'How bad was that?': Even Trump aides question damage done, "the collective shudder"

[Demovictory9]

https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/16/politics/donald-trump-helsinki-how-bad-was-that/index.html


President Donald Trump hoped his hotly anticipated summit talks with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin would amount to a triumphant television event. Instead, he returns to Washington facing sharp rebukes even from allies as his stunned aides wonder what went wrong.


For many of Trump's advisers, Monday's performance amounted to a worst-case ending to a summit few in the administration believed was well-timed. From the moment Trump raised the potential for a meeting during a congratulatory phone call to Putin in March, top national security staff argued there was little evidence a sit-down would prove effective, particularly given Moscow's continued efforts to destabilize Western alliances.

But Trump paid little heed, insisting the meeting was necessary to fulfill his stated goal of improving the relationship between the US and Russia. And so planning began for Monday's event in Helsinki, a site selected by aides for its historic ties to Washington-Moscow diplomacy. In the lead-up, administration officials from Trump on down sought to dampen expectations, even as television cameras began crowding into Senate Square.

Those diminished expectations did little to quiet the collective shudder in Washington.

"This was not the plan," said a US official directly involved with Helsinki summit, summing up the deflated response from an administration already suffering burnout, fatigue and disillusionment.

In the hours after Trump's appearance alongside Putin in the columned-and-chandeliered Hall of State, White House officials openly admitted they don't know how to respond to questions about Trump's striking declaration that Putin was "extremely strong and powerful in his denial" of election interference.

[lagomorph777]

1. "...his stunned aides wonder what went wrong."

What went wrong? You took a job working for an obvious traitor! That's what went wrong!

[bdamomma]

2. I really hope

this blows up in his orange face. So now what? He is a treasonous bastard.

[raging moderate]

3. Yes, it was too the plan.

It's just that most Republicons were not in on the secret. Or the joke. Trump leered at Putin and winked at him from an eye he thought would not be caught on a camera. Trump said to Putin, "How about that World Cup?" Putin presented Trump with a soccer ball. They obviously had some huge joke they were sharing, a joke of which most of the rest of us are the butt.

[vlyons]

4. Gee what could possibly have gone wrong?

1st WH Aide: "My O' My! Who could have possibly seen that coming?"

2nd WH Aide: "That was sooo unexpected!"

3rd WH Aide: " I know! Let's set up a meeting between The Boss and Erdogan of Turkey!"

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. Hopefully, they'll now realise he really is complicit in Putin's plans

and for the good of the country, they need to oppose him. I'm not holding my breath, though.

[dalton99a]

6. Trump aides should collectively stick their heads in the toilet

Decent people don't work for Donald Trump

[Solly Mack]

7. Yeah, I don't believe it. You work for Trump then this shit is SOP.

Anyone in the WH pretending otherwise is a liar.

Nothing went wrong - in the sense that Trump was expected to do one thing but did another and his aides were surprised/shocked/whatever by Trump being Trump.

Everything went exactly as it always goes with Trump.

Anyone in the WH thinking they are standing between Trump and total chaos is as delusional as Trump.

All they are is complicit.