Following standard protocol, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin exchanged brief remarks in front of the press before their meeting in Helsinki, inspiring journalists and pundits to delve into deep and slightly premature analyses.
Sitting next to each other, Trump and Putin offered up a few off-the-cuff comments to the press about what the two leaders hoped to achieve during their meeting. The brief and rather unremarkable exchange was immediately pounced on by journalists and pundits, who provided wide-ranging verdicts on a summit that had barely just begun.
The New Yorker’s Moscow correspondent had a particularly fresh take on the unspectacular encounter, noting that Putin had employed sneaky KGB tactics by… listening to what Trump was saying.
Others worried that Trump had already been outgunned by Putin – who came armed to the meeting with a notepad and pen.
But Trump’s biggest sin was not diving headfirst into unproven allegations of Russian nerve-agent attacks, according to David Corn, Mother Jones’ DC bureau chief. The US president was also caught winking.
Finally, Eliot Higgins employed his mastery of social media forensics to expose Donald Trump’s less-than-stellar command of the English language. More proof that Trump is really a crypto-Russian?
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