Before the dust has even settled from the historic Trump/Putin Summit in Helsinki, Finland, the president has set the wheels of spin and hysteria back in motion by announcing the possibility of a follow-up meeting in Washington D.C. The progressive media is still attempting to fix its narrative of “treasonous conversations,” but is there a chance that they will soon do a complete about-face?
The demonization of a political meeting that under any other president would be welcomed, has been grist for the mill in recent days, yet there is one thing that progressives tend to do above all others: follow the leader.
An Unlikely Ally?
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has finally made her position known on the Helsinki meeting, and the left is not going to like it. The woman who has oft been described as the “most powerful progressive” in the world has dealt a body blow to the deranged rhetoric so embraced by the U.S. media. She said that these types of meetings must “once again become normal.” She continued:
“In principle, it’s always good for everyone when there are talks, particularly when there are talks between these two countries. I think it must once again become normal for Russian and American presidents to meet.”
It must be remembered here that it is extremely rare for Frau Merkel to take a public position that is in contrast with the European Union opinion. Added to the fact that the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, will be meeting President Trump at the White House on July 25th, it is not beyond the realms of possibility that Juncker and Merkel have discussed their public approach.
What’s a Progressive to do?
On almost every issue of this presidency, the U.S. media has been on the same side as the EU, which is invariably the progressive line. What will happen now that Merkel has broken ranks and suggested that President Trump’s actions this last week were, in fact, “normal”?
Republican and Democrat politicians alike have criticized Trump for not coming down harder on President Putin. Singled out for special interest was Trump’s apparent disregard for the U.S. intelligence services’ input and information regarding Russian meddling, but the real anger has been reserved for the fact that President Trump had a private meeting with President Putin that the aforementioned intelligence services and advisors were not party to.
While it may be uncommon for world leaders to have private meetings, it is certainly not unheard of. Reagan and Gorbachev had private meetings that led to the end of the Cold War. And when we consider that this administration has been plagued by leaks since day one, perhaps a one-on-one meeting was, in fact, the safest and best option.
A Pendulum Swing?
Now that Chancellor Merkel, and inevitably the EU leadership, is on board with the idea of private meetings, will we begin to see a swing away from this latest bugbear of the left? Or will they double down?
The media has been transparent in its cries of anger. As a group, they became used to being treated as celebrities and honored guests under the Obama administration, and to be shut out – largely due to their childish behavior – is, to them, an affront to their positions.
The simple fact is that if they could be trusted not to interrupt, to give fair coverage, and to do the job that we, the people, expect of them, then perhaps this shut-out wouldn’t have occurred in the first place.
