A CRISIS OF HIS OWN MAKING
‘WHO DO YOU BELIEVE?’ It was a simple question, asked of President Trump by a seasoned reporter, but it sent a jolt through the assembled media at the July 16 press conference held at an ornate palace in Helsinki. Vladimir Putin had just denied again that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. America’s Justice Department, intelligence community and both chambers of Congress have concluded, definitively, that the Kremlin had done it. Who did Trump trust more?
This was the moment for the President to deliver a forceful rebuke to America’s long-standing adversary. Instead, Trump replied: “I have confidence in both parties,” he said. “I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.”
The founders of the United States gave future Presidents just one grave set of instructions, enshrined in Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution. Before assuming the office, the President-elect must swear to “preserve, protect and defend” the Constitution and “faithfully” execute the duties of the office. Russia’s 2016 attack had been designed, first and foremost, to undermine faith in American democracy at home and abroad. There could hardly be a more direct call for the President to be true to that oath. On the dais in Helsinki, Trump wasn’t up to the task.
The government he leads had tried to prepare him. Days before the summit, Trump had been briefed in person by Deputy Attorney
