In 2016, when he was still inclined to interviews with traditional media outlets, Donald Trump was asked by Mika Brzezinski who he consults on “dire” foreign policy issues. Trump’s answer was legendary.
“I’m speaking with myself, number one, because I have a very good brain, and I’ve said a lot of things,” Trump explained. “My primary consultant is myself.”
Trump and his “very good brain” went on to become leader(s?) of the free world, and after a four-year hiatus, they’re back to give it another go. Because it went so well the first time.
It’s fair to assess that today’s foreign policy issues are even more “dire” than the concerns Brzezinski mentioned when she quizzed Trump on global affairs in 2016, and nowhere is the situation more urgent than Ukraine. (That’s actually debatable given the sheer number of horrific conflicts raging around the world, but with the war in Gaza on hold, Ukraine’s back above the proverbial fold, and back at the top of America’s priorities list.)
On the campaign trail, Trump promised to secure an overnight deal between Moscow and Kyiv, a promise too ridiculous even for his credulous supporters to believe. He’d anyway claim he wasn’t being literal, even though he was pretty explicit about the one-day timeline, going so far as to insist he’d end the war before he even took office. That didn’t happen, and now Trump, good brain in tow, is on the clock.
Wednesday, 47 took to his social media platform to sketch the contours of his Eastern Europe strategy. “I’m going to do Russia, whose Economy is failing, and President Putin, a very big FAVOR,” Trump declared. That “favor” took the form of an ultimatum. To wit:
Settle now, and STOP this ridiculous War! IT’S ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE. If we don’t make a “deal,” and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other participating countries.
Trump went on to tell Putin that, “We can do it the easy way, or the hard way — and the easy way is always better.”
A couple of things. First, Putin doesn’t do ultimatums, and if you give him one in person, he might shoot you in the face. I’m not being funny. I mean, I am, but at the same time, I’m not.
Second, when it comes to Ukraine, Putin’s hardly averse to doing it “the hard way.” He sent his military on what he imagined would be a cake walk into Kyiv, and when it turned into bloody, World War I-style trench warfare instead, he just left his guys in there to die by the hundreds of thousands in the mud.
That’s not the end of it. Putin also sacrificed the most important market for Russia’s most important export and lest we should forget, he also lost his personal army when hot dog vendor-turned warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin marched on Moscow, forcing Putin to assassinate the Wagner leadership by blowing up their plane.
Suffice to say Putin’s ready, willing and most probably excited to do things the “hard way” if that’s the route Trump (or anybody else) really wants to go. Anyone who knows anything about the history of the last 30 years knows Putin gave up on the “easy way” vis-à-vis the West pretty early on. Western leaders just turned a blind eye until it was impossible not to.
Trump was keen Wednesday to express his affection for Putin. “I’m not looking to hurt Russia,” he said. “I love the Russian people, and always had a very good relationship with President Putin.” He also encouraged Americans to “never forget that Russia helped us win the Second World War.” (“Hey, listen, they lost a lot of guys during the whole Hitler thing, so maybe cut ’em some slack.”)
This is so profoundly ridiculous — “unserious,” as Kamala Harris might put it — that it’s hard to know how to enhance the comedic value beyond what’s inherent in Trump’s own words. Satire’s perhaps the greatest casualty of the Trump era.
Speaking in Davos on Wednesday, Volodymyr Zelensky expressed concerns about Ukraine being left out of discussions around its own sovereignty and future. “We don’t want this to happen behind our backs,” he said, adding that, “I believe the US won’t do that.” Mr. President, with all due respect, yes we would. And yes, we probably will.
The Project2025 manifesto stated that the authors are not inclined to give in to Putin on Ukraine. Chances are, we have two sides of very well trained psyop spooks with bookshelves of dossiers on how to manipulate sociopaths, and one sociopath in particular, trying to make their policy stick in a Mango colored brain. So whose spooks will win out? We’ll have to wait and see. Maybe Putin looks enough like a loser for Ukraine to get a lift…
Your comment greatly strengthened my understanding of what is going on. Independent of this post, I have decided to ride this one out. I will be preparing for when the pendulum swings the other direction as John McCain educated me often swings from one side to the other. I am staying out of the path of the swinging pendulum. I am waiting for it to come back.
Public posturing, because privately Putin wants to take a break and strengthen, and he can save face buy “only” taking a second huge swath of Ukraine, before he waits for his moment to come back for the rest.
Sadly, it is no stretch to imagine Trump standing in front of a mirror and consulting himself, with each consultation ending with him hopelessly tangled up in his own abject self-flattery loop.
Saturday night live script writer in the making you are.
“I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me.”
Maybe Putin tests trump and uses a tactical nuke on a very low population area.
Vladdy would be testing Europe too. Not something after such a long war that is not without risks for Vladimir and his happy bunch of psychopaths.
Hints the Biden-raised sanctions on Russia’s shadow tanker fleet could be retained – positive for energy stocks, and would fit with Trump’s desire to increase US oil and gas exports.
Russia keeps everything in Ukraine that it currently holds, Ukraine can never join NATO, a one-mile neutral buffer-zone will be established between the two countries, and all sanctions against Russia will be dropped. That is the only “deal” you will get, like it or lump it. I expect much of Europe will disagree about lifting sanctions.
Same ‘deal’ offered a couple of years ago I think. More like an ultimatum by a winner than a concession of a loser. Russia is losing this war, therefore they need to concede.
Just saw Trump this a.m. on screen at Davos, giving a ridiculous speech, then fielding 5 questions and not giving a coherent answer to any of them. If anyone else had spewed his nonsense, they’d have been laughed off the video screen. Instead he got lukewarm applause. Our leader is just pathetic.