Over the course of a roughly 45-minute press conference Monday, President Donald Trump stood beside Russian leader Vladimir Putin both physically and metaphorically. He repeatedly, pointedly declined to acknowledge that Russia interfered in the 2016 election, contrary to the assessment of every relevant US intelligence agency and a fistful of detailed indictments from special counsel Robert Mueller. Moreover, he seemed open to Putin’s suggestion that Russian intelligence assist in running down the evidence.

For Putin, an avowed judo enthusiast, Monday’s events must have come as a pleasant change of pace, less a grapple than a hug. “Between this and the World Cup, I don’t think Russia’s had a better foreign policy week since the defeat of Napoleon,” says Brandon Valeriano, an international conflict researcher at Marine Corps University.

But for the United States, Trump’s fealty to Putin’s version of events raises alarms. It comes just two days after Homeland Security chief Kirstjen Nielsen decried Russia’s 2015 assault. “Any attempt to interfere in our elections—successful or unsuccessful—is a direct attack on our democracy and is unacceptable,” Nielsen told a gathering of state election officials Saturday, noting also that Russian interference attempts remain ongoing.

Compare that to Trump. When asked directly if he would “denounce what happened in 2016, and warn [Putin] never to do it again," the US president first seemed to dabble in a garbled conspiracy theory about the Democratic National Committee server that had been hacked, before pivoting to a “gotta hear both sides” analysis.

"I don’t think Russia’s had a better foreign policy week since the defeat of Napoleon." Brandon Valeriano, Marine Corps University

“My people came to me, [Director of National Intelligence] Dan Coats came to me and some others, they said they think it’s Russia. I have President Putin, he just said it’s not Russia. I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be,” Trump said. Then, after another detour into Hillary Clinton’s email server—which, according to Mueller's indictment of 12 Russian intelligence officers on Friday, Russian hackers attempted to infiltrate hours after then-candidate Trump literally asked them to at a 2016 press conference—he returned to the same note. “I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today, and what he did is an incredible offer. He offered to have the people working on their case come work with their investigators with respect to the 12 people. I think that’s an incredible offer.”

Where even to begin? The world’s most capable arson investigators have informed Trump that someone burned down his house, and plans to do so again. Trump instead takes the word of the man with the gasoline and matches.

The idea, too, that Russia could help in the investigation of the Russian military intelligence officials implicated in Friday's indictment does seem incredible, but for its brazenness rather than its generosity. It has no logical core. It’s not an offer, it's an insult.

More disturbing, it’s a test, one that Trump appears to have failed multiple times. “Any specific material—if such things arise—we are ready to analyze together,” Putin said about the evidence in Mueller’s latest indictment. The Russian leader pushed repeatedly during the conference—and presumably during his two-hour private conversation with Trump—for collaborative cybersecurity efforts between the two countries. This is an idea Putin floated a year ago, as well, and Trump initially seemed to embrace, before being shouted back into his senses.

Offers of cooperation at this point amount to heckling, to sneering. They’re an end zone celebration. And instead of confronting them, Trump deferred, embraced, and encouraged. Even Trump’s prepared remarks let Putin frame the issue. “I addressed directly with President Putin the issue of Russian interference in our elections. I felt this was a message best delivered in person. Spent a great deal of time talking about it,” Trump said. “And President Putin may very well want to address it, and very strongly, because he feels very strongly about it, and he has an interesting idea.”