Elise Labott: Trump Envies Putin, ‘the Kind of Leader President Trump Wants To Be’

EXCERPT:

LABOTT: “I mean, I think, Mika, you put it exactly right. It’s kind of he has this envy of president Putin and he will not be deterred. You know, there’s been a lot of whether Putin has something on him, whether he’s bribing him or kompromat or such. I think it’s just a Putin envy. He's the strong leader, doesn’t have any real constituency in the country because he does everything kind of by fiat and force. That’s the kind of leader — no protest, no acrimony from the people — that’s the kind of leader President Trump wants to be. And the reason why the Republicans don’t say something I think is pretty simple. I think they’re just putting party over country and, you know, it’s a pretty sad thing. You would think some of these conservatives, the party of Ronald Reagan, would say something more about, you know, a country like Russia which they say out loud is interfering in the U.S. elections, it’s interfering in world elections, you know, across the globe. So it befuddles the mind to ask why these people aren’t saying anything. It’s possible that some of them do in private, but I think it goes back to back to what Joe and what Richard were saying in terms of — you know, this summit was really interesting in terms of the tale of two summits. There’s the one in President Trump’s mind where he’s winning the trade battle with China, where he’s the strongest president in the world, where he’s an environmentalist, where he’s done so much. And this summit that was in actuality he felt like the odd man out, he felt inadequate, and I think that's why he realizes that these leaders, the Fed, are questioning whether his policies are affecting the world economy, which in turn could affect the U.S. economy. And so I think he really felt like the odd man out and it was kind of obvious he felt inadequate.”