RUSSIA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Switch on the news in Russia, and the message is clear: Washington is in chaos.
Dmitry Kiselev, the host of a weekly television show, summed up U.S. President Donald Trump’s return from last month’s Group of 20 meeting in Germany by saying Mr. Trump had ‘plunged back into his native American hell, into an atmosphere of paralyzing persecution.’
The recent passage by Congress of a tough new sanctions bill—which Mr. Trump signed into law on Wednesday—is only the latest sign of Beltway disarray, in the Russian view…
And in the wake of the congressional action, Russian state-controlled media, which openly cheered for Mr. Trump during last year’s presidential election, depict the situation in Washington as proof the Trump administration is floundering.
On Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov even made a public plea to Mr. Trump, asking him to voice some opinion on the sanctions bill. ‘It’s of the utmost importance what the president is thinking,’ he said. But, he said, there have been mixed signals over Mr. Trump’s position on the sanctions.
In a pair of statements, Mr. Trump said the bill was ‘seriously flawed’ because it encroached on White House authority, and called some provisions unconstitutional. But he said he signed it ‘for the sake of national unity,’ and said it showed the American people want to ‘see Russia take steps to improve relations with the U.S.’ “
-Nathan Hodge and Thomas Grove, “Russians Portray Washington as Mired in Chaos,” The Wall Street Journal online, Aug. 3, 2017 05:30am