Russian State Media Turns On Trump, Calls Him ‘Clumsy’ And ‘Morose’ After G20 Summit
In June, Donald Trump reportedly remarked during an unofficial bilateral meeting that Crimea — a subject of territorial dispute between Russia and Ukraine — belongs to Russia because “everyone there speaks Russian.” As Business Insider reported at the time, Trump’s alleged remarks prompted Russian state-run TV channel Russia 24 to celebrate Trump.
“It is high time! Trump called Crimea Russian! Crimea is ours! Trump is ours!” the hosts boasted.
Russian Senator Oleg Morozov observed that Donald Trump’s failure to deny making the comments means that the president of the United States is “demonstrating that he is willing to abandon the transatlantic unity and Ukraine means nothing to him.” What Trump doesn’t say, Morzov noted, is equally as important as what he says. But that was in June. Now, in the aftermath of the G20 summit, Russian state media is turning its back on Trump.
Investigative journalist Julia Davis reports via Twitter that Russian state media — at the direction of Vladimir Putin, seemingly dissatisfied with his brief encounter with Trump — keeps slamming and criticizing the American president. Trump is no longer “ours,” Russian media is now describing him as “clumsy” and “morose.” According to the country’s state-run media outlets, the American president “wasn’t prepared” for his meeting with Vladimir Putin, and “had nothing to say.” The network also criticized Trump for bringing “cognitive dissonance” to the Group of 20 summit held this weekend in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
But it is not only Russian TV channels that are turning on Donald Trump, the country’s print media is doing the same. In a column penned for the Daily Beast, Davis detailed the apparent change in climate. Russia appears unhappy with Trump — who is being accused of colluding with the Kremlin to sway the 2016 presidential election in his favor — and government officials are openly criticizing the president for, it seems, failing to deliver during his brief encounter with Vladimir Putin. Russia “should have never trusted Trump to begin with,” a member of the Kremlin-appointed Russian Public Chamber Veronika Krasheninnikova opined in an editorial.
Following the abrupt cancellation of Donald Trump’s G20 meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russian state media roasted him https://t.co/5ei3ZVCunX
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) December 3, 2018
“Trump is a rock hanging around Russia’s neck,” Krasheninnikova continued, adding that “as long as Trump is in power, nothing positive can happen in the relations between the United States and Russia.” A number of Vladimir Putin-controlled media outlets viciously attacked the president, according to Davis, criticizing Trump for cancelling his formal G20 sit-down with the Russian president.
As the Inquisitr reported ahead of the G20 summit, despite vowing that his Argentina trip would be “very productive,” Trump downgraded and canceled a slew of meetings with other world leaders. The decision to cancel the meeting with Vladimir Putin, and Trump’s subsequent behavior at the informal encounter, appears to have angered Russian state media, forcing it to change its tune.
