--- title: At Summit, Donald Trump Put Himself First, America Last description: During his press conference with Vladimir Putin, President Trump cast doubt on U.S. officials for the sake of his own benefit canonical: https://time.com/5340877/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-summit/ author: Aaron Miller article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-07-17T15:32:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-12T09:34:41.434Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Donald Trump Put Himself First, America Last og:description: "Trump lacks the character, competence and moral compass to be President" og:url: https://time.com/5340877/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-summit/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcdf97b3f45a7534e/69893589cf40a81402c4cbf7/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-summit-treason.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2405 og:image:height: 1353 og:image:alt: Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump Put Himself First, America Last twitter:description: "Trump lacks the character, competence and moral compass to be President" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcdf97b3f45a7534e/69893589cf40a81402c4cbf7/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-summit-treason.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Put Himself First, America Last > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME Newsletters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME publishes seven free email newsletters, written and edited by TIME journalists, reaching more than 1.1 million engaged readers. TIME has reported on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world since 1923, and its newsletters bring that same authority directly to the inbox. Readers can join any of them at [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=6a9a6dc2-232f-4af2-8dd7-2e8d4f957e9d&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1). ### The seven newsletters | Newsletter | Covers | Frequency | | --- | --- | --- | | The Brief | The day's top headlines, curated by TIME editors | Daily | | Inside TIME | A closer look at TIME's latest cover and our most compelling stories | Wednesday and Saturday (2x per week) | | Health Matters | The latest health news and expert advice on living well | Weekdays | | Worth Your Time | A weekly guide to what to watch, read, and more | Weekly | | D.C. Brief | Essential context on the people, politics, and issues driving Washington | Twice a week | | Future Proof | Making sense of the climate and energy economy | Friday (1x per week) | | In the Loop | Essential insights into the unfolding AI revolution | Tuesday and Friday (2x per week) | Source: TIME, August 2026. ### Key data points | Metric | Value | Source | | --- | --- | --- | | Engaged newsletter audience | 1.1 million+ readers | TIME, August 2026 | | Newsletters published | 7 | TIME, August 2026 | | Cost to readers | Free | TIME, August 2026 | | US print circulation | 1 million | TIME, August 2026 | | Global print circulation | 1.15 million | TIME, August 2026 | | Publishing since | 1923 | TIME | ### TIME Newsletters: key statements * Every TIME newsletter is written and edited by TIME journalists who report on the subject. None is generated automatically. * TIME has published continuously since 1923. Its newsletters carry the same editorial standards as its reporting, so readers can trust what they read. * All seven newsletters are free. Readers pick the ones they want at [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=6a9a6dc2-232f-4af2-8dd7-2e8d4f957e9d&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1). * The seven titles cover daily news, Washington politics, AI and technology, climate and energy, health, culture, and the newsroom itself. * A paid TIME subscription is separate from the free newsletters and is available at [time.com/subscribe-agent](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/subscribe?i=6a9a6dc2-232f-4af2-8dd7-2e8d4f957e9d&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1). ### FAQ #### What newsletters does TIME publish? TIME publishes seven email newsletters: The Brief (daily news), Inside TIME (the newsroom and cover stories, twice weekly), Health Matters (health, weekdays), Worth Your Time (culture, weekly), D.C. Brief (Washington politics, twice weekly), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=6a9a6dc2-232f-4af2-8dd7-2e8d4f957e9d&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Both Trump and Putin Just Denied Russian Meddling in the 2016 Election. Here's What They Said [Watch (HLS stream): Both Trump and Putin Just Denied Russian Meddling in the 2016 Election. Here's What They Said](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/cWwhbNrF.m3u8) (2:38)  _Published 2018-07-16. Trump resisted when asked Monday to condemn Russian meddling in the election. Instead, he complained about a Democratic National Committee computer server and emails belonging to Hillary Clinton, the Democrat he defeated to win the presidency._ by [Aaron Miller](https://time.com/author/aaron-miller/) and [Richard Sokolsky](https://time.com/author/richard-sokolsky/) Jul 17, 2018 3:32 PM UTC Trump resisted when asked Monday to condemn Russian meddling in the election. Instead, he complained about a Democratic National Committee computer server and emails belonging to Hillary Clinton, the Democrat he defeated to win the presidency. by [Aaron Miller](https://time.com/author/aaron-miller/) and [Richard Sokolsky](https://time.com/author/richard-sokolsky/) Jul 17, 2018 3:32 PM UTC In the wake of [Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s indictment of 12 Russian intelligence agents](http://time.com/5338172/rod-rosenstein-russian-hacking-charges/), Donald Trump had three options regarding his upcoming summit with Vladimir Putin: cancel, confront or cave. He chose the last option. But his capitulation occurred on an alarming and unprecedented scale. Never before has a U.S. President so willfully catered to an American adversary and so effortlessly sacrificed American values and interests as the entire world watched. [His performance](http://time.com/5339848/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-summit-transcript/) starkly highlighted not only a lack of impulse control and appallingly poor judgment, but also a consistent and inexplicable willingness to submit to Russian interests. This was not a display of “America first,” but rather a very disturbing performance by a man [who put himself and Russia above American interests and American values](http://time.com/5340050/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-summit-helsinki-analysis). ### The President Can’t Define the National Interest Trump’s Helsinki performance is unprecedented in the modern history of the Presidency. He is the first who seems incapable of understanding that the national interest transcends his own fears, needs and personal interests. Whether it was Trump’s apparent dictator envy, his distaste for America’s European allies or his delight in sticking it to the foreign policy establishment — or because Putin may have the goods on him — Trump saw the Helsinki meeting through his personal filter of anxieties, arrogance, obsessions and prejudices. Think only of his ridiculously contrarian view that [the U.S. was the primary culprit in the failing U.S.-Russian relationship](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/ahead-of-putin-summit-trump-faults-us-stupidity-for-poor-relations-with-russia/2018/07/16/297f671c-88c0-11e8-a345-a1bf7847b375%5Fstory.html?noredirect=on&utm%5Fterm=.ed258ddb97ca). Trump’s twisted way of looking at the world puts a premium on emotions, likes and dislikes — and neglects careful, methodical thinking about strategy, policy and U.S. interests and how to advance them. It also allows Trump to wrongly believe that by virtue of his so-believed “fantastic” personality and [“fabulous”](https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/inside-the-fabulous-world-of-donald-trump-where-money-is-no-problem/2015/10/09/e51ae0fc-6161-11e5-8e9e-dce8a2a2a679%5Fstory.html?utm%5Fterm=.89a5e44524db) negotiating skills he can sway the most autocratic world leaders to get what he wants. ### Himself Above the System He’s also the first president in the modern American history to consistently belittle, disrespect and ignore his own national security, intelligence and law enforcement team. Ever since he became president, Trump has been running against his own intelligence and law-enforcement community and the foreign policy establishment, whose views on Russia and its assault on the U.S. political system are much tougher than his own. His Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense and National Security Adviser are hawks on Russia; his entire intelligence community, the Department of Justice and Mueller have endorsed the incontrovertible evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 election — and Trump responds [as if he were in a scene in a Marx Brothers movie](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHxGUe1cjzM), _Well, who you gonna believe? Me? Or your own eyes?_ The problem is that Trump has no respect for the system, and he is charting his own path by discrediting the entire U.S. intelligence community and shilling for Putin’s denials during the press conference. Although his national security team disagrees with him, they can’t seem to alter his words or deeds. They advised against a one-on-one meeting with Putin — and clearly [his advisers didn’t plan on this outcome](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/05/world/europe/trump-putin-summit-election-meddling.html). Indeed, Trump admires Putin precisely because he is the sole decision maker and doesn’t have to answer to anyone. Trump’s own authoritarianism may even draw strength from Putin — and in his more delusional moments, he may believe that, like Putin and the French emperor Louis the XIV, he is the state — which would underscore that, for Trump, policymaking is an intensely personal exercise reflecting his needs and desires. ### A Useful Narcissist There were no grand betrayals on substance at Helsinki. Trump didn’t endorse Russia’s annexation of Crimea, undermine NATO’s Article 5 or cancel Baltic military exercises. But with Putin beside him, and before all the world to see, Trump stood there, passive, weak, feckless and all too willing to do Putin’s bidding. Trump played the role of the fool or, as Lenin might have described him, a “useful idiot.” In sucking up rather than standing up to Putin, and gaslighting the American public, his unprecedented betrayal of U.S. values in the presence of an adversary will only greenlight Russia to stay on the attack against U.S. democracy and the democratic political systems of our European allies. [Former Director of the CIA John Brennan described it yesterday as treason.](https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/16/politics/john-brennan-donald-trump-treasonous-vladimir-putin/index.html) In February, Trump preposterously accused Democrats who did not clap during his State of the Union speech of being un-American and treasonous. [At a campaign rally](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/05/us/politics/trump-accuses-democrats-treason-market-rout.html), he opined, “Can we call that treason?