The Danger of a Deal With Putin
The Russian leader knows Trump needs to walk away claiming victory. That gives the Kremlin an advantage.
What happens when The Art of the Deal meets the Kremlin playbook? Given that, as one depressed NSC staffer put it to me, “our job is to build a bridge between the real world and the president’s,” the real risk is not that Donald Trump actually gives away the farm to Vladimir Putin when they meet in Helsinki next week—it’s what happens in Washington if he tries.
It’s rare for Trump to meet an autocrat he doesn’t like, from China’s Xi (with whom, Trump tweeted, he “”) to North Korea’s Kim Jong Un (who he has called “”). Nonetheless, his appears rooted not just in his apparent conviction that the two have . It also reflects his grandstanding desire to
