For White House officials, it's keep calm and carry on ignoring Trump
by Tom Rogan
| August 03, 2018 03:10 PM
What the president says doesn't exactly comport with White House policy.
Contemplate some of the divergences from this week.
On Russia, President Trump continues to claim that Russian President Vladimir Putin can be his partner. At a rally this week the president noted, "I had a great meeting [with Putin in Helsinki] — We got along really well. By the way, that's a good thing, not a bad thing. That's a really good thing. Now we're being hindered by the Russian hoax. It's a hoax, OK?"
Compare that with what the president's national security team has been doing this week. In a collective presentation at the White House, they outlined persistent Russian targeting of the U.S. midterm elections. Director of National Intelligence, Dan Coats explained that Russia is engaged in a strategic effort to "try to weaken and divide the United States ... We also know the Russians try to hack into and steal information from candidates and government officials alike."
That's not all. Further confronting Russia, on Friday, the Treasury Department sanctioned Russian financial facilitators that are skirting U.N. sanctions on North Korea.
The situation is similar on the domestic front.
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