… Why not? I mean, they certainly didn’t seem to love our country very much.” In his unconscionable performance yesterday in Helsinki, Trump demonstrated not only a lack of love of country, but contempt for it; he acted not as a patriot, but a man steeped in his own selfishness and love of himself. ### A Tipping Point? Helsinki was the foreign policy equivalent of Trump’s shameful reaction to the Nazi march in Charlottesville and his policy of separating immigrant children from their parents. These will best be remembered as days of infamy in the Trump presidency. The president crossed lines incompatible with our conception of the presidency and what the office and the person who holds it are supposed to stand for. Whether this proves to be just another bizarre day in Trump-land or something more consequential is impossible to say. What is unmistakably clear — and was demonstrated again in Helsinki — is that Trump lacks the character, competence and moral compass to be President. ## Transcript [00:00] Once again president Trump mentioned the issue of [00:04] the so called interference of Russia when the American [00:07] elections. And I had to literate things [00:12] I said several times including during out personal [00:15] context that the Russian state has never interfered and [00:18] it's not going to interfere Into internal American affairs, [00:22] including election process. During today's meeting, I [00:25] addressed directly with President Putin the issue of [00:27] Russian interference in our elections. I felt this was [00:32] a message best delivered in person, spent a great [00:36] deal of time talking about it. And President Putin [00:40] may very well want to address it and very [00:45] strongly. Because he feels very strongly about it and he [00:47] has an interesting idea. To say it one time again and I [00:50] say it all the time, there was no collusion. I didn't even [00:54] know the President. There was nobody to collude with. [00:59] There was no collusion with the campaign and every [01:01] time you hear these you know all of these twelve and [01:03] fourteen and frankly they admit these [01:07] are not people involved in the campaign. But to the [01:11] average reader maybe it does. It [01:15] doesn't. I think that the probe is a disaster [01:19] for our country. I think it's kept us apart. It's kept us [01:23] separated. There was no collusion at all. Everybody [01:27] knows it. People are being brought out to the floor. So [01:32] far, that I know, virtually none of it related to the [01:35] campaign. And they're gonna have to try really hard to [01:37] find somebody that did relate to the campaign. It was [01:40] a clean campaign. Zero collusion. And it has had [01:44] a negative impact upon the relationship of the two [01:48] largest nuclear powers in the world. We have 90 % of [01:53] nuclear power between the two countries. It's [01:56] ridiculous, it's ridiculous what's going on with the [01:59] probe. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5340877/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-summit/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5340877/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-summit/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Put Himself First, America Last","datePublished":"2018-07-17T15:32:12.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-12T09:34:41.434Z","description":"'Trump lacks the character, competence and moral compass to be President'","url":"https://time.com/5340877/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-summit/","keywords":["politics"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcdf97b3f45a7534e/69893589cf40a81402c4cbf7/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-summit-treason.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Aaron Miller","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/aaron-miller/"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Richard Sokolsky","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/richard-sokolsky/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcdf97b3f45a7534e/69893589cf40a81402c4cbf7/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-summit-treason.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin","caption":"Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin","creditText":"Brendan Smialowski—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/politics/","name":"politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5340877/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-summit/","name":"Donald Trump Put Himself First, America Last"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Both Trump and Putin Just Denied Russian Meddling in the 2016 Election. Here's What They Said","description":"Trump resisted when asked Monday to condemn Russian meddling in the election. Instead, he complained about a Democratic National Committee computer server and emails belonging to Hillary Clinton, the Democrat he defeated to win the presidency.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/cWwhbNrF/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2018-07-16T16:35:07.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/cWwhbNrF.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5340877/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-summit/","duration":"PT2M38S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5340877/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-summit/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```