probably want to take that coffee table back with him to the Oval Office.
donald has been so consistent and spot on with sticking his finger in the eyes of (us?) for the whole time that it cannot be accidental. He is obeisant to keeping a certain “look” for the alt right white power breitboys. It’s driving the optics of his photo sessions with world leaders, his tweets, everything. It may be coming from Bannon. But it is unmistakeable.
Haven’t heard much about Bannon recently. Is he still living in that George-Costanza-cubbyhole under Trump’s Oval Office desk?
He’s sharing a “secure undisclosed location” with Conway and Spicer. They all committed the cardinal sin of taking press attention away from Trump, and in embarrassing ways.
Too bad; photos of Trump trying to get into a pup tent pitched in some Hamburg park would have gladdened the hearts of many.
And ol’ Rex is owned and operated by Putin. Presumably the two interpreters were chosen by Putin, too.
We’ll never know what was actually said in that meeting.
Yes, Bannon has certainly learned that keeping his name out of the papers is crucial to continuing his term as de-facto President.
No Russian [del]spies[/del]reporters?
I was afraid of that happening.
Trump will be trying to “deal” (lie and cheat) the sanctions away pretty quickly.
Somebody actually sent Melania in to break up the Putin Trump meeting because it was running over the time scheduled for it. Why would anybody think that Trump would care about Melania’s opinion on anything? It didn’t work, by the way.
I think it was one of those things that people do on a blind date in case it’s not going well.
I guess the date went better than anticipated.
Angela Merkel is just trolling Trump now. Her husband is giving the spouses of the G20 leaders a tour of the German Climate Computing Center tomorrow. It’s like she’s daring Melania to say no.
You could tell it would go well by Putin’s very-unusual-for-Putin demeanor in the on-camera scene before the meeting: look at him ‘mirror’ Trump’s way of sitting, combined with a sad face and a seeming reluctance to look up and/or look Trump in the eye.
Putin knew that Trump had been told (or had seen on tv) accounts of Putin’s strong-man-dominance tactics in meetings with other world leaders: bringing a dog to his meeting with dog-fearing Merkle, being hours late, etc.
So with Trump, who was probably expecting Putin to pull his own ‘yank the person off-balance with your handshake’ technique as well as other macho posturing, Putin offered a sad, forlorn bearing. Who would be surprised to hear that the dialogue went something like this:
This let Trump feel like the Big, Strong Man who could help this poor guy out—this guy who is clearly so nice, kind, and respectful! Wow! 'Putin has such a reputation as a tough guy, but I guess he knows his superior when he meets him!’ would be Trump’s internal monologue----------------------------fully as scripted by Putin.
The sanctions will be gone, and of course the US “diplomatic” compounds will be returned to Putin–or possibly even better-located and better-equipped ones will be offered. The T Admin will keep it all as quiet as they possibly can, of course.
He couldn’t care less what his image is to anyone who doesn’t loyally support him.
He’d like to stay in that room. If there were a couple of hookers there to piss on him, then he’d love to stay in that room. Either way it would be without a shred of irony, for he doesn’t do irony. He has people do his ironing for him.
Do you think Trump still has the political capital to lift the sanctions? I’m not sure. Based on the bipartisan vote of the Senate to limit Trump’s ability to lift them recently, I think a lot of Republicans are paying lip service to loyalty to this administration – but their actions say different. Senate Backs Measure to Limit President’s Power to Lift Sanctions
Trump’s followers may be ignorant of his involvement with the Russians in their election meddling efforts, but a lot of these senators aren’t. Even if they’re not on one of the investigative committees, I’m sure there’s a fair amount of cloakroom chatter.
I guess we’ll see.
Yeah, we’ll see. The Senate vote was certainly heartening. But if Trump is motivated enough to go on a major Twitter-and-appearances-on-Fox-and-Friends offensive, and gin up the base to start phoning and tweeting their Reps and Senators about the Horribly Unfair Treatment Russia is getting…well, it will be a nice test of Trump’s current level of power, I guess.
The “German Fake News” newspaper in English is also a good touch.