https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entr...with-donald-trump_us_5b47e208e4b0bc69a785aeba
The Russian leader will likely pledge progress on issues like Syria at their Helsinki summit. But officials from U.S.-allied countries say Trump should be skeptical.
President Donald Trump will soon have the high-profile summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin that he has sought for years. But with days to go until Monday’s talks in Helsinki, Finland, the people with the highest stakes in the meeting — an American public still rattled by Russia’s 2016 election interference and key U.S. allies wary of Putin’s agenda in their neighborhoods — have less to celebrate.
Trump’s “natural inclination is to admire Putin and to reach out to him” because of his affinity for autocrats, said Charles Kupchan, the top White House Europe official under former President Barack Obama. Meanwhile, the president is publicly critical of democratically-elected leaders in U.S.-friendly countries.
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Trump is drawn to strongmen. But people in the know are concerned that Trump will be ill prepared for his meeting with Putin.