White House press secretary Sarah Sanders opened Friday’s press briefing by detailing the latest ways in which President Trump was cracking down on his Russian counterpart President Vladimir Putin, continuing a messaging war against the perception in the media that he hasn’t been tough enough.
“Today’s sanctions and the totality of the administration’s actions, which are in keeping with Congress’s wishes, prove the president is absolutely correct when he says no one has been tougher on Russia,” she said. “We want a positive relationship with the Russian government, but for this to happen, there must be a significant change in their behavior.”
Then came a question that made Sanders look like she wanted to tear her hair out: “On the sanctions, why hasn’t the president spoken out personally about the sanctions and the behavior enumerated by the administration today by Russia?”
“It’s ridiculous that you guys say that,” Sanders shot back. “Just earlier this week, the president stood on a stage in an open-press room, and talked about how he had been tough on Russia.”
All this is part of a larger White House effort to cast Trump as tough on Russia. When the press office released a statement announcing the sanctions against seven Russian oligarchs, 12 companies “they own or control,” and 17 senior Russian government officials, it was titled, “President Donald J. Trump is standing up to Russia’s malign activities.”
“I think that that speaks volumes, actually, on how the president feels, and exactly underscores what he said earlier this week when he said no one has been tougher on Russia,” Sanders told reporters.
“After all the mayhem they’ve caused in Ukraine and Syria — and the cyber-attacks they’ve launched against the U.S. — Putin’s cronies should pay for their crimes, not profit off them, said Trump-friendly Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., in a statement. “Imposing these new sanctions is another strong move by the administration to rein in Russian aggression across the globe.”
“Nobody has been tougher on Russia than I have,” Trump himself declared earlier in the week, on the same day he met with presidents from the Baltic states, which broke away from Soviet Union.
But Democrats and the press remain skeptical. So do many of Trump’s Republican critics. They point to Trump’s congratulatory phone call with Putin after tainted election results, his insistence that only “very stupid people” dispute the benefits of better relations with Moscow, his slow-walking of earlier sanctions he signed into law, even his proposed withdrawal from Syria over the objections of his national security team.
An otherwise statement by Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., made a play on Trump’s campaign slogan. “The free world isn’t going to sit on the sideline while Putin and his crooked oligarchs try to make the Soviet Union great again,” he said.
All this takes place against the backdrop of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign between Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton. Special counsel Robert Mueller and multiple congressional committees are investigating possible collusion between the Russians and Trump’s campaign. Trump’s former campaign chairman and first national security adviser are among those who have been indicted as a result of the probe, though so far the charges are not directly related to collusion.
That’s why any reluctance by Trump to criticize Putin or Russia receives outsized attention, even if ultimately followed by moves like bombing a Russian client in Syria, arming Ukraine, adding low-yield nukes to the American arsenal, expelling Russian diplomats or sanctioning Putin’s allies.
“But to say that the president hasn’t addressed it directly, he did that while standing onstage with the leaders of the Baltic countries in front of, I believe, almost every single one of you earlier this week,” protested an exasperated Sanders. “So that’s just not a fair or accurate statement.”
“On these sanctions today, he’s not spoken out, and there’s been no statement issued under his name,” countered Los Angeles Times reporter Noah Bierman. “And he’s not spoken out specifically about the issues enumerated by the administration. He hasn’t condemned the alleged subversion of Western democracies, the activity in Syria — a number of things, cybercrimes. All the things that your administration has outlined, he himself has not spoken out against those. He’s just said he’s been tough on Russia.”
The Trump White House is left hoping that the public accepts its argument that actions speak louder than words.
