President Obama's foreign policy had been described as "strategic patience" ... which, to this observer, was a cover for his inaction. President Trump's approach can easily be called "strategic chaos" or a constant state of confusion about what Trump is going to do, say or tweet next. This strategy has also been tagged as "transactional" as Trump may not know himself exactly how the U.S. might respond to a certain event ... until the event occurs in all its nuance.
Such was the case yesterday when he appeared, in the Helsinki news conference with Putin, to trust Russian intelligence operations over his own. This misstep is understandable in the context of the FBI IG report that has demonstrated the degree to which the FBI and DOJ (and likely the CIA under Brennan) hand been working to take him down. And it continues. Rod Rosenstein at the DOJ baited the trap last Friday when he announced the obviously politically-motivated indictment of 12 Russian Intel officers for hacking the Democrats during the last presidential election ... but no Americans were wittingly involved. Trump had not, because of the timing of this revelation, been given the opportunity to vet this bomb shell ... to his regret.
Trump is finding that the negotiators on the international stage and in the DC swamp are a little tougher than New York union bosses. As a consequence, in Helsinki, Trump found himself between a rock and a hard place going into his meeting with Putin ... really a no-win, chaotic transaction ... and he didn't win ... he equivocated when he should have stood firm ... to the gleeful delight of the DOJ, the FBI, the U.S. political establishment, the American media, and, I suspect, Putin. Trump has been sullied in what was supposed to be his strong suit, his negotiating skills. This is damaging to his ability to carry off his other challenges, trade with China, North Korean denuclearization, immigration reform, the Mueller witch hunt, etc. And he is pretty much alone on this chaotic battlefield ... with possibly only middle America to come charging over the hill bugles blaring. Will we? We will find out in November.
Afterthought: As a result of Helsinki, Trump has been called a traitor and worse by many of the unhappy parties listed above. It seems to this observer that such mania and its impact on all of international negotiations that are affected by this discord is possibly much more damaging to this country than Trump's perceived bending to Russia.
