Trump says ‘stupid people’ wanted Russia sanctions, then agrees the Russians laugh at them

Donald Trump has two positions on Russia sanctions, and he got through both in about 15 seconds.

The good news first, played straight. Stephen Hubbard, a 74-year-old retired teacher held by Russia for more than four years, was in the Oval Office on Friday, free. Then a reporter asked whether the administration is considering lifting sanctions on Russia’s sovereign wealth fund. Trump said it isn’t lifting anything, then went back to the negotiation: “stupid people wanted me to put sanctions on Russia.” Had he done that, he told Hubbard, his family would have said it wasn’t good. Hubbard, standing next to him, chipped in that the Russians laugh at the sanctions. Trump liked that one: “you hear that? They laugh at the sanctions.”

Then he acted out the call: “I’d like to get Stephen Hubbard back, Mr. President. And by the way, we’re putting sanctions on you right now.” He asked the room to imagine it. So sanctions are a joke in Moscow, and also the thing that would have kept Hubbard in prison.

For the record, CBS reports that Trump appeared to tie Hubbard’s release to his decision to exempt Russia from sanctions passed by Congress, and that he hasn’t reimposed them since. On 21 October he said “we gave nothing in exchange.” This week the New York Times reported, per Meduza, that the administration is weighing lifting sanctions on the Russian Direct Investment Fund, which Treasury once called Putin’s “slush fund.”