Story
Trump’s Russia tough-guy act still looked weaker than the record
The administration spent March 29 trying to frame its Russia posture as forceful and historically significant. But the actual story was more complicated: the White House was leaning hard on sanctions and expulsions that were undeniably real, while critics pointed out that the measures were still playing catch-up to a crisis Trump had spent years soft-pedaling. The result was a familiar Trumpworld problem: lots of chest-thumping, less evidence of a coherent strategy.