That went well.

President Donald Trump on Monday said at a briefing with Russian President Vladimir Putin that while he had “great confidence” in the U.S. intelligence community, Putin was “extremely strong and powerful in his denial” that Russia meddled in the 2016 election.

But Obama was born in Kenya and the Central Park 5 were guilty.

The president blamed “both countries” for the strained relationship. When a reporter asked the president if he would denounce Russia’s efforts to interfere in the presidential election, Trump raised the issue of Hillary Clinton’s email server.

“I think it’s a disgrace we can’t get Hillary Clinton’s 33,000 e-mails. I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that

Trump talks to Piers Morgan for the Daily Mail after his meeting with Brenda:

‘Did you get the feeling she liked you?”

‘Well I don’t want to speak for her, but I can tell you I liked her. So usually that helps. But I liked her a lot.’

‘What were her opening words?’

‘Um, “Welcome”. Just “Welcome”. Just very elegant. And very beautiful. It was really something special.’

‘Did you mention your mother?’

‘I did, I said: “You know, my mother was your big fan. She was born in Stornaway in The Hebrides. And that’s very serious Scotland as you know, there’s no doubt about that.’”

Ah, nice of him to explain about serious Scotland.

Trump revealed the Queen told

The usual ethics-obliteration:

“The weather is beautiful, and this place is incredible!” Trump tweeted Saturday morning, promoting his own money-losing property in Turnberry.

“This place is incredible, so spend your money here!”

Says the president of the US about his own golf club.

Today he took a little time to assure us how great he is.

There hasn’t been a missile or rocket fired in 9 months in North Korea, there have been no nuclear tests and we got back our hostages. Who knows how it will all turn out in the end, but why isn’t the Fake News talking about these wonderful facts? Because it is FAKE NEWS!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 15, 2018

Because the … Read the rest

Masha Gessen tells us the Trump-Putin date tomorrow is nothing meeting nothing.

The deliberately empty gesture is the ultimate innovation of the Trump Presidency. Beginning with his transition-era announcement of saving American jobs at a Carrier plant—an accomplishment of no consequence for the country as a whole and little, if any, consequence for many Carrier employees—Trump has trafficked in hollow symbols. Each gesture is designed to affirm his image as a dealmaker, even though the deals are devoid of substance at best and costly at worst. In this context, the Trump-Putin summit, a meeting without an agenda, appears entirely logical.

For his part, Putin has spent nearly two decades hollowing out Russian politics, media, and public language. His system

It turns out we’re in a cold war with the EU.

In an interview with “CBS Evening News” anchor Jeff Glor in Scotland on Saturday, President Trump named the European Union — comprising some of America’s oldest allies — when asked to identify his “biggest foe globally right now.”

“Well, I think we have a lot of foes. I think the European Union is a foe, what they do to us in trade. Now, you wouldn’t think of the European Union, but they’re a foe. Russia is foe in certain respects. China is a foe economically, certainly they are a foe. But that doesn’t mean they are bad. It doesn’t mean anything. It means that they are competitive,” Mr.

The Guardian view on Trump’s visit is that it was doomed from the start, because he doesn’t want what Britain wants.

The president undermined Mrs May before he even left America. He bullied and lied at the Nato summit in Brussels. He then gave an explosive and deliberately destabilising interview to Rupert Murdoch’s Sun on the very day of his arrival in Britain.

Deliberately. I don’t know. Maybe, but maybe it was just more loosely Trump’s unerring taste for the mean and vulgar.

But it was not just the rudeness that mattered – though rudeness does matter, a lot, both in personal and in public things. It was the political impact and consequence. That unmistakable consequence is that Mr

A slice or two from the Sun interview.

Trump has total power. Nobody on his White House staff tells him what to say, or questions him when he says it.

When Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced our scheduled ten-minute slot was almost up, the President swiftly interjected: “No, give them a little bit more.”

We stayed for 28 minutes, with no more prompts to go.

Secondly, he is a very sensitive man, constantly saying how much various people like him. It clearly pains him today that he is not being welcomed to Britain as a hero and our most important ally.

Well, “sensitive” is putting it nicely. It could imply sensitivity toward other people too, and we know … Read the rest

It’s going very well, very well.

Donald Trump, straight-talking disruptor-in-chief, grants an interview to the Sun, a newspaper in so many ways the US president’s natural forum. The interviewer’s 10-minute slot stretches to 28; the interviewee is clearly enjoying himself, and the resulting headlines – “May has wrecked Brexit”, “US trade deal is off” – appear slap-bang in the middle of the prime minister’s grand opening effort to convince him of the contrary.

The insults continued for page after lurid page, including dismissive comments about the prime minister’s new plan for Brexit (“I think the deal is not what the people voted on”); about Theresa May’s conduct of the negotiations (“I actually told Theresa May how to do

Yes that’s a good look.

This is ugly.

Trump says that immigration is not "good for our country" because it is "changing the culture." pic.twitter.com/7zTXE9Miyh

— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) July 13, 2018

… Read the rest

Trump thinks he’s popular in the UK.

Even as the president’s aides choreographed a visit designed to have Mr. Trump spend as little time as possible in London and to keep him out of sight of any protests, he seemed unfazed.

“I think it’s fine,” Mr. Trump said at a news conference in Brussels before setting off for a two-day working visit to England followed by a weekend in Scotland.

“They like me a lot in the U.K.,” he added. “They agree with me on immigration. I’m going to a pretty hot spot right now, a lot of resignations.”

Says the guy who’s had more resignations from his administration than any president ever, by a wide margin. Everybody … Read the rest

… Read the rest

Southall Black Sisters is out there protesting Donald.

Here is our banner that we have created especially for Women’s March London #BringTheNoise march, we are meeting at Portland Place from 11 onwards tomorrow, march moves off at 12.30. Join us! We stand in solidarity with all those who will be protesting against Trump’s visit to the UK. In the interlinked and globalised world we live in, Trump as the so-called leader of the so-called free world, isriding a tsunami of racism and misogyny which normalises the resurgence of right wing extremism which we are witnessing across Europe and indeed the world. The intolerable separation of migrant families from their children is not simply going on in the US

Trump continued his spoiled brat routine all the way to the end.

Even as he declared that the American commitment to the trans-Atlantic alliance “remains very strong” ahead of his summit meeting next week with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, he continued to assail close partners and further strain diplomatic relations.

In the closing hours of the two-day gathering in Brussels with leaders of the other NATO nations, he forced a last minute emergency meeting to address his grievances over spending. Then he called a news conference to claim credit for having pressured NATO members to boost their defense budgets “like they never have before.”

That claim was quickly dismissed by the leaders of both Italy and France, who