Trump’s Staff Is Worried He Will ‘Unwittingly’ Ally Himself With Putin
Donald Trump’s senior staffers are extremely worried about his upcoming meeting with Vladimir Putin.
His aides are worried about what Trump will say during his meeting with Putin.
According to a report by The New York Times Wednesday, top aides to Trump are worried the president is “unwittingly” allying himself with Putin and that the two leaders will bond over their attacks on the media.
“You don’t want to come out of there saying, ‘We’re friends, and the enemy is the deep state and the media,’” former Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul told The New York Times.
“If it were somebody else other than Trump, you could imagine a tough conversation about Ukraine and election meddling, but that’s probably too optimistic,” he continued.
“Politics does constrain, I think, the parameters of the possible for any kind of major breakthrough.”
And according to the report, Donald Trump seems to be the only one in the White House who isn’t worried about the Putin meeting. Trump has told aides he isn’t worried about the meeting and is more “annoyed” about the optics of being lectured by German Chancellor Angela Merkel over his decision to exit the Paris climate agreement.
The New York Times also reports that “Trump’s aides are seeking structure and predictability. They hope that a formal meeting, with aides present and an agenda, will leave less room for improvisation and relegate Russia’s meddling in the campaign to a secondary topic, behind more pressing policy concerns that the president is eager to address.”
You can read the full New York Times report here.
[image via screenshot]
