The change of pictures from their French encounter to the Argentina encounter tell a sad story between Trump and Putin:
Ouch!Senior Russian officials publicly chided U.S. President Donald Trump following his announcement on Thursday that he would no longer meet with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin during the G-20 summit of world leaders in Argentina.
Trump announced the cancellation via Twitter, citing Russia's seizure of two Ukrainian gunboats and a tugboat in the Kerch Strait, a shared zone which sits between Ukraine and Russia. He said his decision "would be best for all parties concerned."
[...]
Russian officials questioned Trump's justification for scrapping the meeting at the last minute and dismissed the notion that the diplomatic development would be a setback for Russia.
A spokesperson for the Kremlin on Thursday said the cancellation would free up time "for useful meetings."
CNBC
A top Russian lawmaker said the forgone meeting was a lost opportunity "not for Putin, but for Trump."
[...]
The president had told reporters just before he boarded a plane to Argentina that he believed it was "a good time to have the meeting."
That morning, however, the president's former lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about the president's business dealings with Russia, a possibly embarrassing development just ahead of a bilateral meeting with that country's leader.
[...]
"I think that likely President Trump and his advisors realized that meeting with Putin would create increased liabilities for President Trump, considering his performance in Helsinki," said Mark Simakovsky, a former Russia country director in the Department of Defense. "Clearly they felt vulnerable because of this domestic situation going on."
[...]
"We have heard the official explanation and taken note of it," Kremlin foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said during a Friday briefing. "But is it true? I think the true reason is rooted in the domestic political situation in the United States."
[...]
The Kremlin said Friday that it expects an informal meeting to take place. The White House seemed to leave open that possibility, saying only that no meeting had been scheduled.
Asked if he would exchange pleasantries with Putin, Trump told reporters Friday, "not particularly. I don't know."
[...]
[Russian senator Konstantin] Kosachev also suggested that Trump may have delivered Russia a foreign policy victory. He cited the language the president used in his post on Twitter.
"Based on the fact that the ships and sailors have not been returned to Ukraine from Russia, I have decided it would be best for all parties concerned to cancel my previously scheduled meeting," the president wrote.
Kosachev wrote that, because the ships are in Russia-occupied Ukraine, Trump's statement that the ships are in Russia "is nothing but a long-awaited recognition."
"This is already an alarming signal for Kiev, and not for Moscow," he wrote.
[...]
Kosachev's point illustrates why presidents need to be careful what they say, said Simakovsky.
"Russians are looking at every little slip to try to play it to their advantage," he said. But while the tweet was a "complete gaffe" by the president, Simakovsky said it was not a signal of a broader policy shift.
Daggers.
Trump is under domestic and international pressure to cut ties with MbS, so I can imagine this latest trip and its reports has Trump super paranoid and extremely jealous.
And here's the best use of this meme I've seen yet:
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