“Putin’s poodle Donald Trump branded a traitor and accused of treason after backing Russian leader over election meddling,” read the headline in the U.K.’s Mirror newspaper.
“The US president stunned his nation by turning on his own intelligence chiefs and insisted Moscow did not interfere in the 2016 election race, which he won,” said the subhed.
Germany’s Handelsblatt outlet called Monday’s meeting in Helsinki between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin a “summit of the autocrats.”
Spain’s biggest newspaper newspaper El Mundo read: “Trump surrenders to Putin after humiliating Europe.”
The Finnish newspaper Kauppalehti said, ” Trump 0 – Putin 1,” while the French newspaper Le Monde touted Trump’s “‘weakness in front of Putin.”
On and on it went. And not surprisingly, American news outlets — so many of them liberal — piled on, declaring Trump a traitor and a lapdog of Putin.
Why U.S. media harangued Trump was obvious, but the world media’s motives were a little more complicated.
The bottom line, though, was simple: Trump had just finished a “Spank Europe” tour and their tuchases were all still smarting from their trip to the woodshed.
Trump’s trip to Belgium, England and Finland was a full-fledged smackdown by the U.S. president. At the NATO summit in Brussels, Trump told Europe in no uncertain terms that the United States would not keep paying for its defense. They’d better pony up their fair share or else.
In England, Trump slapped Prime Minister Theresa May for her wishy-washiness over Brexit, and he said May’s blueprint for leaving the European Union would “probably kill” future trade deals between the U.S. and the U.K.
In Helsinki, Trump sided with Putin over the allegations of Russian collusion during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, blaming past administrations for the U.S.’s terrible relations with Russia.“Our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of U.S. foolishness and stupidity and now, the Rigged Witch Hunt!” Trump said on Twitter.
Trump’s trip was fierce: NATO nations — pay up; Britain — smarten up; World — get off Putin’s back.
Like no diplomat before him (except for perhaps Ronald Reagan), Trump declared that America will not allow Putin’s annexation of Crimea or its aid to Syria’s Bashar al-Assad derail negotiations with Russia. Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, had vowed to talk to the world’s most despotic leaders, but ripped Putin every chance he got — until the Russian president no longer bothered with Obama at all.
In the end, the world just didn’t like an American president coming into Europe to say that he’ll put America First, that the free ride is over, that he won’t play by the same rules that have turned so many U.S. presidents into milquetoasts.
So it’s not surprising that their fannies are still smarting.