POLITICIANS FROM BOTH sides of the US political divide have been lining up to condemn President Donald Trump’s actions yesterday.
In taking the word of Russian President Vladimir Putin over the conclusions of US intelligence services, Trump was “shameful” and “disgraceful” depending on which politician you listened to.
But US newspapers were equally scathing in their criticism of his dismissal of Russian election meddling.
Here’s a selection of some of the headlines from this morning across the Atlantic.
As it frequently does, the New York Daily News created perhaps the biggest splash with its front page.
The tabloid went with the ‘T’ word, one that was also uttered by several commentators. Among them New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman who wrote that Trump is “engaged in treasonous behavior”.
The Washington Post sought to pour water over that talk before it got too widespread by pointing out that, for one thing, the US would have to be at war for someone to be convicted of treason.
“He could hand the nuclear codes over to Putin and it wouldn’t be treason,” said University of California lecture Carlton FW Larson.
But while Trump may not have engaged in treason, the Washington Post was no less caustic, declaring in an editorial: “Trump just colluded with Russia. Openly”
In refusing to acknowledge the plain facts about Russia’s behaviour, while trashing his own country’s justice system, Mr. Trump in fact was openly colluding with the criminal leader of a hostile power.
In a lengthy editorial of its own, the New York Times concluded by saying:
All that’s clear is that a president who is way out of his depth is getting America into deep trouble.
“A national embarrassment” declared the Wall Street Journal:
Details from the private Trump-Putin talks in Helsinki will spill out in coming days, but Monday’s joint press conference was a personal and national embarrassment. On stage with the dictator whose election meddling has done so much harm to his Presidency, Mr. Trump couldn’t even bring himself to say he believed his own intelligence advisers like Dan Coats over the Russian strongman.
The Chicago Tribune kept it relatively simple, saying that Trump’s support of Russia was part of his ongoing efforts to discredit the investigation by Robert Mueller into claims of collusion between his campaign and Russian elements.
Meanwhile, north of the US border, Canadian outlets were also coming down hard on the US President.
The usually restrained Globe and Mail said that Trump had “covered himself in disgrace” during the press conference with Putin.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say