For more than 2 hours, although it was planned to be 1.5 hours, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin negotiated face to face in Helsinki today. It was the first time the leaders talked in such a format.
Anna Baldina will report on how our American colleagues evaluated the meeting. She's coming online.
—Hello, Anna. How big was the reaction? Was it positive or negative? What do American journalists think? Where is the ball now in this political dialogue?
—Hello. If Donald Trump follows the reaction in his plane, he won't be surprised. He said that he'd be criticized whatever the summit results would be. So far, it's going this way. You got to see the facial expressions of the American news observers when they talked about the summit. Apparently, they let their emotions out which is detrimental to the facts.
However, they gave interesting details. For instance, CNN quoted its source in the delegation who said everything went "not according to the plan." CNN gave another interesting detail that the translator who was working with Trump at the meeting will be, well, not interrogated, but asked to report about the content of the meeting to the White House administration, since they're perplexed and they don't understand how the talks went. It's clear that the translator takes notes only for translation purposes. It's not a copy of the meeting's minutes. It means he can't convey the content of the talk, but they'd be glad to garner any clues.
Of course, there's a reaction in the American Congress already, beginning with a teasing remark, for example, Senator Lindsey Graham said a soccer ball doesn't belong in the White House, because there might be a wire inside the one that was given by Russia. That's humor.
Senator John McCain, a hawk, considered Trump's speech as one of the worst appearances of American President in modern history and called the summit "a tragic mistake." Senator Bob Corker said Vladimir Putin had the upper hand and Trump's speech wasn't the best moment for the USA. Let's have a look at the video of the comment.
Robert Corker: “The President should've been tougher on the reason for our discontent. Putin understands the strength only. I don't think it was a good moment for our country.”
Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, is upset with the president's reaction to the alleged Russian interference in the election. He gave a rigorous evaluation saying "there is no moral equivalence between the United States and Russia, Russia remains hostile to our most basic values and ideals."
Former CIA head John Brennan tweeted one of the first reactions, which has been quoted on American TV. He called Trump's comments imbecilic. Well, the phrase was even ruder, but I won't quote that. He probably didn't get the reaction he had expected. He also said Trump is in the pocket of Putin. But not all of the users agreed with him. There were disagreeing comments, saying that it was Obama and his administration, along with Brennan, who are responsible for the deterioration of relations with Russia.
But there were trolls who started to ask Trump's question "Where is the server?" implying Hillary Clinton's e-mail server, which was given to the intelligence agencies. Brennan caught some of these comments from trolls asking him where the server was.
Vice President Mike Pence tried to give a reserved commentary. He said that Trump looked like a world-class leader and would continue to represent American interests, placing them above all else. So, this is the reaction, mostly negative. However, Trump expected it. The political situation is disposed to this since the USA is preparing for its midterm Congressional elections. And they're preparing for the 2020 presidential election taking into account that Trump said he would take part in the campaign. We'll see.
Of course, this is merely the first impression. Everything should settle down. A more comprehensive analysis will be done. We'll follow this and let you know.
—Thank you, Anna. Thank you, Anna. On the American phobia about the soccer ball, where, the Americans say, wiretaps might be, Anna Baldina has reported.
