Trump’s shameful capitulation to Vladimir Putin is part of a bigger (and more dangerous) pattern

President Donald Trump’s obsequious performance during his joint press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki today was a national disgrace. And it spells dangerous times ahead for the world.

The event has certainly given pundits plenty to analyze (and critics to attack), although the primary focus of pundits will likely be Trump’s determination to validate Putin’s laughable denials of Russian interference in the United States’ elections. Trump’s own intelligence officials, who have testified in recent days to Russia’s past and ongoing cyberattacks against the United States, were thrown under the bus in front of a global audience. Special counsel Robert Mueller’s recent indictment of 12 Russian operatives was dismissed as so much fake news.