What did Donald Trump do today?

He had a "businesslike and highly constructive" phone call with Vladimir Putin, according to Vladimir Putin.

Trump spent an hour and a half on the Fourth of July talking with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. The call was "businesslike and constructive" and centered on Russia's desire for a diplomatic end to the war in Ukraine, something Trump "reaffirmed his readiness" to make happen.

At least, that's what the Russian government said today. Trump had kept the call a secret.

This is a common pattern with Trump and Putin, having happened at least half a dozen times now. Needless to say, it's not common practice for American presidents to have secret peer-to-peer talks with the leaders of hostile nations, precisely because it allows the other party to control the narrative and undermine the United States.

Trump, whose demeanor towards Putin ranges from the awestruck to the submissive, doesn't seem able to break the habit. This may be because he is genuinely psychologically incapable of resisting this kind of manipulation from Putin. That's certainly the prevailing opinion on Russian state-run media, which mercilessly mocks Trump as a weak thrall to Putin. 

Putin's ability to command ninety minutes of Trump's time on the Fourth of July, in the middle of the 250th anniversary celebrations, certainly supports that theory.

Another factor is that Trump's history of secret backchannel communications with Russia he'd prefer the American people not know about goes back to before his first term in office. Even with his collusion with the Putin regime to influence the 2016 election a matter of public record (and certified by a Republican-led Senate committee) Trump is still politically vulnerable on the subject: he is virtually alone on the entire political spectrum in his support for Putin and the Russian objective in the war against Ukraine. 

Why does this matter?

• A president who keeps falling for the same trick over and over again is either too stupid, too gullible, or too weak to hold office. 

• Americans shouldn't have to rely on Russia for information about their own government.