A man widely considered a war criminal—namely Vladimir Putin—was welcomed by President Trump with all the gentle familiarity ordinarily reserved for family pets or friendly mail carriers. The Russian president walked down a red carpet at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, smiled, shook hands, and then joined the sitting U.S. President Donald J. Trump in the presidential limousine for a casual drive into private talks. Fighter jets roared overhead as if to remind onlookers that nothing unsavory was happening here. It was, in short, perfectly normal.
This ordinary Republican politics occurred weeks after Tulsi Gabbard, Director of National Intelligence, announced that President Obama and his national-security team knowingly pursued a false “Russia helped Trump win” narrative in 2016. According to Gabbard, the Obama administration allegedly “knew it was false” but still disseminated it through media channels—seemingly just for fun or vigorous political theater.
To the casual observer, juxtaposing these two events feels delightful: while the U.S. might be rolling out a carpet for the President's role model, internal documents are surfacing that turn past mainstream beliefs on their heads. It’s as if America is simultaneously producing its own tragic-comedy script and starring in it—deadpan, of course, with just a dash of incredulity.
Critics from both sides of the political spectrum were unsurprisingly incredulous. Ukrainian officials, still reeling from the war, called the red-carpet reception “sickening,” while American Democrats described it as humiliating. One lawmaker linked it to an abject failure of moral foreign policy.
On the other hand, Gabbard’s revelations reportedly triggered a DOJ task force, and even a grand jury investigation—an exciting, procedurally dry counterpoint to the spectacle in Alaska.
In a style befitting an unflappable columnist, one might summarize: President Trump opened his doors to a wanted war criminal like he was letting a buddy crash on the couch. At the same time, the DNI quietly suggested that the previous administration—well, maybe politics got a bit messy back then. Neither fact seems to disrupt the elegant continuity of Washington’s diplomatic routine or hyper-partisan news cycle.
