America’s solidarity with NATO and much of the rest of the EU in mounting a diplomatic response to Russia’s BIOWEP UK assassination campaign seems well-coordinated and effective–at least as far as these symbolic gestures go.

But President Trump seems to be relatively quiet on these matters. It’s pretty clear he has done nothing to stop the sanctions the US has imposed on Putin, but he has made it a point to not say or tweet a whimper on the subject in support of them. While embarking on frequent harangues against his media enemies and Amazon, his comments on real policy issues and conflicts seem to be missing altogether. Much the same has occurred with the election meddling push-back. The bureaucracy and Congress respond and levy sanctions while Trump congratulates the Supreme Leader on his own bogus election victory. Who’s in charge here?

Don’t get me wrong, I agree that we do need to take measures against the Russians, we simply can’t have thugs like Putin going around the world killing people with impunity. If anything, the diplomatic response so far is the least we could do, and we should be prepared to do much more.

But even if the government (or should I say “Deep State”) is initiating a response, where is the President’s leadership on this issue? Its almost as if he is afraid of personally offending Mr Putin, while simultaneously too weak and incapable of preventing his administration from doing so.

Mr Trump’s public pronouncements (or lack of them) seem increasingly out of synch with this administration’s actions. Invariably, after a particularly baffling Presidential tweet or braggadocious pep rally pronouncement, some White House lackey materializes to smugly remind us “That’s really not what he MEANT.” Its almost as if a brave group of white blood cell advisers in the White House is mobilizing to try and contain the Trump infection and in spite of his recent efforts to fire them, these improvised antibodies seem to be gaining ground.