Trump and Putin unironically discussed forming a ‘cyber security unit’

Image: BPA via Getty Images

It’s Sunday morning, so you know where this is going.

President Trump today fired off a series of tweets about his July 7 meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin — their first face-to-face meeting since Trump took office. Trump said he “strongly pressed” Putin about Russia’s meddling in U.S. elections and that the Russian leader “vehemently denied” any interference.

U.S. intelligence agencies and even Trump administration officials maintain that Russia did, in fact, meddle in the 2016 presidential elections, with a clear preference for Trump. But that apparently wasn’t enough to dissuade Trump from mulling the creation of an “impenetrable Cyber Security unit” with Russia.

Steven Mnuchin, the secretary of the Treasury, first disclosed the initiative on Saturday as Trump returned from the G20 summit in Germany.

“After a very substantive discussion on this, they reached an agreement that they would start a cyberunit to make sure that there was absolutely no interference whatsoever, that they would work on cybersecurity together,” Mnuchin told reporters from aboard Air Force Once. 

The notion of a U.S.-Russia cyber security team prompted scorn and snark aplenty on Twitter.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida), who competed with Trump in the 2016 presidential race, said partnering with Putin was akin to partnering with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who has repeatedly used chemical weapons to attack his people. 

Other users took a less extreme approach to their simile game:

Still more commenters invoked cultural references to describe the bizarre idea of partnering on cyber security with Russia, a country accused of meddling in the U.S. elections but also U.S. nuclear power plants.

It’s unclear whether or how such a cyber security initiative will actually come to fruition. But it’s safe to say it might not be the world’s best idea.