What to anticipate from the Trump-Putin summit

Stories drop so thick and fast with Donald Trump it's vital you stand back and take stock.

We have become so addicted to the chaos and drama that we fail to weigh up what we are witnessing.

So where do we stand on the eve of Helsinki?

First and foremost the US president is about to meet the man American investigators believe subverted US democracy with the aim of putting him in power. He does so immediately after they have presented compelling evidence supporting that extraordinary claim.

The president says he will ask Vladimir Putin whether or not he did it. But we are beyond that point. The FBI has indicted 12 Russian military agents it says attempted to hack the election in his favour.

Just as former president Richard Nixon's henchmen broke into Democrat offices in Watergate, Russian military intelligence agents are said to have broken into Democrat computers and email accounts.

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Video: Trump: The disruptive diplomat

Most crucially it's alleged they found and stole analytics' data, the Holy Grail for an opposition trying to double guess their rivals' strategy.

And shortly after they did so, the Trump campaign changed its own strategy and spending plans dramatically.

There is no proof the Russians were working in collusion with the Trump campaign, not yet at least. But the indictments hang over this summit in the most extraordinary way.

As the two men stand next to each other, the world will wonder whether they did indeed work together to hijack the election and America's democracy. We are now well beyond the point of calling this meddling.

We also need to assess Trump's foreign policy scoresheet ahead of this meeting.

The North Korea track is in trouble despite all the hullaballoo in Singapore. It is now well documented that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's most recent trip to Pyongyang did not go well.

The North Koreans have unveiled no plans to denuclearise and did not even turn up to one meeting with US officials.

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Trump arrives from a NATO summit in which he tried to drive a wedge between Germany and allies and is reported to have threatened to pull the US out of the alliance. All music to Putin's ears.

And in the UK he attacked the prime minister further at a time when she is already extremely exposed on Brexit and endorsed one of her main rivals for her job, whatever the more conciliatory noises he made by the end.

He arrives here well exercised on the fairways of his Scottish golf course but not so well prepared mentally, according to multiple accounts.

Image: Mr Trump has undermined fellow leaders including Theresa May

As before Singapore this president has reportedly not bothered with a single meeting of his national security principals before walking into face Vladimir Putin.

Trump applied to NATO and Theresa May a by now familiar strategy. Go in guns blazing, knock the other side off balance, disorientate the media, then pull back, defuse the crisis you have created and claim credit to the faithful back home.

He has done that to allies and friends undermining them.

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Not to Vladimir Putin, a man he calls a competitor, not an enemy, who he says he would like to make a friend. Why he is doing all this is the great mystery of his presidency.

Where it leads tomorrow is at this stage anyone's guess.

Original Article

World

March 18, 2019