President Trump won the 2016 election by portraying himself as the strong leader America needed. But on Monday in Helsinki, standing beside a smiling Vladimir Putin, Trump proved himself weak.

When asked repeatedly and directly to condemn Putin’s meddling in the 2016 election — a fact established not only by FBI indictments but also by America’s entire intelligence community — Trump refused. He instead said he placed equal weight in the “extremely strong and powerful” denials of the Russian president with the firm conclusions of his own director of national intelligence.