Better Late Than Never

It didn’t look like it was ever going to happen, but the Trump administration has finally slapped some of the sanctions overwhelmingly approved by Congress last summer and only reluctantly signed by Trump on some Russian oligarchs this past week. Why that is being done now is not clear. Perhaps it is an add-on to the expulsion of Russian diplomats coordinated with multiple other countries in response to the nerve gas attacks in England. Perhaps it is an effort to counteract the press narrative of the tightening noose of the Mueller Russia investigation by adding some substance to the otherwise laughable White House claim that no one has been tougher on Russia than Trump. I have also heard the somewhat cynical but believable postulation that the long delay in implementation was intended to give the Russian entities threatened with sanctions time to circumvent them to the extent possible. The other symbolically big related news is that for the very first time Trump has finally criticized Putin by name in a tweet for his & Iran’s support of Assad’s latest chemical warfare attack on civilians in Syria. Of course it remains to be seen whether this is the start of a significant shift to a tougher foreign policy toward Russia as well as the end of Trump’s longstanding bromance with strongman Putin. Maybe Trump is finally starting to see Putin as more of a competitor than a role model. Another important variable is the hawkish influence of incoming NSA chairman John Bolton and the views of the presumptive incoming Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. 

Meanwhile, the ongoing sagas of the Stormy Daniels affair, the Scott Pruitt scandals, the Mueller investigation and the North Korea situation provide no break from chronic Trumpalgia.