"Ambassador Russell, just moments ago, a White House staff member came to our embassy. He said President Cleveland had invited you to the White House for a talk."
At this point, Russell had no idea why Cleveland had invited him to the White House. The upheaval in the Hawaiian Islands had been a special East African operation; aside from East Africa's upper echelon, the military, and the National Security Bureau, even few East Africans knew of it.
Still, Russell was not overly surprised. Since East Africa and the United States had restored diplomatic relations, exchanges between their upper ranks had not been uncommon. It was merely that President Cleveland had only taken office this March and had never interacted with Russell.
Before President Cleveland, the previous President of the United States had in fact been Russell Benjamin Harrison. Therefore, Russell was relatively unfamiliar with President Cleveland.
Of course, it was not as if he knew nothing about him. Cleveland had also been the twenty-second President of the United States. That was right—Cleveland had once served a term as president before; this time, he had merely returned to office.
The reason Harrison had failed to win reelection was mainly his advocacy of economic "isolationist" policies. When an economic depression struck, domestic capital became dissatisfied with him. After all, the United States was already the world's largest industrial power, and his policies had made the American capitalist class feel that its interests had been harmed.
Although Cleveland supported a "liberal economy," after taking office he had in practice merely changed the soup without changing the medicine. The United States still maintained its "high tariff" policy, only somewhat weaker than during Harrison's time.
As for Cleveland, Russell's attitude toward this President of the United States was ordinary. The two had not had much