As miserable as we were on Election Night 2024, there is one who was even more miserable than us: that one was Volodymr Zelensky. Zelensky saw the handwriting on the wall for a while. He visited with Trump shortly before the election because he had undoubtedly been clued in at that point that it could go the wrong way. Maybe Emmanuel Macron explained things to him. Macron foresaw at least a full year before the 2024 election that Europe may have to stand on its own without the United States and that is emphatically the way things are going at this time.
Zelensky knew that the orange-hued clown couldn’t deliver peace within 24 hours or even 24 days. But at least now there are some rumblings to that effect. So Zelensky needs to figure out a way to play all the personalities involved because he’s got Putin-worshipping Trump on the one hand, and a costly war that has gone on for too long on the other — and an abject moron as the American secretary of defense. The world is aghast at how Ukraine is being mishandled. This is how Zelensky is playing it.
Behind the scenes:Â Three sources said the call between Trump and Zelensky was positive and went on for about an hour, longer than the call Trump had with Putin immediately before.
- Trump told Zelensky that he understands his concerns about him talking to Putin, but stressed there is no way around it if he wants his diplomatic efforts to be successful.
- “I need to talk to Putin in order to save Ukraine,” Trump told Zelensky, according to the sources.
The intrigue:Â Trump also told Zelensky Putin wants a deal, and asked if Zelensky is still committed to getting one.
- Zelensky replied that he still wants a deal, but that he thinks Putin is just telling Trump what he wants to hear.
- “Putin told you he wants a deal only because he is afraid of you, because you are strong,” Zelensky told Trump, according to the sources.
- Trump told the Ukrainian president that he could be right, but his impression was that Putin is serious. “We will know soon,” Trump added, according to two of the sources.
Zoom in:Â The U.S. president told his Ukrainian counterpart that he understands Ukraine will need security guarantees as part of any future deal, and that he thinks a European peacekeeping force along the front with Russia could be one solution, the sources said.
- Trump told Zelensky that his upcoming meeting with Vice President Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Munich will be very important in order to launch the diplomatic process.
The bottom line is that at this point neither Europe nor NATO has any confidence in the United States and they come by that opinion rationally. Nobody has a simple answer to how this is going to play out. But certainly Zelensky, by telling Trump what he needs to hear about how “strong” he is, is a good move.
What Marco Rubio will do is not known. And if President Musk has an opinion, he has not weighed in on it publicly. American diplomacy is a circus, for the simple reason that when you send a clown to the palace, he doesn’t become a king. The palace becomes a circus/zoo.
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President Musk wants the rare earth. Putin, not Zelensky, is the one who has access to it now.
Problem for Musk is, Putin has no intention of handing it over to the U.S.A. (i.e. Musk). He’ll play both Musk and Trump.
If Zelensky is as smart as he appears, he will not ever trust Trump or putin. They are both liars and criminals. I’d rig the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, to blow as an insurance against them lining up to invade. Sure it sounds crazy, but he better start coming up with defensive contingency plans. God knows what Trump and putin are planning when they don’t have him around.
Trump will sell out Ukraine. He wants to destroy NATO because he can’t make any money by supporting it. He really wants Russia ( and the U.S. as Little Moscow) to decide the range of Ukraine. Which country will Glad I invade next? Latvia? Lithuania? Estonia? Hungry? Polans? Glad won’t be happy till.he has every former Soviet country back.And his successor will be an oligarch. Best we can hope for is that Putin succumbs to cancer, preferably painfully and soon, and Russia devolves into anarchy.