Donald Trump ran his presidential campaign on putting 'America First,' but it seems more like he puts Russia first. Recently he held a joint press conference with his apparent BFF, Russian president Vladimir Putin, in the Finnish capital of Helsinki. It was a stunning disaster that drew savage bipartisan criticism and copious online ridicule.
At the summit, President Trump, a supposed patriotic strongman, acted like a treasonous weakling. The American intelligence community has a consensus that Russia meddled in the 2016 US presidential election. But rather than rebuke Putin for this brazen attack on our democracy, Trump publicly sided with him. When asked about US election interference, he said he "didn't see any reason why it would" be Russia.
His performance got scathing reviews. It was shocking to see Trump take the word of Vladimir Putin over US intelligence agencies. After noticing the backlash, even from Captain America and the toadies on Fox News, and , Trump tried to walk back his outrageous statement. He claimed that he misspoke. What he meant to say was, he didn't see any reason why it wouldn't" be Russia. And just like that, the controversy was over! Just kidding. People didn't buy it and mocked Trump on social media.
President Trump has tried to make up for his mistake by making new statements with stronger language against Putin. But he also revealed that during his private meeting with Putin they discussed a deal to let Russia interrogate a US diplomat. Trump's behavior towards Russia has long been suspicious. He calls special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation a "witch hunt," when his team has either indicted or secured guilty pleas from 32 people and three companies - so far! That's a lot of witches.
For the July 30, 2018 issue of Time magazine, visual artist Nancy Burson created a striking composition: a image that morphs Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin into the same person. The magazine states that the creepy cover "is meant to represent this particular moment in U.S. foreign policy, following the pair's recent meeting in Helsinki, Finland."
In addition to the still image, Burson created a video image, which perpetually morphs back and forth. In the 1980's, the designer was a trailblazer, spearheading computer-generated compositing technology at MIT. She also developed technology that "ages" faces, which the FBI uses to find missing children.
In an interview about the Time cover, Burson said, "What my work has always been about is allowing people to see differently. The combining of faces is a different way for people to see what they couldn't see before. ... I think the best art can change people's perception of how they see how they are as human beings."
Well, Trump's going to have a difficult time changing people's perception of him after that summit. The incident made many recall a memorable moment from the 2016 presidential debates. Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton accused Trump of being Putin's puppet. Trump replied, "No puppet. No puppet. You're the puppet. No, you're the puppet." The lady dost protest too much, methinks.
