Friends betrayed, foes rewarded: Trump’s Russia reset

Russia's President Vladimir Putin (R) offers a ball of the 2018 football World Cup to US President Donald Trump during a joint press conference after their meeting.

Donald Trump’s quest to become a man of destiny has scaled new peaks with his aspiration for collaborative ties with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, his public repudiation of US intelligence agencies in favour of Putin’s assurances, and his eclipse of the 70-year-old system of US global leadership buttressed by alliance systems.

On the evidence it is tempting to conclude Trump’s obsession with Putin constitutes a betrayal of his own country. He insults, mocks and undermines America’s friends and allies. He seeks a new form of partnership with Russia while ­refusing to hold Putin to account for territorial aggression, illegal ­attacks on US democracy during the 2016 presidential election and oppor­tunist military ventures from Syria to Ukraine.

The consequences of Trump’s European visit will resound down the decades as a turning point in history. Trump repudiates the America the world has known since World War II. In Helsinki the US President became supplicant to a tyrant.

He insulted his own advisers, the officials working for him trying to curb his recklessness; he preferred the assurances of a Russian de facto dictator to that of his own intelligence agencies; after his contemptible treatment of NATO allies and British Prime Minister Theresa May, he indulged Putin with a summit that gifted the Russian leader as a quasi-equal and sketched a long agenda for future US-Russian co-operation.

Trump operates with a casualness that implies he does not really comprehend the scale of his ­actions. Perhaps he does. He wants to expose his predecessors and prove his worth as an agent of transformation who boasts about his achievements as he strikes at the foundation of generations.

The man is a fraud on a gigantic scale. He trashes the legacies of presidents from Franklin Roosevelt to John Kennedy to Ronald Reagan and — dare we say it — even George W. Bush for all his disastrous follies. Beneath his bluster, intimidation and narcissism, Trump’s character cannot be mistaken — he will betray his friends and reward his enemies at his own convenience.

Perhaps dying US warrior and Republican political leader John McCain put it best, saying of the Putin meeting: “The damage inflicted by President Trump’s ­naivete, egoism, false equivalence and sympathy for auto­crats is difficult to calculate. President Trump proved not only unable but unwilling to stand up to Putin. He and Putin seemed to be speaking from the same script as the President made a conscious choice to defend a tyrant … without any regard for his rule, his violent disregard for the sovereignty of his neighbours, his complicity in the slaughter of the Syrian people, his violation of international treaties and his assault on democratic institutions throughout the world.”

But McCain’s most lethal ­remark was that Trump “failed to defend all that makes us who we are — a republic of free people dedicated to the cause of liberty at home and abroad”.

Speaker Paul Ryan said Trump “must appreciate that Russia is not our ally” and there was “no moral equivalence” ­between the two countries. Majority leader Republican senator Mitch McConnell said “the Russians are not our friends” and ­affirmed his “complete confidence” in the findings of the intelligence agencies against Russia. Former CIA director John Brennan called Trump’s performance “treasonous” while former national intelligence director James Clapper said it was “very, very disturbing” and that Putin would be celebrating.

Trump flew to the Helsinki summit after his visit to Britain where he trashed every notion of a trustworthy US-Britain alliance and treated his embattled but gracious host, May, with cavalier contempt. This followed his attendance at the NATO summit where Trump ­attacked alliance partners not just for their inadequate military spend­ing but betrayed something far deeper — his disdain for the EU, which he later branded a “foe” because he thinks it has undermined America’s eco­nomic interest over the decades.

On this trip Trump has driven a wedge between the US and its ­European partners (including Britain) on a scale the old Soviet Union only dreamt about, and followed up by revealing his obsess­ion for cutting deals with Putin.

The President seeks an “extraordinary relationship” between the US and Russia, thereby giving Putin a status he cannot achieve in his own right. This reflects Trump’s childlike belief that by ­offering Putin concessions he can create a genuine partnership with the Russian leader.

If Barack Obama infamously led from behind, Trump even more infamously leads from weakness. No wonder Putin can barely repress his smile.

Trump emerges as a figure devoid of history — he rejects the Western alliance system, the geopolitics that sustained the West during and after the Cold War and is devoted to a populist ideology that casts free trade, US global leadership and a values-based foreign policy as the instruments that must be purged.

Trump insisted on a one-on-one meeting with Putin to isolate his senior officials from action — many of whom disagree with his approach — and to achieve his ­declared reset with Russia.

The US media coverage focused on Trump’s repudiation of his own intelligence agencies that concluded there was Russian interference in the presidential campaign. This is of historic import — delivered by Trump with Putin by his side at a joint conference.

On display was a Trump-Putin unity ticket against the guardians of US security. Asked directly if he believed intelligence agencies or Putin in his denial of Russian ­interference, Trump said: “I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be Russia.”

During the media conference after their two-hour meeting, Putin branded the allegations that Russia had interfered in the US campaign as “utter nonsense just like the President mentioned”. Meanwhile, at the end of last week, special counsel Robert Mueller charged 12 Russian intelligence operatives over cyber attacks during the presidential election.

Trump said he has had “a deeply productive dialogue” ending the worst period of relations between the countries. Putin said there was a need “to join ranks and work ­together”. The two leaders canvassed a range of areas of mutual co-operation including Syria, ­nuclear weapons control, counter-terrorism and cyber security.

Trump called Putin a “good competitor”, a contrast with his criticism of allied leaders. The impression is that he can trust Putin.

There is no problem seeking better relations with Russia. But contrary to Trump’s remarks, whether it is a good or a bad thing depends on its basis, the deals, the trade-offs and whether it comes at the expense of other peoples and countries. Putin is not a Gorbachev. He is a domestic agent of repression, not reform. There is no Reagan-Gorbachev parallel.

This is not to deny multiple US errors dealing with Russia since the end of the Cold War and the counter-productive expansion of NATO that substituted for a more inclusive stance towards Russia. It is true that the West has blundered in dealing with Russia — but the West’s past mistakes cannot exonerate or justify Trump’s performance. What counts is Trump’s effort to compromise America’s global role, fracture its alliances, forgive Russian transgressions and pursue deals with autocrats in the narcissistic belief his business skills easily translate to negotiating with Putin, a man whose life has been dedicated to geopolitics and ­intrigue. It is an unequal contest.

Australians should not forget this coincides with the fourth ­anniversary of the downing of flight MH17 over Ukraine, killing 298 passengers including 38 people calling Australia home. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said the investigation concluded that missile belonged to Russia. Putin has treated the concerns of the aggrieved nations with contempt.

Trump’s visit has turned US strategic policy on its head — he treats allies with disdain and suspicion — witness May’s fate when she hosted a gracious dinner for Trump at the magnificent Blenheim Palace (Churchill’s birthplace) only to be ridiculed and told her policy would “probably kill” any hope for a Britain-US trade deal. At the same time, Trump treats aggressive autocrats with high hopes for close ties and fresh partnerships. These are dark days for America and dangerous days for the world.