Days after special counsel Robert Mueller charged Russian government agents with interfering in the 2016 election, and leading into his big one-on-one meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump was acting like the least subtle Russian asset ever. He started with a tweet (of course), claiming that “Our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of U.S. foolishness and stupidity and now, the Rigged Witch Hunt!” He’s … not much of a student of the Cold War, apparently. Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, though, was a fan of Trump’s position:
That is the Russian foreign ministry agreeing with the American president that the relationship between the two countries is bad because the U.S. is investigating Russia’s efforts to throw the last U.S. election to the president now tweeting that Russia is not to blame for problems in the relationship. Just to be clear.
Trump then went on to kick off his meeting with Putin by saying that “We have discussions on everything from trade to military to missiles, to nuclear, to China”—but not Russia’s extensive interference in U.S. elections.