CNN analyst and Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin attacked President Donald Trump on Twitter on Monday, suggesting that the president was ignorant because he allegedly did not know that Finland is not a member of NATO.
However, Rogin was forced to eat his words a short time later.
Trump had thanked Finnish president Sauli Niinistö for hosting the meeting between him and Russian president Vladimir Putin, adding that he had enjoyed seeing Niinistö at the NATO summer last week in Brussels.
Rogin pounced: ”
Trump told the Finnish President Just now he enjoyed spending time with him at the NATO summit. Finland is not part of NATO. #awkward @jaketapper @camanpour
— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) July 16, 2018
Mollie Hemingway of The Federalist responded by pointing out that the Finnish president had, in fact, been at the NATO summit:
What’s #awkward is this CNN and WashPo political columnist trying to dunk on Trump is unaware the Finnish president was in fact at the NATO summit and participated in the heads of state dinner. pic.twitter.com/7spZE7HGSp
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) July 16, 2018
Moreover, Niinistö had even had a direct meeting with President Trump at the NATO summit, to discuss Monday’s “summit.”
Robin then attempted to walk back his gaffe:
Finland is a member of NATO’s Partnership for Peace. But focusing on the strength of NATO is still an odd choice of things for Trump to focus on at his one public meeting with Finland’s head of state.
— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) July 16, 2018
Later, at the press conference, American journalists focused almost entirely on questions relating to alleged Russian “collusion” with the Trump campaign, and ignored foreign policy almost entirely.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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