I had a great meeting with NATO. They have paid $33 Billion more and will pay hundreds of Billions of Dollars more in the future, only because of me. NATO was weak, but now it is strong again (bad for Russia). The media only says I was rude to leaders, never mentions the money!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 17, 2018
While I had a great meeting with NATO, raising vast amounts of money, I had an even better meeting with Vladimir Putin of Russia. Sadly, it is not being reported that way – the Fake News is going Crazy!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 17, 2018
Does Trump not know that his own press office released a video of the press conference? Nobody needs to ask what the New York Times or Washington Post or CNN is reporting; we can watch his sniveling obsequiousness courtesy of the White House.
Nothing Trump has done has so far cost him the support of the Evangelical Right, or the White Nationalists, or the neo-Nazis, or that amorphous cloud of malcontents who can’t fit in anywhere else, and I doubt very much that the humiliation in Helsinki will affect them at all. To the contrary, it’s likely that the Deplorable One-third will rally against the almost universal indignation of everybody else.
Many Republican officeholders, at least, are nervously backing-up, though probably not enough to jeopardize Trump’s hold on office. Now, we’re going to see what an ass-kissing pack of cowards they actually are as they try to straddle an adoring base and global revulsion.