July 20, 2017

Why Trump’s Solo Meeting With Putin Was a Big No-No

By Loren DeJonge Schulman

The latest Washington scandal reads like a 19th century morality tale: The president met with Vladimir Putin by himselfWithout his own interpreter! For an unscheduled hour! No one knows what happened! His virtue is forever in question.

Talking heads, the tittering class of modern Washington, are apoplectic. As often happens in a moment of scandal, pundits deliver their condemnation in absolutes—presidents never have one-on-one meetings!—and sprinkle them with enough “back in my days, we never did that” to fill a giant pot of borscht. Inevitably, the cycle will produce a well-respected predecessor who also sinned and we will start anew.

Read the full commentary in Politico.