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SoulSurfer's avatar

I don't know much about Sykes, but he seems oddly biased.

I assume most of us reading The Bulwark have a healthy level of detestation for Trump. While that's probably a litmus test for a person's basic apprehension of reality, Trump's record on Russia is fairly clear . . . and it's really not what Sykes and Mona Charen carelessly represent it to be.

Trump massaged Putin's ego - questionable but a realpolitik tactic that's been employed by figures such as Churchill (with Stalin), Nixon and Kissinger (with Mao), and Eisenhower (with Khrushchev) - while consistently implementing sanctions and condemning Russian policy.

Brookings details Trump's policy actions vis-a-vis Russia here - https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2018/09/25/on-the-record-the-u-s-administrations-actions-on-russia/.

It's just kind of lazy (and intellectually dishonest) to represent the entirety of Trump's policy on Russia as "sycophantic Putin a**kisser." If that's the depth of our argument and analysis, we're not much better than Fox News.

Both things can be true at the same time - (a) Trump is a dangerous narcissist that needs to leave public life and (b) his record on Russia was consistently tough.

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