We are in a situation now of global, geopolitical repositioning. This is no small matter. And who do we have in charge of the delicate negotiations necessary to ensure the least damage and greatest good for all? A small time hood, that’s who. And actually that description gives Trump a lot more credit than he’s due. At least a front line ganger has some actual skills in shaking people down, Trump merely has the ability to trash talk and shitpost. He has no concept of diplomacy and his insulting Volodmyr Zelensky, who is a hero in anybody’s book (probably including Putin’s) is disgusting. So disgusting, in fact, that even Trump’s MAGA allies have begun to draw a line in the sand.
President Trump ratcheted up his attacks on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday, deepening the first real schism of his second term within the GOP.
Appearing on the “Brian Kilmeade Show” on Fox News Radio, Trump said of Zelensky, “I’ve been watching for years, and I’ve been watching him negotiate with no cards. He has no cards, and you get sick of it. You just get sick of it. And I’ve had it.”
Donald has had it. He’s been golfing and doing rallies the past four years while Ukrainians are spilling their blood in the streets, while their homes are being bombed. I’m wondering if Americans who are sane and decent should send President Zelensky a card and apologize to him for being trashed by this indecent thug. Of any misstep I’ve ever seen in foreign policy, I view this one as the most regrettable. And of course it only gets worse.
…Trump dismissed the need to have Zelensky involved in talks, saying he did not think the Ukrainian president was “very important to be at meetings, to be honest with you.”
With words like that, Trump fanned the flames of a storm that has consumed much of the week. He has appeared to echo Kremlin narratives of the war and placed much of the blame for the conflict on Ukraine. […]
On Tuesday, Trump had said “you should have never started it” regarding the war. While it wasn’t fully clear whether Trump was referring to Ukraine generally or Zelensky personally, it was an extremely provocative claim, given that Russia currently occupies roughly one-fifth of Ukraine’s territory, continues to push for more, and has been an aggressor dating back to at least its 2014 annexation of Crimea.
Russia has presented the invasion as a defensive maneuver to counter creeping expansionism by NATO. Ukraine is not a member of the alliance, and the issue of whether the eastern European nation might be allowed to become one is deeply contentious.
Last week, even before the Trump-Zelensky war of words reached its current pitch, Trump said he didn’t “see any way that a country in Russia’s position…could allow them to join NATO. I don’t see that happening.”
Trump added, “I believe that’s the reason the war started.”
Matters escalated, however, when Zelensky alleged that Trump was “living in this disinformation space” and that he wanted “more truth” from the American president.
In a furious social media post, Trump then called Zelensky a “Dictator without Elections” who was “very low in Ukrainian polls,” said he had “talked the United States of America into spending $350 billion,” and contended that the Ukrainian leader “admits that half of the money we sent him is ‘MISSING.’”
Nothing like that is going on. For Trump to call anybody a dictator is a joke on its face. The comment that Zelensky made, which Trump has distorted beyond recognition, is that the full amount of aid promised has not yet been delivered — not that it came and he didn’t know where it was. While the rest of the world is rolling their eyes listening to this drivel, finally a few Republicans spoke up.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told Fox News Radio, “[Russian President Vladimir] Putin and Russia are very clearly the aggressor in this conflict. That’s just a fact.”
Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said, “To the extent that the White House said that Ukraine started the war, I disagree.”
Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah) wrote on social media that he, like Trump, wanted an end to the war, but added: “It must end on terms that bring lasting stability and peace. That means ensuring Vladimir Putin does not walk away with a victory.”
This next one will blow your mind. Even Fox News host Mark Levin is turning on Trump. And we are 33 days into this long national nightmare and things are becoming unravelled at this level already. Mark this well.
Conservative radio talk show host Mark Levin on Wednesday wondered why Putin gets “to call the shots, when in fact he murders people who dare to challenge him.”
That’s easy. It’s because Trump envies Putin. He, too, would like nothing more than to be a dictatorous thug and be able to order executions on a whim. That’s Trump’s idea of paradise. And he inches towards being that kind of autocrat every single day. Just last night he took a large step to put the military under his control. We don’t know if former Joint Chiefs Of Staff chair, C.Q. Brown, would have done something illegal on Trump’s order, but Dan “Razin” Caine very well might.
