On Monday, the United States announced it would join over a dozen European nations in expelling Russian intelligence officers in response to Russia’s recent use of a chemical weapon in Britain.
The announcement came in the form of a White House statement from Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Vice President Pence followed up shortly afterward with a statement of his own aggressively pushing back on Russian actions.
But there was no direct statement regarding the move from one person who is not normally prone to being shy: President Donald Trump.
This is hardly the first time that Trump has failed to directly and personally address a conflict with Russia when a president might normally be expected to speak out strongly on the matter.
Trump didn’t make a direct statement about chemical attacks
A little over a week after a former Russian spy and his daughter, living in the United Kingdom, were found comatose near a bench after they were exposed to a deadly nerve agent traced back to Russia, the United States formally backed the U.K.’s claim of Russian involvement. Monday’s announcement revealed the United States would expel Russian diplomats and close a Russian diplomatic site in Seattle.
Sanders’ statement was not attributed to the president, and detailed the reasons for the expulsions.
Statement on Expulsion of Russian intelligence officers. pic.twitter.com/4uCzMOMG3f
— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) March 26, 2018
Pence released a statement that said “the United States will not tolerate acts of foreign aggression on the soil of this country or that of our allies.”
My statement on the expulsion of Russian intelligence officers—> pic.twitter.com/CpE2EtiD7A
— Vice President Mike Pence (@VP) March 26, 2018
Asked about Trump’s silence on the issue and failure to confront Putin about it during the previous week’s phone call, White House spokesperson Raj Shah said Monday that the whole thing was up to Putin and the Russian government to decide:
Well, I think, you know, that’s a statement coming from the press secretary on this. The last sentence outlined our approach to this which is our relationship with Russia is frankly up to the Russian government and up to Vladimir Putin and others in senior leadership in Russia. We want to have a cooperative relationship. The president wants to work with Russia. Their actions sometimes don’t allow it to happen. The poisoning in the U.K. that has led to today’s announcement was a very brazen action. It was a reckless action that endangered not just two individuals who were poisoned but many innocent civilians. This is not the type of conduct that the United States or our allies can accept. But the president still remains open to working with the Russians on areas of mutual concern — counter terrorism, for example and others. That’s up to the Russians to decide.
Shah also said, when asked again about Trump’s call with Putin, that Trump “raised a number of issues.” He did not raise, according to the White House, the chemical attack in the United Kingdom.
Last week, Trump was asked about the earlier reports of Britain’s claim about the poisoning, and he dismissed it, saying, “as soon as we get the facts straight, if we agree with them, we will condemn Russia or whoever it may be,” he said.
According to British Prime Minister Theresa May, up to 130 people could have been exposed to the same nerve agent, with 50 getting treatment in the hospital. Britain said last week it had proof the nerve agent used in the attack was stockpiled by Russia.
Trump complained about being forced to approve sanctions against Russia
Last July, Trump signed a Russian sanctions bill to punish and respond to Russia for its interference with America’s 2016 presidential election. Trump’s response to this bill, which was passed with veto-proof majorities, was to criticize the provisions limiting his power to curtail the extent of the sanctions as “unconstitutional.” He said he signed it only “for the sake of national unity.”
Unlike his other bill signings, he signed the legislation without inviting press; afterward, he ducked questions about it from reporters.
Russia’s response to these sanctions was to seize two American diplomatic properties and kick out 755 U.S. Embassy staff — an action that also earned nothing but silence from Trump.
Trump congratulated Putin on winning the Russian election
After Vladimir Putin won yet another term as president of Russia, Trump — ignoring the advice of his staff who wrote in a briefing, “DO NOT CONGRATULATE” — congratulated Putin on winning an election marred by attacks on opposition leaders and many reports of ballot stuffing and other irregularities.
Apart from the nauseating incongruity of the president of the United States congratulating the president of an increasingly-autocratic state about a deeply flawed election, there are also many other flashpoints — chemical attacks on foreign soil of political opponents, sophisticated attempts to influence the result of the U.S. presidential election being two examples — that would have prevented most other leaders from praising Putin.
Trump secretly met Putin at the G-20 summit
After a public discussion at the G-20 summit in Germany last summer, Trump and Putin met again, in secret, for an hour. Undisclosed discussions with foreign leaders are not unheard of for American presidents. This meeting, however, pushed the boundaries of expected presidential behavior even further.
Trump claimed that press was aware of the meeting, but in fact the only reason its existence became public was because a political scientist tweeted about it. Trump also held the meeting without Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who had been present for the public meeting. And he also relied entirely on Putin’s translator, which is not normal for an American leader.
Trump talked about teaming up with Russia on a joint cybersecurity unit
After meeting with Putin in Germany, Trump tweeted that he had talked with the Russian leader about “forming an impenetrable Cyber Security unit so that election hacking, & many other negative things, will be guarded.”
Putin & I discussed forming an impenetrable Cyber Security unit so that election hacking, & many other negative things, will be guarded..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 9, 2017
This displayed a shocking lack of self-awareness about the role Russia played in influencing American and European elections, and the casual disregard with which Russia treated norms for a legitimate election in its own country. Around the same time, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson reportedly considered shutting down the State Department’s cybersecurity office.
Apart from election interference, U.S. officials have stated that Russian hackers “were behind recent cyber-intrusions into the business systems of US nuclear power and other energy companies in what appears to be an effort to assess their networks.”
Trump also, after the G-20 meeting, reportedly neared a deal with Russia to return two Russian espionage-linked compounds in Maryland and New York. The Obama administration seized them in late 2016 in response to Russian interference in the presidential election. And a half-year later, the Trump administration considered returning them, following several Twitter threats from the Russian government which demanded them back without conditions, or the United States would face retaliation. Later in the year, Trump was convinced to keep the compounds, and even proposed the U.S. sell them and “keep the money.”
Trump repeatedly denied and downplayed Russian involvement in the 2016 presidential election
After Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted 13 Russian nationals for meddling in the 2016 presidential election last month, Trump said “I never said Russia did not meddle in the election.” In fact, Trump has repeatedly claimed that the whole Russia story is a hoax made up by Democrats.
Trump said after the 2016 election, “I don’t believe they interfered. That became a laughing point, not a talking point, a laughing point. Any time I do something, they say ‘oh, Russia interfered.'” And in at least two other instances, Trump relayed that he had asked Putin if Putin had interfered in the 2016 election and because Putin denied it, he believed him.
Putin and Trump have also used the same set of talking points to dismiss the idea that Russian nationals interfered in the election. In 2016 Trump suggested it was other countries, or someone in the United States, who could be responsible for the hacks of the Democratic National Committee. In an interview with Megyn Kelly, Putin suggested that the Russian nationals indicted for election interference could actually have been working for an American company.
This month, Trump said Russian interference “had no impact on our votes whatsoever.”
Trump disclosed classified intelligence to Russian diplomats in Oval Office meeting
On May 10 — the day after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey — he met two Russian envoys in the Oval Office. In that meeting, he disclosed details about a classified and highly-sensitive Israeli military operation to Russia’s foreign minister and ambassador to the United States.
Trump would later admit that he fired Comey because of Comey’s decision to investigate Trump’s connection to Russia. Special counsel Robert Mueller, assigned to take on the investigation after Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself due to his own conflicts of interest on the Trump campaign and Russia, is also looking into Trump’s disclosure of classified information.
The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Donald Trump Jr. cited attorney-client privilege when asked questions about Russia in his congressional testimony in Congress’ own investigation into Russian influence on the Trump campaign.