Day 17: The Putin Situation Grows Foggier

Donald Trump fancies Twitter.

On one of his recent trips to the social media danger zone, the President further convoluted the status of his relationship with Vladimir Putin.

The President tweeted this morning, “I don’t know Putin, have no deals in Russia, and the haters are going crazy — yet Obama can make a deal with Iran, #1 in terror, no problem!”

Trump has been on the receiving end of criticism involving his equating Russia to the United States in terms of moral equivalence.

This has been a thing for a while now, and the clarity of the situation does not look like it’s going to be resolved anytime soon.

With the President seemingly praising a figure like Vladimir Putin on any level, there were obviously going to be people voicing a degree of backlash. Trump called them “haters” — but perhaps the haters are concerned or just plain confused.

Fundamental differences between the two nations on a number of levels would seem to inhibit any comparisons, especially in the realm of moral equivalence.

Trump sat down for an interview with Bill O’Reilly that aired prior to the Super Bowl, and well, it simply did not quell the emotional tempest of those with concerns for his perceived admiration of Putin. Any sort of downplaying the acts of other leaders, especially when the acts are considered egregious in any way, will rile up at least a cohort of haters. Without fail. Every time.

It’s probably (definitely) more than a tiny cohort of Americans feeling some uneasiness about Trump’s comments about Putin. The way the Trump-Putin relationship has been widely publicized, vehemently denied, contradicted and under-no-circumstances-ready-to-stop-grabbing-the-headlines has been nothing short of exhausting.

In 2013, we thought he had a relationship with Putin. Now we don’t. Or we do. One of the two. Maybe. Confusion has naturally ensued. This story has lingered, is lingering and will continue to linger in the headlines. People inherently struggle to wrap their minds around these contradictory reports.

And this debacle might just be getting started.