It looks very much like a clumsy attempt to find excuses for a policy about-face. Trump has just accused Zelensky of being a dictator, said that Ukraine started the war, and generally gone delusional.
The result has been a dismal raft of inflammatory “news” stories.
There’s a lot more to it than this blatant babble.
It’s a lousy look, to start with. The message to the world is that America doesn’t even control its own foreign policy.
What is the point of being President of the United States if you’re just going to demote yourself to a Russian spokesperson? This should be extremely embarrassing.
Undermining his own rather iffy image and America’s credibility with the world should be a problem even for Trump.
It’s more than a problem. Trump is backing a lost cause. Russia is on the ropes. Militarily, it’s barely functional. The abject total failure of the war against Ukraine is plain to see. Nothing the US can do can change that.
It’s like buying a ticket on the Titanic three years after it sank.
Russia isn’t going to “win” anything in Ukraine or after the war. The damage to Russia is critical. The so-called Russian province of Donetsk alone will take at least a decade and tens of billions to rebuild. The Russian military will need to be rebuilt from scratch. The rest of Russia isn’t exactly in good shape, economically or socially.
Nor has Trump’s peace initiative gone anywhere. It’s been a colossal failure, more so than Munich in 1938. Ukraine can easily ignore any deal between Russia and the US. So can the rest of the world. This is “America Last” in practice.
It looks very like Trump is going to shut off aid to Ukraine simply because Putin told Trump to do that and for no other reason. Again, Trump wouldn’t be controlling the situation. He’d just be doing what he’s told.
Ukraine can source aid elsewhere, notably in Europe. Trump has spent a lot of time antagonizing NATO and the EU. The Russian military won’t suddenly get better. This situation is quite likely to get the Ukrainians angry enough to fight on even harder.
Meanwhile, back in Fiasco Central, America has other deadly problems. As the US government slides into chaos and a Federal budget has to be drawn up out of a mix of tantrums, many added costs, and strange-looking numbers, the US is now in extremely serious trouble. Are there any revenue projections?
If the US enters a Depression scenario as a result of all these dollar-based neuroses, that’s likely to be fatal.
My suggestion – Start learning Chinese.
