Even Russian State Television Says Trump Isn’t Making Sense

They think he’s “at war with common sense.”

Evan Vucci/AP

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

While leaving the White House on Tuesday to travel to Europe for a week of meetings with NATO allies and, later, a Finland summit with Russian president Vladimir Putin, President Trump made an odd pronouncement: that his upcoming meeting with Putin would be the easiest of the bunch.

“So I have NATO, I have the UK—which is somewhat in turmoil,” Trump told reporters. “And I have Putin. Frankly, Putin may be the easiest of them all. Who would think?”

When asked if he thought Putin was a friend or a foe of the United States, Trump said, “As far as I’m concerned, he’s a competitor.” 

Given the ongoing federal investigation into Russian election interference, Trump’s relative ease at meeting with the Russian leader—and his reluctance to acknowledge that Putin is an American adversary—is pretty foolish. So much so, in fact, that even Russian state TV—heavily controlled and funded by the Kremlin—made fun of Trump’s pronouncement in a Tuesday segment on the local talk show 60 Minutes. Trump’s belief that meeting with Putin is no big deal, they said, is “at war with common sense.” 

The host Olga Skabeeva opened the segment with footage of Trump and Melania getting on their Europe-bound plane together, holding hands. “Trump, having reconciled with Melania, seems to be fighting with the world and with common sense, saying that NATO and the UK are worse than Putin, and that Putin is not an adversary,” she said.

She added that “Trump is also bringing Putin a ‘little’ present—why ‘little,’ I don’t know.” (Skabeeva seems to have mixed up, perhaps intentionally, Trump’s plans to give a gift to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.) Later in the show, Skabeeva joked that perhaps Trump’s little gift for Putin is, in fact, Ukraine. 

The full clip, in Russian, is below:

WE'LL BE BLUNT:

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate