After more than 100 days in office, the American people have become accustomed to the strange Twitter feed of President Donald Trump, a man who is known to wake up at odd hours of the morning to post very strange and often scandalous missives under 140 characters.
The latest Twitter scandal involving Trump did not come from his personal or @POTUS accounts. It actually originated from a couple of Twitter accounts officially linked to the Russian government, which so happens to be under investigation by United States law enforcement for its alleged collusion with the political campaign that resulted in the election of Trump as the successor to former President Barack Obama.
Just one day after Trump fired James Comey, the former FBI Director in charge of the aforementioned investigation, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs visited the White House and met with the U.S. President. As if that meeting was not suspicious enough due to its timing and preceding circumstances, Trump decided to make it a closed-door event, which means that no members of the White House press corps were allowed to cover it.
The closed-door nature of the meeting did not stop Russian photographers who accompanied Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak from taking pictures that were later posted on Twitter. One photo was of a handshake between Minister Lavrov and another with Ambassador Kislyak. It so happens that the Ambassador is also being investigated by the FBI for his alleged meddling in the U.S. presidential elections.
What is even more interesting about the tweets posted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Russian Embassy is that they included an exchange between Minister Lavrov and an American journalist who asked him about the termination of the former FBI Director.
Minister Lavrov responded in a sarcastic manner, which political analysts do not believe was offensive but more in line with the caustic wit that often shapes the Russian ethos of perseverance even under hardship. Still, the fact that this joke, which could be taken out of context as not being funny from a political point of view, was tweeted by Kremlin institutions is enough to make people uncomfortable.
Meanwhile, Members of Congress are pushing for the appointment of a special prosecutor to start looking into the matter of Trump and the Kremlin, which is beginning to float like an ominous specter over the White House.