We begin today’s roundup with Aaron Blake’s analysis of the weakness of Donald Trump:
For the third time this week, President Trump has been forced to walk back something he said about Russia. First it was comparing his own intelligence community's credibility to Vladimir Putin's. Then it was his statement that Russia wasn't still interfering in U.S. elections. And now it's his apparent plan to allow Russia to interview Americans it accuses of crimes, including a former ambassador.
It was all one giant, self-inflicted wound. And it all did precisely what Putin hopes and what Trump seems to fear most: made Trump look weak and ineffectual.
Philip Gordon, from the Council on Foreign Relations, and Ivo H. Daalder, former NATO ambassador and current president of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, give their expert analysis of Trump’s foreign policy weakness:
Trump’s attacks on nato allies and his questioning of the principle of collective defense are even more damaging in the wake of the Helsinki summit, during which he showed himself to be shockingly deferential to Russia and Putin. While his statements on Moscow’s election interference got the most press, his inability to condemn Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, bombing in Syria, and poisoning of people on British soil were at least as noteworthy. If the U.S. president is afraid of stressing differences with Russia at a press conference, could allies ever count on him to confront Russia on a potential European battlefield?
Timothy Egan at The New York Times dives into the cult of Trump:
Wishing for supporters of Donald Trump to find their hearts, their brains or their patriotism is a fool’s errand. We are, as the president has said many times, “a stupid country,” and every day of this presidency proves his point.
I didn’t use to feel this way, and it pains me to say this. There’s still a golden opportunity in November for the non-stupid majority to be heard. But it’s time to abandon some of the stories we tell about ourselves as a people.
Trump supporters stuck with him through his boasting of sexual assault, through the comforting words he gave neo-Nazis after Charlottesville, through the revelation that he paid off a porn star, through his policy of ripping children from their mothers’ arms and putting them in cages.
At The Atlantic, Megan Garber has an excellent piece up on Sarah Sanders and her dedication to party over country:
This is a White House that prioritizes the scoring of points over the complexities of compromise. Sanders, on behalf of the president she works for—a happy warrior in a culture war that has found a front in the James S. Brady briefing room at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue—takes for granted an assumption that would be shocking were it not so common in the American culture of the early 21st century: There are things that are more important than truth.
More great analysis from Susan Glasser:
A U.S. Ambassador in Europe, who has extensive experience dealing with Russia, told me that he and other State Department officials who would need to know have received no post-summit briefings, or even talking points about what happened, both of which would be standard practice after such an important encounter. “Nothing,” he told me. “We are completely in the dark. Completely.”
On a final note, Eugene Robinson dedicates his column to the patriots in our government:
Before this harebrained and reckless administration is history, the nation will have cause to celebrate the public servants derided by Trumpists as the supposed “deep state.”
The term itself is propaganda, intended to cast a sinister light upon men and women whom Trump and his minions find annoyingly knowledgeable and experienced. They are not participants in any kind of dark conspiracy. Rather, they are feared and loathed by the president and his wrecking crew of know-nothings because they have spent years — often decades — mastering the details of foreign and domestic policy.
God bless them. With a supine Congress unwilling to play the role it is assigned by the Constitution, the deep state stands between us and the abyss.