When did OJ become POTUS?

President Trump told a Helsinki press conference Monday that Russian strongman Vladimir Putin has an “interesting idea” about resolving questions on election meddling in the 2016 election: create a joint American-Russian committee on inquiry.

That is, Moscow and Washington will together investigate whether Russian agents were responsible for hacking the DNC computers, as a US prosecutor answerable to Trump alleged late last week. They’ll find who’s responsible for other election shenanigans, which Trump’s top intel officials believe to be Russia’s handiwork.

In other words, Putin — like OJ Simpson after his acquittal — will be looking for the real culprits. Oh, and Trump promised better-than-ever US-Russia cooperation in resolving global crises from Ukraine to Syria.

The American president wants to put out some fires, and he’s called in the arsonist.

It’s true, of course, that Trump isn’t the first American president to kowtow to Russia. Bill Clinton lifted Moscow by inserting what then was a chaotic and bankrupt Russia into Israel-Arab peacemaking, adding it as an equal member of a “peace quartet,” alongside the European Union, the United Nations and the United States.

George W. Bush looked into Putin’s eyes and saw his soul. Then Russian tanks rolled into Georgia and devoured chunks of it.

Barack Obama whispered in Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s ear that after his re-election, America would be more “flexible.” He then did little beyond pontificating about Putin’s annexation of Crimea, eventually sanctioning Moscow but doing nothing to materially help Putin’s Ukrainian victims.

Worse, he facilitated Russia’s entry into Syria, the most consequential Mideast flashpoint in recent time, and left the country at the mercy of Assad-backing Russian planes.

But never before has an American president gotten so involved in his own troubles at home that he allowed a cynical, manipulative Russian dictator to so publicly dominate the agenda, as Trump did Monday.

Trump is irate that for the entire term of his presidency he’s been accused of “colluding” with Putin. The jury — or, more accurately special counsel Robert Mueller — is still out on that. But as the latest 29-page US indictment against 12 Russian officials indicates, there’s enough evidence that Russia interfered in the 2016 election.

Yet Trump stood alongside Putin and said he didn’t “see any reason why it would be” in Russia’s interest to interfere. Mueller’s probe on what actually happened in 2016? It’s a “disaster for our country,” Trump added. Instead he went on and on about how he won the election fair and square.

This is serious stuff. True, Russia’s 2016 doings aren’t unique. Many countries (America included) meddle in other countries’ politics. But Moscow has upped the ante, and its cyber-espionage capabilities mean 2016 was just the beginning.

And not just for Russia: Other American foes, particularly China, have capabilities that are as potent, or even more so, than Russia’s.

Standing next to Putin Monday, an American president said nothing about developing better American defenses against such interference in elections and other American activities that until now were considered fairly safe from outside penetration.

Trump has surrounded himself with a cadre of Russia hawks — National Security Adviser John Bolton, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, Vice President Mike Pence and UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, to name a few. Will it matter? Pence’s response Monday suggests not: “What the world saw, what the American people saw, is that President Donald Trump will always put the prosperity and security of America first.”

Coats was stronger: “We have been clear in our assessments of Russian meddling in our 2016 election and their ongoing, pervasive efforts to undermine our democracy,” adding he’ll continue providing Trump with “unvarnished and objective intelligence.”

But unless Trump learns from the disastrous Helsinki performance and realizes no good can come from working jointly with Putin, he’ll forever be in OJ territory.

As Putin told the American president when awarding him a Moscow World Cup soccer ball, the ball is now in Trump’s court.