“I have been much tougher on Russia than Obama,” President Trump tweeted this week. “Just look at the facts,” he went on in his characteristic manner. “Total Fake News!”

Trump’s assertion is debatable, to say the least. Even assuming that their fevered theories of illegal Trump-Russia election conspiracies come to naught, his critics have a point when they note Trump’s creepily friendly attitude toward would-be dictator Vladimir Putin.