"It certainly looks like the Russians were behind it."
That was the most forceful statement self-imagined strongman Donald Trump could muster on Thursday, three days after U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May declared it "highly likely" the Kremlin was responsible for unleashing a deadly nerve agent in Salisbury, England. The military-grade substance, known as Novichok, was indeed so toxic that hundreds of residents in the targeted area were told to wash their clothes on the off chance of incidental contact with it.
Not only were the two victims—former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia—removed from the park bench where they were found by people in hazmat suits, so were police cars and other vehicles parked nearby. The restaurant and pub the Skripals had visited were also cordoned off indefinitely and some pieces of furniture were destroyed. On the weekend following the March 4 attack, the streets of Salisbury, normally bustling with people, were barren.
In case it hasn't totally sunk in for Americans, this was a chemical terrorist attack unleashed by one state actor on the soil of another state. If this had happened here, people would be freaking out and demanding action, exactly as the Brits are doing now.
U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley offered the Trump administration’s strongest pronouncement of solidarity with Britons this week on Wednesday, during an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council, of which Russia is a member. Here’s Haley:
Let me make one thing clear from the very beginning: the United States stands in absolute solidarity with Great Britain. The United States believes that Russia is responsible for the attack on two people in the United Kingdom using a military-grade nerve agent. [...] This is a defining moment. Time and time again, member states say they oppose the use of chemical weapons under any circumstance. Now, one member stands accused of using chemical weapons on the sovereign soil of another member. The credibility of this council will not survive if we fail to hold Russia accountable.
After Haley's remarks, the White House itself finally issued a supportive yet more tepid statement, saying it "shares the United Kingdom’s assessment that Russia is responsible." Earlier in the week, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders had found herself unable to even utter the word "Russia.”
But Trump? "It looks like it," he said of Russia’s involvement, adding that the White House was taking the “very sad situation ... very seriously."
This is the same man who on the campaign trail in 2016 mused about "the good old days" when law enforcement would "rip [a protester] out of that seat so fast.” Of another protester, he said, "I’d like to punch him in the face, I tell ya." At a memorable rally last year, he encouraged law enforcement officers to be extra rough when they're arresting people: "Don't be too nice," he urged.
Mr. Tough Guy also never misses an opportunity to inappropriately and unnecessarily share with us the gory fascinations that flood his mind—like when he delighted in graphically depicting the actions of Latino gang members he called "animals."
"They cut people. They cut them. They cut them up in little pieces, and they want them to suffer. And we take them into our country.”
Border patrol and ICE agents had to be brutal with these guys, Trump explained at CPAC last month.
“All they understand is toughness,” Trump said of MS-13, and “we have the toughest guys you’ve ever seen. We got tough. They don’t respect anything else.”
But when it comes to Vladimir Putin, Trump's White House is leaving the official U.S. take on Russia up to the guy who almost certainly personally approved both the U.K. chemical attack and the operation targeting U.S. elections. Asked if the White House thinks of Putin as "friend or foe," press secretary Sanders said Putin was in charge of determining his own image.
"I think that's something that Russia is going to have to make that determination. They’re going to have to decide whether or not they want to be a good actor or a bad actor."
Compare that to the assessment of recently canned Secretary of State Rex Tillerson: “From Ukraine to Syria—and now the UK—Russia continues to be an irresponsible force of instability in the world, acting with open disregard for the sovereignty of other states and the life of their citizens.”
The White House did finally announce some limited sanctions this week in accordance with a congressional measure passed last year. It took Trump longer to enact them than it did for Robert Mueller to investigate and indict 13 Russians for deliberately interfering in 2016. It was also truly the least Trump could do. Even Fox News anchor Chris Wallace characterized the punitive measures as neither "bold nor swift." As the New York Times editorial board writes:
While this was Mr. Trump’s most significant anti-Russia move, these are the same entities identified by Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating Russian meddling, in a recent indictment and only add two new senior Russian officials, with ties to military intelligence, to the list Mr. Obama sanctioned in 2016...
Trump was likely loath to do this but he had no choice. The combination of Russia's unthinkable U.K. attack along with the terrifying news that Russia infiltrated our power grid set against Trump's botched firing of Tillerson meant the White House had to do something. But that something still didn't include much that was new, nor did it come with a strong public explanation linking the actions to Russia's attack on our democracy in 2016. If Trump had really wanted to make a statement, he would have gotten in front of cameras like Prime Minister May did on Monday and made his case for holding Russia accountable to the American people.
Make no mistake: Putin's actions on the world stage right now are damn close to a DEFCON 1 situation. Unleashing a military-grade chemical weapon against a fellow U.N. Security Council member and consummate U.S. ally coupled with Russia’s brazen tampering in our elections and energy grid is a dare to the world. "What are you going to do about it?" Putin is saying.
Trump's response: As little as possible. Which is what led a retired four-star Army general to publicly state this telling conclusion on Friday:
There are smart ways to hit Putin where it counts, particularly by pressuring him financially. Squeeze his oligarchs, cut off their resources, and you squeeze Putin. But Trump is never going to do that. Forget about kompromat for the moment, Russian oligarchs have been Trump's bread and butter for years. He’ll never bite the hand that feeds him.
If there's anyone who needs the U.S. to get "tough" right now because he doesn't "respect anything else"—as Tough Guy Don said of MS-13 just last month—it's Vladimir Putin. As British financier William Browder told NPR in an insightful interview, trying to appease Putin is a road to nowhere. "He's unappeasable."
And yet the guy who has taken a solemn oath to protect and defend our country is projecting nothing but complete and utter weakness to the world. It’s Putin’s dream come true.