President Trump Can’t Stop Advocating for Russia (He Really Can’t)

This looks bad, and there is no doubt in my mind that Donald Trump knows how bad this looks, but he has no other choice.

I’m referring to President Trump’s continued, ardent advocacy for Vladimir Putin’s Russia at the G7 summit.

He’s there as a representative for the United States. His unprovoked, out of nowhere cheerleading for a nation that routinely has journalists and dissidents murdered just seems… odd.

I told you of his initial “Rah-Rah Russia” display on Friday. Before leaving for Quebec, the president said, after suggesting he’d been super-tough on Russia:

“With that being said, Russia should be in this meeting,” he said. “Why are we having a meeting without Russia being in the meeting?”

“Whether you like it or not, and it may not be politically correct, but we have a world to run,” Trump said. “And in the G-7, which used be the G-8, they threw Russia out. They should let Russia come back in because we should have Russia at the negotiating table.”

The world is most safe when nations like Russia are not being given a greater role.

Russia was removed from the G8 – making it the G7 – in 2014, due to their aggressive moves in the region, which included moving into Ukraine and annexing Crimea.

President Trump carried his act into a press conference on Saturday, doubling down on his initial support for Russia.

“Something happened a while ago where Russia is no longer in. I think it would be an asset to have Russia back in,” Trump told reporters.

“I think it would be good for the world, I think it would be good for Russia, I think it would be good for the United States, I think it would be good for all of the countries in the G-7,” he added. “I think having Russia back in would be a positive thing. We’re looking to have peace in the world. We’re not looking to play games.”

Donald Trump is not known for his skills as a “thinker.”

And as is his usual, with Trump, it is always someone else’s fault.

Always.

In this case, it’s about why former President Obama didn’t do something about Russia, if it was such a problem.

“You have to ask President Obama because was the one that let Crimea get away during his administration,” Trump told reporters. “Obama can say all he wants but he allowed Russia to take Crimea. I may have had a much different attitude.”

“Why didn’t President Obama do something about the so-called Russian Meddling when he was told about it by the FBI before the Election?” Trump asked on Twitter last month. “Because he thought Crooked Hillary was going to win, and he didn’t want to upset the apple cart!”

Really?

I hate that this man is making me defend Barack Obama.

Dude… He spoke up and condemned the actions of Russia in the region, along with the international community, after they annexed Crimea.

After the 2016 election, when the U.S. intelligence community was in full agreement that Russia had meddled, he not only imposed new sanctions, but he also expelled their diplomats from the country.

He said he didn’t do it before the election because he didn’t want it to appear that he was trying to help Hillary Clinton.

There are so many things to fault Barack Obama for. How he handled Russia is not one of those things.

If you want to talk about how Obama aided Iran, that’s fair game, but if you want to talk about that and you don’t even bat an eyelash at what Donald Trump is doing now, you might be a hypocrite and a partisan hack.