When Russian forces took 24 Ukrainian sailors captive late last year, senior officials in the Trump administration gave the president options for responding. They included new sanctions or increasing NATO’s naval presence in the Black Sea. But Trump has not yet taken action, even as administration officials insist options are still being considered and as Europe coordinates a response.

In November, responding to the standoff, Trump canceled a meeting in Argentina with President Vladimir Putin of Russia at a forum of the Group of 20 industrialized economies. At a dinner on the sidelines of the meeting, however, Trump told Putin that a resolution was needed. Yet he has sought to blame both sides in the conflict, saying merely that he did not “like what is happening.” Russia has extended the detention of the sailors and demanded a trial on charges of border violations.

Privately, Trump was irritated by his administration’s response to the 2018 poisoning of a former Russian spy living in England that the British authorities have said was carried out by Russian agents. He was initially upset that 60 Russian diplomats and intelligence officers were expelled from the United States in response to the attack, given that European nations were not expelling the same number.

Later, Trump opted against new sanctions against Russia for its support of President Bashar Assad of Syria after a chemical attack near Damascus that killed more than 40 people. Trump believed the sanctions, which had been announced by Nikki Haley, then the U.N. ambassador, were unnecessary in light of a missile strike against Syrian targets. And when the Trump administration began imposing a series of sanctions against Russian individuals and organizations in retaliation for cyberattacks and interference in the 2016 election, the president appeared out of line with his own Cabinet.

While Nikki Haley was attempting to achieve sanctions against Russia at the United Nations, Trump bombed Syria to negate the initiative his UN Ambassador was carrying out.

I don't care what anyone says, this treason of the highest level. A president of the USA does not decide to make excuses to remove sanctions against an enemy of the USA, namely Russia, with American military assets.

7 April 2017
By Everett Rosenfeld

The U.S. military (click here) attacked a Syria-government airfield with 59 Tomahawk missiles on Thursday evening.

The missiles targeted the Shayrat air base near Homs, and were in response to a Tuesday chemical weapons attack. Officially announcing the strike, President Donald Trump said the targeted airfield had launched the chemical attack on a rebel-held area, and he called on other nations to oppose Syria's embattled leader.

"On Tuesday, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad launched a horrible chemical weapons attack on innocent civilians. Using a deadly nerve agent, Assad choked out the lives of helpless men, women and children. It was a slow and brutal death for so many. Even beautiful babies were cruelly murdered in this very barbaric attack," Trump said Thursday night.

A U.S. defense official called the U.S. strike a "one-off," Reuters reported. Nine civilians including four children were killed, the Syrian state news agency claimed, but the Pentagon said civilians were not targeted....