In the wake of the Helsinki summit and its aftermath, I can imagine President Trump turning to his family and saying, “Well, that could have gone better.”

But could it? Given the range of implacably hostile forces arrayed against the president? Could he really have done much better? With Robert Mueller essentially serving both as the de facto Attorney General, and as the chief prosecutor for the Democrats’ impeachment plan? With Mueller interfering in our country’s foreign policy? That’s what Democrats would have called it if a Republican-sponsored prosecutor released explosive charges on the eve of one of Obama’s Russian summits.

Trump Took the High Road

What was the President supposed to say, anyway, on the stage with Vladimir Putin? It isn’t diplomatic to end a series of talks with a grandstanding list of accusations. Had he done that, the wise talking heads in Washington would have read his remarks as either:

• A tacit admission that Russian meddling included Trump collusion, so yeah, he’s guilty. Or:
• A grossly incompetent and undiplomatic screw-up, designed to serve his own PR efforts against Mueller.

Trump also would have squandered whatever advantages he’d gained in quiet negotiations with Putin. Imagine Ronald Reagan taking the stage with Mikhail Gorbachev, and denouncing the Soviet leader — in order to placate his critics. (There were plenty on the Right, over at Commentary magazine, who accused him of becoming “another Jimmy Carter” for making deals with Gorbachev.)

Are the sneering, slippery Strzoks of the Deep State the only genuine patriots?

Reagan wouldn’t have done that. Neither would Trump. In a no-win situation, Trump chose the more presidential path. One that doesn’t suit his combative personality. He knew he would pay a political price, and he did. It was the patriotic thing to do.

Our Spooks Have Been Dead Wrong Before

Tucker Carlson is right:

The people yelling the loudest about how the Russians are our greatest enemy and Trump is their puppet, happen to be the very same people who have been mismanaging our foreign policy for the past two decades.

These are the people who have made America weaker, and poorer, and sadder…. The group whose failures got Trump elected in the first place. You would think by this late date they would be discredited completely and unemployable, wearing uniforms and picking up trash by the side of a turnpike somewhere.

But no they’re not. They’re hosting cable news shows, they’re holding high positions of influence at the State Department. They run virtually every non-profit public policy institution in Washington.

So is Sean Davis:

It’s fun to watch those responsible for utter failures in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and Syria act as if they somehow occupy the moral and strategic high ground when it comes to every other geopolitical conflict. Maybe sit a couple rounds out and think about what you’ve done.

— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) July 18, 2018

It wasn’t that long ago that our intelligence agencies told us one thing, and a foreign regime another. That was when the CIA and company assured us it was a “slam-dunk” that Saddam Hussein was stockpiling WMDs. I had friends almost turn on me when I refused to believe what Colin Powell told the U.N. David Frum, at National Review, called us war skeptics “unpatriotic.” Remember? I do.

Thousands of American lives, trillions of U.S. dollars, and a million Christian refugees later, what did we learn? That Hussein was apparently telling the truth, and America’s spooks were deluded. Admitting that stings a bit, doesn’t it?

Remember that the CIA assured President Reagan that the Soviet Union couldn’t collapse. Before that, they told Jimmy Carter that the Shah of Iran wouldn’t fall.

To a certain kind of person, the upper echelons of the FBI and the CIA are the real America. Not the voters. Not the workers. The sneering, slippery Strzoks of the Deep State are the only genuine patriots. They know what’s best for us. So shut up and don’t dare to question the secret police. Funny, that’s the attitude I’d expect from Vladimir Putin. Not from American senators.

I Love My Country. I Fear My Government.

In fact, we should worry far more about our own domestic spies than foreign ones. When the FBI is still run by men who abused foreign intelligence surveillance to spy on a U.S. presidential campaign. To try to entrap it with paid informants. Who are still now trying to bring down our elected government.

Trump has far more reason to be suspicious of what he’s hearing from an FBI whose leadership clearly plotted to frame him. These people will take every hint of Russian disruption and low-level mischief, and try to frame it as proof that Putin fixed our election.

Trump can also suspect that his Republican critics aren’t all that committed to peaceful relations with Russia. It wasn’t two years ago that his party’s hawks were calling on America to risk a superpower war. On the GOP debate stage, Jeb Bush and Chris Christie both called for the U.S. to be ready to shoot down Russian planes over Syria. Why? To protect the Christian-killing jihadis whom Sen. John McCain vouched for as “moderates.”

What a Bad Patsy for Vladimir

Now none of this would be relevant if Donald Trump in fact were guilty. If he really were a patsy for Vladimir Putin, that’s something we’d need to know. What would be evidence for a grave conclusion like that?

Well, imagine that he were selling critical weapons stocks to Putin, in a quid pro quo for massive payments to one of his allies. That happened, but it was Obama, selling a fifth of U.S. uranium to Russia after a massive Russian gift to the Clinton Foundation.

Or what if the president canceled a missile defense system which NATO allies were counting on? If that were part of a newly “flexible” policy of appeasing the Russians, which he talked about in secret with Russia’s leader? That happened, but it was Obama who nixed our missile system in Poland.

Obama’s the man who whispered (he thought the mikes were turned off) to Russia’s president having about “more flexibility” to appease Putin after the U.S. elections.

Would a Russia stooge be kicking the butts of our NATO allies to bolster their defenses against … Putin’s Russia? But that’s what Trump did at his NATO summit. How does that serve Russian interests?

Would Russia’s pawn be tightening economic sanctions against Putin’s allies? Trump has done that.

Do you think a man whom the Russians put into office and are still blackmailing would attempt to block the hugely important Russian natural gas pipeline through Europe? Would he warn the Germans that finishing it would make them Russia’s “captive”?

Or is it more likely that Trump is pursuing a tough but peaceful policy toward Russia, despite the reckless and nakedly political frame-job to which the Democrats are subjecting him?

Could it be that Trump wants limited cooperation with Russia against the much more urgent threats of China, Iran, Islamic jihad, and North Korean nukes?

I know what the spooks want us all to believe. But then, Putin’s a spook too, isn’t he? I don’t want to live in a country where the Peter Strzoks of this world demand our blind faith and obedience. If I did, I’d move to Moscow.