Our President is a man known for his wisdom and honesty and good judgment... is a thing I've really enjoyed saying for the last eight years, so these last two weeks have been pretty damn heartbreaking. No, our current regime (and regime is beginning to feel more appropriate than "administration") has so far shown themselves to be unprepared, hateful, and downright horrifying. But yesterday was a quiet day where nothing scary happened... is another thing I really liked saying for most of the last eight years. But no, yesterday was another day of unrelenting awful from Trumpland. The issue at play this time? Oh nothing. Just a bald-faced attempt to hide the nature of the Trump Administration's relationship with Vladimir Putin and Russia. Here's the White House's statement on the call:

“President Donald J. Trump received a congratulatory call today from Russian President Vladimir Putin. The call lasted approximately one hour and ranged in topics from mutual cooperation in defeating ISIS to efforts in working together to achieve more peace throughout the world including Syria. The positive call was a significant start to improving the relationship between the United States and Russia that is in need of repair. Both President Trump and President Putin are hopeful that after today’s call the two sides can move quickly to tackle terrorism and other important issues of mutual concern.”

Hmmm... That seems pretty vague, no? Well maybe all Presidential calls are so vague. After all, it's not like they would tell us explicitly what policies were discussed or something like—

Readout of the President's Call with King Salman bin Abd Al-Aziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia President Trump spoke today with Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abd Al-Aziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia. The two leaders reaffirmed the longstanding friendship and strategic partnership between the United States and Saudi Arabia. They agreed on the importance of strengthening joint efforts to fight the spread of radical Islamic terrorism and also on the importance of working jointly to address challenges to regional peace and security, including the conflicts in Syria and Yemen. The President requested and the King agreed to support safe zones in Syria and Yemen, as well as supporting other ideas to help the many refugees who are displaced by the ongoing conflicts. They also agreed on the importance of rigorously enforcing the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with Iran and of addressing Iran’s destabilizing regional activities. The President voiced support for the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 economic program. Both leaders expressed a desire to explore additional steps to strengthen bilateral economic and energy cooperation. The two leaders also discussed an invitation from the King for President Trump to lead a Middle East effort to defeat terrorism and to help build a new future, economically and socially, for the people of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the region. The President and King Salman closed by underscoring their personal commitment to continued consultations on a range of regional and bilateral issues

Wow. That's wayyyy more detailed than what we got about Trump's hour long Putin gab-fest. I wonder why. If only there were a foreign policy expert who could speculate and shed some light on this. It'd be even better if this expert were a conservative so that any criticism of the President wouldn't be immediately dismissed as "snowflakes" being "cucked" or whatever it is those Russian troll Twitter bots are saying these days.

Oh hey! Ilan Berman is a foreign policy expert and the the vice president of the conservative American Foreign Policy Council think tank. Maybe he has some thoughts. (Via Raw Story)

Now do we know for sure this is the case? No. Berman was speculating, but the point is, it seems pretty clear that the White House doesn't want us to know what was said between Vlad and Don. I guess putting "Vladimir Putin congratulated Trump on winning the election before the two men broke out laughing for three straight minutes followed by Putin passing along his orders" probably wouldn't play well, huh?