
President Donald Trump on Wednesday tweeted a bizarre and ominous defense of his widely criticized decision to congratulate Russian leader Vladimir Putin, who was re-elected on Sunday.
Despite an explicit, all-caps warning from his advisers to āNOT CONGRATULATEā Putin ā likely because Trumpās campaign aides are under investigation for alleged collusion with Moscow ā Trump called him up and the pair had what he described as āa very good call.ā
āGetting along with Russia (and others) is a good thing, not a bad thing,ā Trump tweeted. āThey can help solve problems with North Korea, Syria, Ukraine, ISIS, Iran and even the coming Arms Race ... PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH!ā
Itās not clear what ācoming arms raceā heās referring to ā rising tensions between Washington and Pyongyang have started to simmer since Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un arranged a meeting to be held in May to negotiate the isolated nationās denuclearization.
Meanwhile, Putin unveiled his countryās new, āinvincibleā nuclear weapons earlier this month and claimed they could reach āanywhere in the world.ā He used visual presentations to show off their purported strength, including one that appeared to show missiles raining down over Florida. The U.S. State Department responded by saying the veiled threat did not represent āthe behavior of a responsible international player.ā
āThe Russians are laughing at us that we are moving back from the world stage, and they are moving forward ā taking whatever they want without any resistance.ā
- Clint Watts, MSNBC national security analyst
Itās also unclear how, exactly, Trump expects Russia to āhelp solve problemsā in Ukraine. Under Putinās rule, Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, which sparked a violent political crisis. Putin visited Crimea this month to rally additional support ahead of his election, which Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko decried as āa dangerous provocation.ā
And Trumpās suggestion that Russia can āhelpā with Syria is equally puzzling. Moscow continues to back the Syrian regimeās slaughter and besiegement of its own citizens. Russian airstrikes, including indiscriminate attacks on hospitals and school buildings, have demolished Syrian neighborhoods and killed thousands of civilians in the war-torn country with impunity. Experts say Russia avoided targeting areas controlled by the Islamic State group for much of its intervention in Syria, instead focusing on rebel-held areas in an effort to prop up Syrian President Bashar Assad.
MSNBC national security analyst Clint Watts described Trumpās assertion that Russia can āhelpā the U.S. as simply āridiculous.ā
ā³[Trump] says they could help us? What weāre doing is helping [Putin],ā Watts said. āThe Russians are laughing at us that we are moving back from the world stage, and they are moving forward ā taking whatever they want without any resistance.ā