During a wide-ranging, phoned-in interview this Monday with Fox & Friends, President Donald Trump made the sudden reveal that he’d soon be talking to Russian President Vladimir Putin, with whom he has communicated frequently throughout his presidency. It’s worth noting — it’s been some five months since Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) reportedly spoke directly, but Trump appears to have no problem with glibly phoning the totalitarian leader of another country amidst a pandemic that’s claimed the lives of thousands of Americans.
Pelosi not invited to today’s WH signing ceremony on stimulus, per aide. She and Trump have not spoken in more than five months. More on that here: https://t.co/ickLNTZubI
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) March 27, 2020
Trump suggested that he’d be discussing trade issues with Putin, who he brought up after a question about oil market instability in the wake of a spat between his country and Saudi Arabia — whose totalitarian leaders Trump and his cronies have also repeatedly cozied up to. Trump commented:
‘Right after this call I’m speaking to a gentleman named Vladimir Putin. That’s my next call… We talk about trade and we talk about trade a lot. They love to be able to do trade with our country. It’s been very much hindered by the nonsense that’s been going on. Russia, Russia, Russia, which has turned out to be a total hoax when you look at what happened with Comey and McCabe and you look at all the things that happened with Mueller and the Mueller report.’
Trump’s leadership as president is desperately needed amidst the continued spread of the Coronavirus, and what’s he doing? Sticking to complaining about the Russia investigation, of course!
Putin got more than his money's worth. Trump is now just throwing in some freebies. https://t.co/JCXRHYJ4Ay
— Markos Moulitsas (@markos) March 30, 2020
In fact, as opposed to the long concluded Russia investigation hindering trade relations between the U.S. and Russia, that relationship has actually decayed amidst Putin’s incessant aggression around the world. Sanctions against the country have been imposed in the wake of developments like Russia’s military seizure of the Crimean peninsula and their disinformation campaigns targeting U.S. elections.
"I've been tougher on Russia than any president in the history of the country."
He says Putin will probably ask him to lift sanctions, "he's been asking that for two years," but he, Trump, put sanctions on, and he's "not the soft guy."
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) March 30, 2020
Trump, meanwhile, glibly and ignorantly declared that the U.S. “should get along with all countries if possible” as if it’s simply a matter of deciding to be nice to the dictators of the world. In his attempt to defend Russia, he even rambled on all the way back to the subject of World War II, in which — for a time — the then-Soviet Union banded together with the U.S. against Nazi aggression. To be clear — the Soviets carried on with plenty of their own aggression against their own people, and decades of the ensuing Cold War hinged on a stand-off between their country and the U.S. But Trump still pretends to have some great grand historical backing for his behavior anyway.
Trump says he has to hang up from his hour-long Fox News telephoner to make other calls, including one to Putin to talk oil, trade, coronavirus.
“It’s like the old times,” he tells the Fox & Friends hosts, referring to phoners during 2016 race, “but this is a serious deal.” pic.twitter.com/acRtgRvScw
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) March 30, 2020
Down in the real world, Americans are continuing to struggle amidst the Coronavirus pandemic. Almost 150,000 Americans have been infected, and more than 2,600 have died, and authorities have been working around-the-clock to bulk up their medical supplies and facilities in order to deal with the looming issues.
At least 776 people have died from the Coronavirus in New York City alone, which obviously represents a tremendous strain on the state’s hospital system. That state has constructed at least four field hospitals and counting to deal with the influx of patients.
