Monday, July 31, 2017

I manipulated a foreign election and all I got was a stupid t-shirt

Ironically, as long as our pro-Russian president is in office, I don't see how the U.S. can mend ties with Russia. Russia has just become too politically poisonous. Trump can't do even a small gesture to prop up Russian ties because that will just create more stories about how he is a Russian stooge. Republicans in Congress are using a hard-stance on Russia to display their independence from Trump in a time when Trump is really unpopular (the recent extremely lopsided votes on Russian sanctions shows how little inclination the GOP has to help Trump improve Russian ties). And Democrats have zero incentive to do anything to improve relations with Russia at this point, especially after the country may have cost them the presidency.

Putin's support of Trump in last year's election really is backfiring spectacularly.