UK spy attack: Trump plans expulsion of Russian envoys

Bloomberg

President Donald Trump is preparing to expel dozens of Russian diplomats from the US in response to the nerve-agent poisoning of a former Russian spy in UK, two people familiar with the matter said on Saturday.
Trump agreed with the recommendation of advisers and the expulsions are likely to be announced on Monday, the people said, though they cautioned that Trump’s decision may not be final. Trump is prepared to act but wants to be sure European allies will take similar steps against Russia before doing so, aides said.
The advisers reached recommendations for a US response to the UK attack at a National Security Council meeting and honed the proposals. Trump discussed the issue with US Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Commerce Secretary Wil-bur Ross, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Defense Secretary James Mattis, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, outgoing National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and others, two people said.
All of the people familiar with the discussions asked not to be identified. White House spokespeople declined to comment.

Russia Divisions
A battle within the White House over how to best address the provocations of Russian President Vladimir Putin has been intensifying. The internal divisions flared this week after Trump congratulated Putin on his recent re-election without first reviewing written guidance that he not do so, a person familiar with the matter said. Trump has meanwhile reshaped his national security staff. On Thursday, he announced he would replace McMaster, who favored a tougher public posture toward Putin, with John Bolton, a former ambassador to the United Nations who is a staunch conservative and military hawk. That move came just a week after the president fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who had also adopted a more confrontational stance towards Russia, and nominated Mike Pompeo, the CIA director, to replace him.
Congress has pressured Trump to get tougher on Putin and passed legislation in August giving lawmakers the power to block the president from lifting punitive US measures imposed after Russia’s incursion into Ukraine. Substantively, Washington’s policy towards Russia has become tougher in recent months, though Trump’s critics say he has dragged his feet in responding to Putin’s provocations.
Trump has agreed to adopt increasingly tough policy stances on Russia. But the president places a priority on maintaining a personal relationship with the Russian president, won’t publicly attack him, and doesn’t see any benefit to the US in confronting Putin in one-on-one encounters, one administration official said. Trump defended his call with Putin on Twitter , dismissing those who “wanted me to excoriate him.”
“They are wrong!” Trump wrote. “Getting along with Russia (and others) is a good thing, not a bad thing.”
British Prime Minister Theresa May earlier this month condemned Russia for the nerve agent attack that critically injured the former Russian spy, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter Yulia. A British police officer was also hospitalised. May ordered 23 Russians — who she said were undeclared spies — to leave Britain in retaliation.