The ink was barely dry on the FBI indictments of 13 Russians for meddling in the 2016 presidential elections before President Donald Trump unleashed a barrage of 20-plus tweets to vent his anger. Nothing makes Trump more defensive than the suggestion that he owes his victory to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Trump first interpreted Friday's 37-page indictment as a victory because it mentioned the "unwitting" communication between the Russians and individuals associated with the Trump presidential campaign. For Trump, "unwitting" is a clear affirmation of his "No Collusion!" mantra on Twitter.

The indictment is anything but that. It does not exonerate any Trump campaign official in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. It only describes how Russians used social media to create splits among Americans and wage particularly vicious attacks on Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton to improve Trump's chances of victory.

Trump has been all over the map on this issue. He has denied that any such meddling occurred and echoed Putin's denials of Russian involvement. He now denies that he denied that meddling occurred.

His national security adviser, Gen. H.R. McMaster, stated clearly after the indictment's release: "The evidence is now really incontrovertible and available in the public domain" that the Russians tried to sway the election result and undermine Americans' trust in their democratic system.

For Trump, this isn't about protecting our democracy, it's about protecting his ego. He clearly rebuked McMaster on Saturday, tweeting that the general "forgot to say that the results of the 2016 election were not impacted or changed by the Russians." In fact, no one knows if that's the case, and the indictment certainly doesn't make such a statement.

If anything, the indictment outlines the numerous ways the Russian conspirators tried to suppress the vote for Clinton, particularly by encouraging minority voters to stay home on Election Day or vote for a third-party candidate.

Trump also rebuked the FBI, naively suggesting that the Russia probe had distracted the agency from preventing last week's mass shooting in Florida. The agents investigating Russia have nothing to do with FBI field offices charged with investigating local security threats.

Trump's legitimacy as president was questionable as soon as the 2016 election results were in. He lost the popular election to Clinton by nearly 3 million votes. He won the Electoral College vote by narrowly swaying the outcome in key swing states. Those "purple" states also were identified by the accused Russian conspirators as targets of their social media campaign to turn Democrats and fence-sitters away from Clinton, the indictment says.

For all the presidential ire directed at Mueller, the FBI, President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Congress, you will not find a single tweet in which Trump criticizes Russia for its blatant attack on American democracy. Trump supporters: As patriots, does this not trouble you?

FROM THE ST LOUIS POST DISPATCH