No matter what, Trump is going to get excoriated by the media
Especially with any thing Russian
I have not had the impression that Trumps trip has been a media disaster
I also feel it is critical to engage Russians to align as best possible on the Middle East, North Korea security issues and European and world wide energy policy.
We need to ramp up our oil production without getting into a price war and also to avoid destabilizing the energy export dependent economies Russia and the Middle East with an energy glut while at the same time not shutting down the economic boom Trump has ignited
We also need to align as much possible with Russian on Trade sanctions issues
I also suspect that the same Transnational interests that are trying to destroy Trump have similar plans for Putin and Russia which may make Russia an unlikely but highly motivated ally on many issues
At the end of the day, Trump has the most complete information and the rest of us are acting on very partial information
My personal opinion is That Trump is getting very close in the end game in exposing a lot of serious bipartisan corruption in Washington and the reality of this is hitting the guilty parties with a serious realization that Trump is serious
It also seems that Trump has a strategy of forcing his opponents hands to play their hole cards prematurely as a defensive measure rather than timing their attacks offensively
The over the top media response seems to validate that dynamic
Well stated. Agree with your assessments of what is in the works.