(Cartoon image is by Arend van Dam at cagle.com.)While Donald Trump bragged about what a good meeting with Vladimir Putin, he said nothing about reaching any agreement with the Russian leader. Instead, he left the impression that the two men had a friendly talk, and that talk had (in Trump's opinion) established a new and friendlier relationship between the two countries.
But Russia seems to have a different opinion of what happened in the secret Helsinki meeting. Here's what Russian military spokesman Major General Igor Kosashenkov said on Tuesday (the day after the secret meeting):
"The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation is ready for practical implementation of the agreements reached between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump in the sphere of international security achieved at the Helsinki summit."
WHAT AGREEMENTS? Were agreements reached on international security that Trump doesn't want the American people to know about? Has Congress been informed about these agreements? If not, then why not?
If any agreements were reached in that secret meeting, even agreement in general terms, it should not be kept secret between Trump and the Russians. Did Trump give away something he shouldn't have? Did Trump give Putin a free hand in Syria? Did he assure Putin we wouldn't act to protect some of our Eastern European NATO allies? Did he agree to something else equally nefarious?
I would say that its time for Trump to tell Americans what went on in that meeting, but frankly, Trump can't be trusted to tell the truth about it. He has shown himself to be a prolific and consummate liar.
Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-New Hampshire) has come up with what is probably the only way to find out what happened in the secret Helsinki meeting. She wants to subpoena the U.S. translator that was in the meeting to testify before Congress under oath.
Some people won't like that, but in my opinion, the meeting shouldn't have been held in secret to begin with. Top aides or cabinet members should have been in the room to curb Trump when his incompetence got out of hand -- and make sure any agreements reached were in the best interests of the United States.
This is especially important in light of the fact that most Americans don't trust Trump's judgment. As the chart below shows, only 35% of Americans think Trump exercises good judgement, while 50% thinks he does not -- a gap of 15 points.
The chart reflects the results of a new Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between July 15th and 17th of a national sample of 1,500 adults (including 1,272 registered voters). The margin of error for adults is 3.2 points, and for registered voters is 3 points.
