Is Putin Trolling?

The Russian President's new "List of 500" sanctioned Americans looks like a Russiagate-media honey trap

“Hold my ball.”

Two days ago a friend forwarded a Bloomberg article and a note: “And so it begins anew.” The headline, “The Kremlin Offers a Trump-Putin Ticket for 2024,” suggested a third consecutive presidential election cycle draped in conspiracy theory. Do we call it a trequel? A threequel? Russiagate III: Lie Hard With a Vengeance.

The piece by Andreas Kluth, picked up by the Washington Post, begins:

The bizarre and unsavory strongman bromance between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump continues. If you’re a MAGA Republican and not having second thoughts by now, something’s wrong with you. 

Normally with these articles you can just fill in the blanks. You put “Trump and Putin are gay for each other” in the lede, throw a “sow division” in the body somewhere, then it’s plot-complications-unity-derp before dismounting to, “In sum, honest Republicans face a hard choice.” For examples of the genre, see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, etc. Just as they have Nathan’s hot dog eating contests, media will someday have timed “Write Russiagate copy” competitions, maybe not on Coney Island but Park Slope or the Vineyard.