Republican lawmakers practically begged Donald Trump this week to ditch his White House invite to Russian President Vladimir Putin. “I’m just expressing my preference that it be put on the back burner," pleaded the normally Trump-compliant Sen. John Cornyn of Texas.
Then Trump did cancel it—or at least his national security advisor did. That was obviously not Trump's preference because he's now pretty damn eager to head back over to Moscow for another sellout summit 2.0.
Let's revisit just a few top lines about how well Trump's Helsinki sellout to Putin went over with voters in polling from Quinnipiac and NPR/Marist this week.
- 68 percent of voters are "very/somewhat concerned" about Trump's relationship with Russia
- A majority—54 percent—say the pr*sident of the United States was not acting in the best interest of the U.S. in Helsinki (only 41 percent say he was)
- By a 38-point gap, voters overwhelmingly trust U.S. intelligence to tell them the truth over Trump (63 to 25 percent)
- 51 percent believe Russia has "compromising information" on Trump
- 64 percent say Trump is "not tough enough" on Russia (10 percent say he has it "about right")
Independents appear to be running away from Trump, with 58 percent of them "strongly/somewhat" disapproving of him in an NBC/WSJ poll. When voters in Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin were asked whether Trump deserved re-election, his absolute best endorsement was an anemic 31 percent in Wisconsin.
So yes, absolutely, let's head back to Moscow. Hopefully pre-midterms. Anyone else hear the GOP panic on Capitol Hill about now?