Donald Trump is often described as an unconventional politician, but there is at least one surprising way he’s following in the footsteps of his most recent predecessors. Both George W. Bush and Barack Obama began their presidencies with high hopes of improving U.S.-Russian relations. At a 2001 summit in Slovenia, Bush met with Vladimir Putin and famously said, “I looked the man in the eye. I found him very straightforward and trustworthy—I was able to get a sense of his soul.” In 2009 in Geneva, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton offered her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, a button that was …read more
Source: The New Republic
