World Analysis: Trump’s news conference with Putin was everything Putin could have dreamed

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Putin chides Trump's opponents, calls summit a success

Russian President Vladimir Putin called his first summit with President Donald Trump a success — but warned Thursday that Trump's opponents in the U.S. are hampering any progress on what they discussed.People depicting U.S. president Donald Trump attend a protest at Senate Square to support women's reproductive rights, during the summit in Helsinki, Finland on July 16.

There were no shortage of critics of President Trump's meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which came just days after Trump's own government indicted 12 Russians for interfering in the 2016 U.S. election, no less.

The meeting was just about everything those critics feared it would be.

Standing alongside Putin, Trump not only downplayed if not doubted Russia's 2016 actions, but  regularly volunteered defenses for Putin and repeatedly blamed both sides for the strained relationship. Trump has danced around the idea that Russia didn't interfere in the 2016 election, regularly hinting at it without saying it outright. Friday erased all pretenses.

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Trump began the news conference by asserting that Russo-American relations have been worse than ever before, “but that changed as of about four hours ago. I really believe that.” Asked whether he blamed Russia for that strained relationship, Trump immediately reverted to the kind of both-sides rhetoric he employed after a white supremacist allegedly killed a counterprotester in Charlottesville last year — and also previously when asked about Putin killing political opponents (“You think our country's so innocent?” Trump said last year).

“Yes, I do. I hold both countries responsible,” Trump said. “I think the United States has been foolish. … I think we’re all to blame.”

When a reporter asked Putin about Russian election interference in 2016, Trump actually volunteered to answer the first part of the reporter's question, practically offering his own defenses of Putin.

Americans give Trump negative marks for Helsinki performance, poll finds

But findings showed that the reaction nationally is more muted than the criticism he has received from Democrats and some Republicans in Washington.Supporters of President Trump cheer as the motorcade passes by in Helsinki, Finland on July 15, ahead of his meeting with his Russian counterpart.

When Trump was again asked about Russian interference and whether he had told Putin to never do it again, he ignored the question and riffed for a couple minutes on a conspiracy theory about why the Democratic National Committee didn't turn over its server to federal authorities. The hack of the DNC was at the center of the 12 indictments handed down by Robert S. Mueller III on Friday, and Trump expressed significantly more concern about this piece of evidence than the actual alleged wrongdoing.

Indeed, Trump's first impulse when asked about Russian interference was instantly and repeatedly to shift blame and to insert reasons to doubt the findings and objectivity of his own government. He cited Peter Strzok again. He suggested for the umpteenth time that he can't do anything to force Putin's hand: “All I can do is ask the question.” He stood by as Putin denied interfering an any U.S. affairs — a position Trump's entire government regards as a lie. He called Mueller's probe a “witch hunt” right before ending the news conference.

Putin  even seemed to troll Trump. With Trump standing next to him, Putin attacked  his regular American antagonist, Bill Browder, for his ties to Democrats. Those ties to Democrats, you might recall, were part of the package of information that was being offered to Trump's campaign at the Trump Tower meeting with a Putin-aligned lawyer. Even as Putin was denying  meddling, he brought up something that recalls perhaps the most ignominious collusion-related event of the 2016 campaign.

Republicans have largely shrugged off Trump's flirtation with Russia before. It's easy to dismiss it as Trump liking strongmen and/or being sore about the idea that he didn't win the 2016 election on his own merits. He's a prideful man.

But Friday was the clearest indication to date that Trump has basically no appetite for holding Putin responsible. Even insofar as the Mueller investigation is holding Russia responsible for what happened in the 2016 election — and not Trump's own campaign — Trump dismisses the entire thing as a witch hunt.

People like the idea of diplomacy and even talking to dictators such as Putin. But the downside of these summits is that they can lend legitimacy to your enemies and even allow them to use you for propaganda wins.

Trump handed Putin the propaganda win we all suspected might be coming: He sided with Russia over his own government, repeatedly and with the whole world watching. Putin probably can't believe his luck.