2016 ELECTION/RUSSIA/RUSSIA INVESTIGATION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Based on meetings he and other senators just held with Russian leaders in Moscow, Sen. Jerry Moran has a few words of caution for President Donald Trump as he prepares to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin…Moreover, Sen. Moran suggests the president might want to think twice about his plan to meet privately with Mr. Putin, with no aides present. The senator and his colleagues are fuming at the way the Russian media portrayed (or, they say, baldly mis-portrayed) their own private meetings with Russian officials, suggesting the Americans only briefly and meekly raised the issue of Russian meddling in the 2016 election campaign…The senator’s experiences underscore a simple reality: There are downsides aplenty to Mr. Trump’s planned meeting with his Russian counterpart in Helsinki in a week’s time. Mr. Trump, understandably, has focused instead on what he sees as the upside potential. In general, he thinks the world is a safer place if the U.S. and Russia get along. More specifically, he wants Russia to help in the effort to force North Korea to denuclearize by not providing backdoor economic relief to the regime in Pyongyang, particularly by buying North Korean coal.”
–Gerald F. Seib, The Risks Lying Within Donald Trump’s One-on-One Meeting With Vladimir Putin,” The Wall Street Journal, July 9, 2018 10:10 am