Earlier this year in the thick of his election campaign, Vladimir Putin released a propaganda video promoting Russia's "invincible" new generation of nuclear weapons.
Why it matters: One scene in particular caught President Trump's attention, according to sources with direct knowledge. The motion graphic in Putin's video appeared to show missiles raining down on Florida — the home of Trump's Mar-a-Lago club.
When I asked President Trump on Friday what were the three or four things he wanted to achieve from his meeting with Putin, his answers contained no detail.
Between the lines: One little riff stuck out. He said: "I think... that would be a tremendous achievement if we could do something on nuclear proliferation."
There’s a lot out there in the public domain about Trump and Russia, and much, surely, still to be discovered.
The big picture: Here's what I've learned about the incidents and themes that have defined the relationship, from dozens of conversations over many months with sources who have privately discussed Putin and Russia with Trump.
President Trump is aboard Air Force One en route to Helsinki, Finland, where he'll meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin tomorrow.
"Heading to Helsinki, Finland – looking forward to meeting with President Putin tomorrow. Unfortunately, no matter how well I do at the Summit, if I was given the great city of Moscow as retribution for all of the sins and evils committed by Russia.....over the years, I would return to criticism that it wasn’t good enough – that I should have gotten Saint Petersburg in addition! Much of our news media is indeed the enemy of the people and all the Dems......know how to do is resist and obstruct! This is why there is such hatred and dissension in our country – but at some point, it will heal! "
Here's Donald Tusk, a key EU leader as the president of the European Council.
The tweet came less than an hour after CBS published comments from President Trump that lumped the EU in the category of U.S. foes that includes China and Russia.
President Trump is including the European Union in his list of biggest global foes, telling CBS' Jeff Gloor in a segment that airs on "Face the Nation" that he lumps EU trade issues alongside threats from China and Russia.
Why it matters: The Europeans are, with the U.S., the core of the western alliance. This is a break from tradition, and comes right before Trump's summit with Vladimir Putin.
Even in this era of parallel universes, where facts are no longer facts, history is no longer history, allies are no longer allies, and foreign thugs are no longer foreign thugs, President Trump’s worldwide tantrum-and-torpedo tour has been truly bizarre.
President Trump gave an on-camera interview to Piers Morgan, now of Britain's ITV and Daily Mail, aboard Air Force One in London, before taking off for Scotland. ITV airs the interview tomorrow, but the Mail has excerpts.
The big picture: "As we spoke, over 100,000 anti-Trump protestors were marching through the streets of London. 'Some of them are protesting in my favor, you know that?' [Trump] insisted. 'There are many, many protests in my favor.' Hmmm. I must have missed those," Morgan writes.
President Trumpno longer doubts the basic intelligence assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 election — he just seems incapable of taking it seriously, and tells staff that is simply what nations do, several sources close to Trump tell me.
Between the lines: There is no evidence that could ever change Trump’s mind, the sources said.
