WASHINGTON — President Trump boasted recently that he has been “FAR tougher” on Russia than other American presidents. But while the Trump administration has cracked down on Russian diplomats, government officials and oligarchs, Mr. Trump himself largely has taken a far more generous stance toward Moscow.

The contradiction has taken on new meaning in light of several recent reports, including one on an F.B.I. counterintelligence investigation that was opened in 2017 into whether Mr. Trump had secretly acted on Russia’s behalf — one facet of the Justice Department’s investigation into Moscow’s interference in the 2016 presidential election.



Here are five key ways in which Mr. Trump has been at odds with his own administration over Russia in the past year.

Pulling troops out of Syria and Afghanistan

Mr. Trump’s go-it-alone decision in December to pull 2,000 American troops from Syria set up a dramatic clash with top officials in his administration and prompted protest resignations by Jim Mattis, the defense secretary, and Brett McGurk, the special presidential envoy to the coalition fighting the Islamic State.