One of the great successes from that great talk that Donald Trump held, greatly, with Vladmir Putin was the great idea of forming a joint team to work on cybersecurity. Which would be great. On Sunday morning, Trump was tweeting about this fantastic idea.
Impenetrable, besides being proof that Donald Trump actually does know how the spell check works on his phone, makes it seem like Putin and Trump discussed this matter at some length, with Trump picturing rooms full of people all dressed like Agent Smith.
A few hours later, Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin was on hand to inform people that this was a Very Big deal.
But by Sunday night the greatness had begun to leak from Trump’s plan. In fact, plan …. what plan?
Trump was back on Twitter in a rare evening session to deflate what he’d said earlier in the day.
Which falls somewhere between Makes No Sense and the plot of the new season of Twin Peaks. It may not be the most confusing statement ever issued by Trump, but even Republicans agree that it was a staggeringly stupid idea.
Trump's initial idea had even Republicans in Congress expressing disbelief at the notion of working hand-in-glove with a nation whose hackers are suspected of launching cyberattacks against the 2016 presidential election, American power plants and email systems at the White House, Pentagon and State Department.
Chickens and fox agree to form hen house security force wasn’t a great idea? Who could have known?
Several former George W. Bush and Obama-era cyber officials insisted the latest deal would be unlikely to help digitally secure upcoming U.S. elections, and instead would widen the rift between America and its European allies combating Moscow’s online aggression — a broader Putin goal.
Well. Those guys, of course. But come on, working with Great White Sharks to develop a new swimmer safety program—what could be better?
“It’s strategic idiocy,” said Chris Finan, a former director for cybersecurity legislation and policy in Barack Obama's White House.
No: it’s great strategic idiocy.
