IF GEORGE W. BUSH once famously looked Vladimir Putin in the eye and saw his soul, Donald Trump, when he met the Russian president in Helsinki on July 16th, saw his own reflection: an alpha male who made his country “great again”; a fellow populist and disrupter who disdains the politically correct and hypocritical liberal elite, and the institutions they inhabit; a man guided by interests, who likes doing deals while trusting nobody and who uses the media to create his own reality show. Vladimir Putin saw in Mr Trump a confirmation of a long-held belief that Western leaders operate in exactly the same way as he does and only pretend to have “values”.

Appropriately enough, the meeting took place in the Hall of Mirrors at the presidential palace in Helsinki. It was both an imitation and a reversal of traditional foreign-policy engagements. Stylistically, it resembled cold-war summitry. But unlike past summits, it lacked a clear agenda or substance. There was little change in the official position of the two countries on Ukraine, Iran or Syria, and no breakthrough on nuclear-arms reduction.

The main happening took place without any officials, other than interpreters, behind closed doors. The sinister explanation for that was that Mr Trump had something to hide and made secret promises and deals. The cynical one is that the secrecy concealed a dearth of meaning. Unlike previous summits, where an event is turned into a spectacle by the media, this time the spectacle itself was the event, staged for the benefit of the press.

As an experienced actor, Mr Putin stole the show. An hour late, he made a dramatic entrance, arriving in his new Russian-made Kortezh limousine, which looked bigger and heavier that Mr Trump’s “Beast”. But it was Mr Trump, in his supporting role, who introduced the first note of the absurd. In a morning tweet, he blamed the dismal state of Russia-America relations not on the Kremlin—even though it has annexed Crimea, shot down a passenger airliner and interfered in America’s presidential election—but on America’s past foolishness and stupidity, and now on “the Rigged Witch Hunt”. The Russian foreign ministry promptly answered with a retweet: “We agree.”

It was not the only thing on which Mr Putin and Mr Trump agreed. The distortion of reality became more striking as the two men emerged from the Hall of Mirrors and into a press conference. Mr Trump laid into the FBI and the investigation led by Robert Mueller, a “ridiculous” probe which on July 13th indicted 12 Russian GRU (military-intelligence) officers for cyber-attacks and interference in the American election. Mr Trump said that he saw no reason “why it would be” Russia’s interference—by which, the president clarified a day later, he meant “wouldn’t be”.

Mr Putin, for his part, admitted that he had rooted for Mr Trump to win the 2016 election, while also denying that he ordered any meddling in it. As though mocking Mr Mueller, he invited FBI investigators to visit Russia to interview the 12 GRU officers, in exchange for the GRU questioning its own targets, including a former American ambassador, Michael McFaul. (“An incredible offer,” Mr Trump said.) As a symbol of appreciation, Mr Putin presented Mr Trump with a football, brought from his other show—the World Cup.

This was not meant as a challenge, but as a friendly pass, for Mr Trump and Mr Putin play on the same side. They are united against a common enemy: the liberal, globalist establishment personified by Hillary Clinton and her supposed sponsor, George Soros, who tried to subvert the presidential campaign of both men, as they see it.

The summit was less about foreign policy than the internal politics of both countries. Mr Putin thrives on the idea that he is restoring Russia’s status as a great geopolitical power. Nothing irked him more than Barack Obama deeming Russia a “regional power” and likening him to a “bored kid in the back of the classroom”.

To sustain his legitimacy at home, Mr Putin needs America not as a friend, but as an adversary that accepts Russia as an equal. In his state-of-the-nation address in March he showed off cartoons of interception-proof nuclear missiles and accompanied it with a comment addressed to America, but meant for Russian ears: “[They] did not want to talk to us then. Listen to us now!”

The summit was billed in Russia as a confirmation that the message got through. As a good stage partner, Mr Trump delivered a much-needed line: “We are the two great nuclear powers” with “special responsibility for maintaining international security”.

Mr Trump, for his part, owes his electoral victory to attacking the establishment and provoking its outrage. If this was his aim in Helsinki, he certainly succeeded. Democrats berated the president, and John Brennan, the CIA director under Mr Obama, called Mr Trump’s performance “treasonous”—a line which was immediately seized upon by the Russian media as another proof of America’s innate hostility towards Russia.

Yet, if anything, the summit showed that America’s problems are no more rooted in Russia than Russia’s problems are in America. The biggest threat to Russia stems not from America, but its own president, who has undermined the rule of law and the safety of his people. Something similar may now be true of America. As Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, a think-tank, said in a tweet, in Helsinki “America First resembled nothing so much as Russia First.”

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