Twitter Reacts To Donald Trump Thanking Vladimir Putin For Expelling US Diplomats

President Donald Trump on Thursday thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin for expelling hundreds of U.S. diplomats from Russia.

Yes, you read that right.

The reason given by the president was it would “save a lot of money.”

“I want to thank him because we’re trying to cut down our payroll and as far as I’m concerned I’m very thankful that he let go of a large number of people because now we have a smaller payroll,” Trump told reporters at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, on Thursday.

"There’s no real reason for them to go back. I greatly appreciate the fact that we’ve been able to cut our payroll of the United States. We’re going to save a lot of money,” he said.

Last week, Putin ordered the U.S. to cut its foreign service staff by 755 people in a response to sanctions placed on Russia by the Congress.

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The Congress had imposed the sanctions on Russia last month over its alleged interference in the 2016 presidential election.

However, Trump's weird reasoning and naïve understanding of foreign affairs was deeply criticized not just by former diplomats and state department officials, but by Twitterati too who had a field day deconstructing “the world according to #trump.”

The critique on the social media platform was led by Stanford professor Michael McFaul — former President Barack Obama's National Security Council and as his ambassador to Russia — who said the president's statement revealed he “doesn’t understand diplomacy.”

“Our diplomats, personal staff, and military serving in Russia provide Washington with invaluable information about Russia… Imagine wanting to know less about Russia’s military modernization! That’s what Trump praised today….Imagine wanting to have less capability to gather data about dangerous transnational diseases originating in Russia! Trump seems to want that,” McFaul said in a series of tweets, in what was termed by @bobbrigham “as an epic rant.”

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However, some users suggested that the president made the remark with his tongue firmly in his cheek and it was a “funny/effective troll.”

When user @JJCarafano suggested that maybe the comments were made to “punk Putin; show the U.S. shrugging off Putin’s action- Putin gets it- u guys do somersaults- sad,” Mc Faul replied that the Russian president “is not punked by these silly comments.”

Another user suggested sarcastically that Trump was actually using “reverse psychology on Putin… as some 2nd-grade teachers do.”

Some commentators concentrated on the nature of the comments.

The longtime Middle East diplomat and negotiator Aaron David Miller tweeted: "Having served at the State for 25 years under R/Ds, Trump's defense of Putin over expelled US diplomats one of most shameful of his presidency."

Harvard University professor Nicholas Burns, who was an ambassador to NATO and the under secretary of state for political affairs during the time of former President George W. Bush's presidency, called Trump's comments disrespectful.

Some saw a pattern in Trump's reaction to the expulsion of the diplomats from Russia — his tendency to shy from criticizing the Russian leader.

According to an ABC report, a former U.S. ambassador also noted a pattern in the comments: "For reasons we do not yet know, the President cannot bring himself to criticize Putin," he said.

Holly O’ Reilly tweeting under the handle @AynRandPaulRyan, put Trump’s day in perspective by listing the people he criticized and the people whom he didn’t (Putin, of course).