【By Observer News, Yuan Jiaqi】

"I never expected a simple question about the location of the U.S.-Russia summit to make the White House spokesperson lose control."

What was the question? According to a report by The Huffington Post on the 17th, President Trump of the United States had a long phone call with Russian President Putin on the 16th, and both sides agreed to hold a face-to-face meeting in Budapest, the capital of Hungary. Given the importance of this location, the media reporter asked the White House, "Who decided that Budapest is the venue for the meeting?"

Unexpectedly, a few minutes later, the White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt replied, "Your mom did." (Your mom did.)

One minute later, Steven Zhang, the Director of the Office of Communications and Liaison at the White House, added a more concise response, "Your mom." (Your mom.)

This wasn't all. The Huffington Post reported that after that, the media asked Leavitt whether she thought her answer was very funny. Then, the media received a reply with even more hostility.

According to the report, Leavitt wrote, "You really think you're a journalist, it's so interesting. You are just a left-wing sycophant, no one takes you seriously. Not only your colleagues in the media, they just don't tell you to your face. Stop sending me those hypocritical, biased nonsense questions!"

The Huffington Post said that the media was shocked, "they dared not ask more questions."

According to another report by the British newspaper The Independent, when asked if it was appropriate for the White House spokesperson to respond with "Your mom," the White House spokesperson Tyler Rogers said, "It's very appropriate."

Rogers also claimed, "The people who received these messages are not real journalists, but Democratic activists. Therefore, they deserve such a response. The White House news team deals with and responds to hundreds of serious inquiries from real journalists every day. We have no time to waste on political opportunists!"

On Friday afternoon, Steven Zhang also shared a X post about this conversation, but without adding any additional comments.

American media The Beast commented that this government gave such vulgar responses to reasonable information requests, "like a child making childish insults"; "the American version of Toutiao", BuzzFeed also shocked and pointed out, "unbelievably childish answers"; and conservative media like Fox News praised the Trump team for mocking left-wing media.

Steven Zhang (left) shared the related report. The person on the right of the photo is Leavitt.

On the afternoon of October 16, US President Trump posted on social media that he had a long phone call with Russian President Putin that day, mainly discussing ending the Ukraine-Russia conflict and US-Russia trade issues, and both sides would hold a face-to-face meeting in Budapest, the capital of Hungary. Russian presidential assistant Usachev later confirmed the news, and Hungary also stated that preparations for the meeting between the US and Russian presidents were being carried out.

Reuters reported on the 17th that the new Putin-Trump summit held in Hungary surprised European diplomats and analysts, "now, the EU countries will be embarrassed."

Hungary is a NATO member and also a member of another group that strongly supports Ukraine and isolates Russia - the EU. Irony is that in 1994, it was there that the US, UK, and Russia signed the Budapest Memorandum, providing security guarantees to Ukraine in exchange for Kyiv giving up its nuclear weapons. After the outbreak of the Ukraine-Russia conflict, Hungary was regarded as a "thorn in the side" of the EU because of its opposition to military aid to Ukraine and sanctions against Russia.

When asked whether Trump knew the special significance of Budapest in the Ukraine-Russia relationship, Jim Townsend, an analyst at the New America Security Center, told The Huffington Post, "I'm sure Trump doesn't know and doesn't care."

He added, "Trump likes Orban, perhaps thinking that choosing here is doing Orban a favor. Moreover, Putin is also a friend of Orban. For such a meeting, most countries in the world would not consider Budapest as a neutral place, but I guess Trump and Putin don't think so."

According to reports by European editions of "Politico" and other European news websites, in addition to the issue of positions, the EU will also face flight bans, international criminal court arrest warrants, and internal conflicts within Hungary, which are embarrassing problems.

The International Criminal Court previously issued an arrest warrant for Putin, but few observers believe this will become an obstacle in Budapest.

"Politico EU" also mentioned that due to the ban on Russian aircraft flying over EU airspace, if Putin wants to reach Budapest, he must violate EU measures and risk flying over Ukraine or take a detour through the Balkans.

The Ukrainian Pravda reported on the 18th, citing the aviation news website "airlive," that Putin's plane may fly south, passing through Turkish and Serbian airspace to reach Hungary. The report stated that compared to the direct route of about 1500 kilometers, the detour could be as long as about 5000 kilometers, increasing the flight time by about three hours.

The Russian newspaper "Gazeta" also paid attention to the information released by the "airlive" website and stated that Putin may travel via the Black Sea, Turkey, the Greek coast, Albania, Montenegro, and Serbia to Hungary to meet Trump.

Bodan Faleidi, a geopolitical analyst at Hongxue Consulting, believes that choosing Budapest as the meeting location means that Putin can "kill multiple birds with one stone."

"He will hold talks on the Ukraine conflict in an EU country, while EU leaders will be absent," he analyzed, "for Putin, this is a multi-layered blow to Europe in symbolic terms, much stronger than holding meetings in Turkey or other places."

This article is an exclusive article of Observer News, and unauthorized reproduction is prohibited.

Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7562582302291739151/

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