Trump Leaves GOP, Intelligence Community and Allies in the Hot Seat

By Gerald F. Seib,

President didn’t challenge Putin on interference in the 2016 presidential election, the annexation of Crimea or other contentious issues.

It was possible that Vladimir Putin would be the man in a tough spot after his summit meeting Monday with President Donald Trump.

Instead, most of the squirming is being done not by the Russian leader, but by Republicans in Congress, by the American intelligence community and by overseas allies.

All of them were left in limbo by Mr. Trump’s decision not to challenge Mr. Putin publicly about any of the toughest issues between Washington and Moscow: Russia’s annexation of Crimea, its interference in eastern Ukraine, the poisoning of Russian exiles in London or Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

At least at the postsummit press conference, Mr. Putin escaped the meeting in Helsinki with the U.S. president appearing to accept his denials of official Russian interference in American politics, and without having been called out by his counterpart on any of those other deeds.

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