Pre-cooked Deliverables
In the past, when the President of the United States met in a “summit” with another world leader, teams from the two nations would negotiate for months before the meeting. Their goal was to reach a few agreements that the two national leaders would claim as a result of the successful summit. Those agreements were called “pre-cooked deliverables.”
On the official American side, there was no agenda. There were no “pre-cooked deliverables” agreed upon in advance, there were no concessions made before the meeting began. Yesterday in Helsinki, President Trump met with Vladimir Putin without a topic beyond the “relationship” between the US and Russia. This left the field open to the Russians, who were able to manipulate the outcome to achieve many of their clear purposes.
The Russians didn’t get sanctions lifted (though Putin did offer up a “trade” of sorts, election hackers for Bill Browder and lifting of the Magnitsky Act.) They didn’t get US recognition of the takeover of Crimea from Ukraine. Other than those, the Russians achieved what had to be a long laundry lists of items. President Trump dumped his own intelligence agencies in favor of the Russian leader, he took the Russian side of disputes with the European Union, he spent a large portion of the press conference attacking the American media, and Hillary Clinton, and the Democratic Party. After the “summit” Russian officials called the outcomes “fabulous…better than super.”
And the United States really gained nothing but embarrassment. Putin was able to once again deny the Russian involvement in the 2016 American elections, denied the poisonings in the United Kingdom, and received what sounded like major concessions in the Middle East.
Almost unanimously (with the notable exception of Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, the lead story on Fox News) American officials outside the Administration were shocked and dismayed at the President’s actions. Republican Senators McCain, Flake, Corker, Graham and Speaker Ryan, all spoke out against the statements made by the President, as well as the full lineup of Democratic leaders.
Commentators looked back at the great “summit failures” of the past: Kennedy’s ill-fated meeting with Khrushchev in 1961 (leading to the Soviets putting nuclear weapons in Cuba) or Obama’s 2013 G-20 stare down with Putin (ending the “reset” with Russia.) But Trump’s performance yesterday brought back the specter of the greatest of all summit failures: Britain’s Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s Munich meeting with Hitler in 1938.
Hitler demanded that Chamberlain allow Germany to take over Czechoslovakia, Chamberlain bought time for Great Britain to prepare for war by giving in to him. Chamberlain returned to Britain holding the agreement and touting “peace in our time.” World War II started a year later.
President Trump’s performance is not the beginning of World War III. But it, along with the President’s actions at the NATO meetings and in the United Kingdom before the summit, have led our real allies to question our commitment. Germany today begins to evaluate whether the United States is an ally or adversary; the Eastern European nations formerly part of the Soviet Union are re-evaluating US defense promises. But the greatest shock was the President NOT defending his own government in an international forum.
There are three possibilities for the President’s actions. The first: he was not prepared. There was no preparation for the meeting, there were no “pre-cooked deliverables” or scripted agendas. President Trump walked into a meeting with Vladimir Putin “cold,” and got taken. Trump was maneuvered into defending himself instead of pressuring Russia, and Putin got to look “Presidential” and equal.
The second: the President can’t get beyond himself. Mr. Trump fed his base with the same lines as his rallies; from investigating Hillary Clinton to Fake News to “no collusion.” And perhaps, there is that deal for “Trump Tower – Moscow” still in the works, the one the President denied throughout his campaign.
The third, and most ominous, is that Putin really does have “the goods” on Trump. Whether it’s unsavory video tapes, the Trump Organization’s dependence on Russian financing to stay in business, or the proof of the Trump campaign’s conspiring with Russian Intelligence; it would place our President in the role of an “agent” of Russia.
Whichever the case, the actions of President Trump should be questioned by every American. We expect our President to stand up for American institutions, we expect him to stand up for our traditional alliances, we expect him to be a strong leader. What happened yesterday brings all of that into question.
Perhaps these are the “pre-cooked deliverables” the Russians prepared.
As usual, well stated. I certainly hope Trump’s words in Finland finally shake his strong supporters. The racists,however, will still love him, I imagine. You bring in some interesting points in history. Americans had better wake up and see the damage being done to tear us apart . He has been Hitler-like from the start.