There are actually occasions during which President Donald Trump’s corrupt bent can work in the nation’s favor (Very occasionally), and there were reasons to hope that the corrupt Trump could have at least pushed the corrupt Putin toward some kind of deal in Ukraine that even Ukraine would have to consider. Whatever it once was that Putin had/has over Trump, it will do fck all good nowadays. Try to imagine how little the MAGAs care about a 50-year-old golden shower. So Trump had a chance, upon being reelected and rising from the ashes, to shove Putin’s ass a bit. For the first time, Trump had real American presidential power without fear. Alas, it was not to be. Trump saved his power plays for the domestic front, and the situation overseas is as perilous as ever. Putin knows it and just humiliated Trump by refusing to even see Trump’s specially-appointed envoy and the peace plan Trump put forth – one that everyone knows Putin wouldn’t adhere to anyway.
Regardless, Lev Parnas, late of Rudy Giuliani and the entire corrupt Ukraine-Russian allied Oligarch axis, now commentator on all things anti-Trump, knows the lay of the Ukrainian land better than nearly anyone, and he set out why Trump just got smacked on the international stage. Per the report in Rawstory from the Lev Remembers Substack:
“Witkoff was supposed to travel to Moscow, handpicked by Trump as his envoy, a supposed negotiator for peace. But Putin shut the door before he even left. Witkoff canceled his trip, not because of scheduling conflicts, but because Putin rejected the 22-point ceasefire proposal crafted by the U.S., Ukraine, and European partners,” Parnas wrote before underlining “the significance of this.”
So Trump’s envoy didn’t make it out the door, never even got to Russia? The only possible takeaway is that Putin doesn’t respect Trump enough to even meet with prominent Americans if Putin doesn’t like what they are there to say. And this plan was terrible without regard to whether Putin would accept it! And this was the great hope for peace, so to speak.
“For months, Trump and his administration paraded around these backchannel meetings as signs of progress. But Putin just sent a clear message: there’s no interest in negotiation—not on his terms. This isn’t the action of a man seeking peace. This is Putin showing he holds the cards, and Trump, along with his envoys, are simply along for the ride.”
Putin actually holds very few cards, but it is impossible to tell because the United States will not stand up and get tough with Putin, and thus, he simply doesn’t respect us. Again, this would be less of a tragedy for Ukraine were it not for the fact that Trump actually could flex some muscle here. He need not “fear” Putin anymore. Perhaps it is more money and less fear? Perhaps Trump is doing his “brand investment” thing again, banking on keeping Putin happy? Something keeps Trump from getting tough. Perhaps he just isn’t actually that tough? Occam certainly thinks so. Tough guys don’t pretend to kick Canada around and then cower before pathetic Russia:
 how many envoys will it take before we recognize that these are not steps toward peace—they are stages for Putin’s optics?” Parnas asked. “This is the reality: Trump has lost control of the narrative. He’s posturing for a deal that Putin has no intention of honoring, while Ukrainian civilians are being bombed, displaced, and erased from their own land. And every time Trump picks up that phone, he legitimizes it.”
We can debate whether Trump ever did have control of the narrative. What is beyond debate is that the world missed perhaps the only chance at a real peace plan when Trump decided it wasn’t worth the investment, even though Trump had all the “coin” he needed to muscle some strategy through. His subservience to Putin lives on and continues to be a major humiliation for the country.
Just ask the envoy who never left the neighborhood how much respect Putin has for the United States. Humiliating.
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Good thing is that Putin will kill Trump when he’s finished using him.