The Trump Administration’s continued struggle to get on the same page with one another on foreign policy messages continued today, as Vice President Mike Pence, touring Eastern Europe, issued statements praising the new Russia sanctions bill signed earlier this week.
The bill was passed by vast majorities in both the House and Senate, and signed by President Trump, though the president has since slammed the bill as the reason for worsening US-Russia relations, which he termed to be at “an all-time and very dangerous low.”
Pence, however, seemingly couldn’t have been happier with the bill, saying it proved the US was “unified” against Russia. Pence’s chief of staff also insisted he and Trump are “completely aligned” in their position on Russia, despite Trump clearly taking what was virtually the exact opposite position on the matter.
Some officials tried to compare this fairly glaring divide to the comments by Russian PM Dmitry Medvedev condemning the US sanctions, and President Vladimir Putin having not made a formal statement yet at all.
Though it’s interesting that Putin hasn’t gone public with criticism himself yet, however, it’s clear not indicative of a split between him and Medvedev, whereas the Trump-Pence statements are clearly broadly off message compared to one another, a problem which seems to be happening several times a week between the president and his top officials.
Reprinted with permission from Antiwar.com.