Levin also noted, in implicit criticism of Trump, “Ukraine did not invade Russia. Russia invaded Ukraine … What were they supposed to do? Roll over and play dead?”
As usual, however, Trump appears to be in no mood for turning back.
No, he’ll pursue this folly into the potential start of WWIII. This week Rick Wilson predicted that future historians (presupposing there are any) will “look back on this week as the start of WWIII. Not the shooting but the start.”
That raises the question once again whether it’s reasonable to assume that any world war would be kept to conventional weapons and not resort to nuclear engagement. That’s not a bet most people want to take. And again I call your attention to the fact that we’re having this conversation only 33 days in. If we’re here now, where will we be in July?
Anything is possible now that Trump has taken steps to put the military under his personal control. And the imminent DOGE-ing of the Pentagon won’t help either.
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Happy yet America? Maybe if our culture had told the truth from the beginning, owning our own barbarous past, admitting our collective wrongs, and voting for those who honor their oaths, social justice, and democracy, we wouldn’t be facing hell. Now the question remains: what shall we do?
All tRump is is wannabe. He wants to be a gangster, he wants to be mob boss, he wants to be a dicktater.
You hit on something that should be emphasized. Trump can talk all the shit he wants about Zelenskyy and probably does have little if any respect for his abilities or intellect. However as you pointed out one person who DOES take Zelenskyy serious is Putin. I’m quite sure Putin hates him and would love to see Zelenskyy dead. However Putin, much as he hates it accepts Zelenskyy as a serious opponent. One who commands the respect of his people and his troops fighting to defend Ukraine. If they had any “quit” in them it would have happened long ago.
Deep down inside in places he doesn’t want to visit Putin knows how much the average Ukrainian HATES Russia. It’s a deeply held attitude based on a century’s worth of Russian aggression, abuse and at time rule. What really haunts Putin is that even if Trump can manage to hand control of Ukraine over to him what Russia dealt with in Afghanistan will have been a cake-walk compared to the resistance Russians trying to force Ukrainians to bend to Russia’s will is going to be. Unlike the Afghans Ukraine has highly educated people, and worse for Putin a massive number of people who have engaged in battles with Russians. AND who as I said have a far longer history of hating Russian invaders than was the case with the Afghans.
I can assure you while supplies are short Ukraine is socking away caches of small arms, ammo, explosives and other gear just in case they are needed. The only way to subdue Ukrainians is to pop a whole bunch of tactical nukes. Why this has always been IMHO sabre rattling from Pootie is that he and Russia want and need all that agricultural land and natural resources. Hell, even a dumbass like Trump realizes Ukraine has some of the same precious minerals Russia hoards and is trying to extort rights to them from Zelenskyy. Nuking Ukraine would ruin all that. Not to mention using enough nukes to kill off most of Ukraine’s population would create a shitload of nuclear fallout. And guess which direction most of it would head? Yep, east into Russia and some north into Belarus which won’t make Pootie’s pal there happy at all!
Because of Trump Ukraine is in a bad way now. But anyone who thinks if Trump makes one of his “deals” that gives Russia control things will be over is kidding themselves. Weapons, supplies and support might not get to Ukrainians fighting a resistance war from us, but they WILL get into the country. More than enough to ruin Putin’s ability to utilize the land and resources there the way he’d planned to.
Agreed on all your points, Denis. A very old military maxim states that winning a war is the easy part, occupying the land is the hard part. Perhaps Winston Churchill said it best, when referring to a possible Nazi invasion of Britain: “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills, we shall never surrender.” Nor will Ukraine.
When Putin invaded Ukraine, the Mar-a-Lago Mango praised it as a brilliant move. And when you’re a rwnj and you loke Kennedy, you realky need to pay attention.
I will.not be shocked if his worst critics end up having “accidents.”. AOC, Bernie,,Kamala,Schiff, Pelosi, Schumer, Cheney, et al better have great security. No, I am not saying American intelligence agencies, even the black ops ones, will do it, and even the mob, except maybe the Rusdian mob, would touch it. But Putin can likely give him the names of some independent contractors.