All posts tagged "volodymyr zelensky"

Trump exposed this startling truth — and it got America steamrolled

I don’t know why, but few are saying what’s plainly obvious about the president’s “summit” with his Russian counterpart. He’s afraid of him.

Donald Trump made all kinds of noise about “severe consequences” that Vladimir Putin would face if he did not agree to a ceasefire with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the war in Ukraine.

Trump created conditions, however feeble they may have seemed, in which he appeared to negotiate from a position of strength. “I’ve solved six wars in the last six months,” he said before the trip — all lies.

Then, when the moment came, nothing. Trump got nothing.

Not so for Putin.

“The extraordinary meeting at Anchorage’s Elmendorf Air Force base has ended Putin’s pariah status and brought Washington’s stance on the war closer to Moscow’s,” the Financial Times reported.

“And Putin did not need to budge an inch.”

Liberals and Democrats tend to think Trump gets along with Putin due to them being birds of a feather. Putin is a strongman. Trump is a strongman. Both love power. Both hate liberal democracy. While true, that doesn’t explain the president’s dramatic heel-turn.

But fear does.

The White House clearly believed it was important, not only for the meeting but for the president’s image at home, for him to look strong beforehand. Professor Heather Cox Richardson has the context:

“US envoy Steve Witkoff had been visiting Moscow for months to talk about a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine when he heard through a back channel that Putin might be willing to talk to Trump in person to offer a deal. On August 6, after a meeting in Moscow, Witkoff announced that Russia was ready to retreat from some of the land it occupies in Ukraine. This apparent concession came just two days before the August 8 deadline Trump had set for severe sanctions against Russia unless it agreed to a ceasefire.”

But then, Putin said “Not gonna happen.” Moreover, Putin said Trump really got a raw deal with the 2020 election. He totally won. So unfair! And with that combo of flex and flattery, Putin “got what he wanted — to play for time and press his military advantage over Ukraine,” exiled Russian political scientist Ilya Matveyev told the Financial Times.

Here’s how it looked to Fox reporter Jacqui Heinrich: “The way that it felt in the room was not good. It did not seem like things went well. And it seemed like Putin came in and steamrolled, got right into what he wanted to say and got his photo next to the president and then left.”

She went on:

“Of course, that is only the piece of the picture we have right now and certainly President Trump, who is the host and who is the president, would not want to enable something that would make him look weak.”

Too late.

Now the president can be “safely ignored,” Anne Applebaum wrote.

“If the US is not willing to use any economic, military, or political tools to help Ukraine, if Trump will not put any diplomatic pressure on Putin or any new sanctions on Russian resources, then the US president’s fond wish to be seen as a peacemaker can be safely ignored,” she said.

She even enumerated the moments of disgrace.

“It was embarrassing for Americans to welcome a notorious wanted war criminal on their territory. It was humiliating to watch an American president act like a happy puppy upon encountering the dictator of a much poorer, much less important state, treating him as a superior. It’s excruciating to imagine how badly Trump’s diplomatic envoy … misunderstood his last meeting with Putin in Moscow if he thought that the Alaska summit was going to be successful.”

I don’t know if Putin has something on the president (kompromat). I don’t know if Trump is in Putin’s pocket. I can speculate, but I don’t know. What I do know is Trump talked a good game and choked. I know he humiliated himself and America. And I know something else.

All this is rooted in cowardice. It’s safe to attack friends, because they won’t fight back, because they’re friends, but it’s not safe to attack enemies, because they will fight back, and because they are enemies.

Trump’s MO has always been to do whatever he wants, whenever he wants, to whomever he wants, safe in the knowledge that no one has the will to stop him. That holds up as long as the “no one” in question is American or an American ally. Actual enemies, though? Nuh-uh.

A few months ago, Trump was “very tough” with Zelensky in the Oval Office. He was less “tough” with him on Monday, but Trump knows Zelensky will never fight back, as Zelensky needs America’s support to defeat an even more malicious opponent.

But Putin?

He gets smiles, handshakes, the red-carpet treatment. He gets photos of himself riding in “The Beast” with the United States president and of American troops seeming to kneel in front of his plane, all of which is for the purpose of make-believing back home that Russia is once again America’s equal and that the glory days of empire are soon to return.

All because Trump is scared.

It’s a pattern we’ve seen so often Robert Armstrong came up with an acronym to memorialize it: TACO or “Trump Always Chickens Out.”

Trump “does not have a very high tolerance for market and economic pressure, and will be quick to back off when tariffs cause pain,” Armstrong said.

Same thing with foreign affairs. According to one analysis, Trump has threatened “severe consequences” 22 times against adversaries, but pulled the trigger just twice. He has chickened out even in the face of America’s weakest foes. For instance, the Taliban conceded absolutely nothing in exchange for American troops leaving the country in 2021.

Liberals and Democrats spend a lot of time thinking about the unseen. Is Trump compromised? Is he in Russian pay? And so on. But we don’t spend enough time on the seen, which is damning enough all by itself.

Trump is the biggest chicken on the planet.

Putin knows it.

If only the Democrats would come around.

'10 years in the making': Analyst marvels as Trump has Putin epiphany

CNN's Dana Bash played a "very interesting" clip on Inside Politics of President Donald Trump admitting that he's been jerked around by Vladimir Putin over ending the war in Ukraine.

The clip was recorded during a cabinet meeting Tuesday, when Trump declared, "We get a lot of bull---- thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth. He's very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless."

Bash said that in the past month or two, we've "heard much tougher language from the president when it comes to Vladimir Putin than we did in the almost 10 years that he has been on the political scene."

Politico's Eli Stokols agreed, proclaiming that the soundbite was "10 years in the making."

"It's taken him 10 years to come to that point of view that a lot of...his predecessors and a lot of people in both parties, Republicans and Democrats, have had that view of Putin for a long time," Stokols said.

"What's changed, I'm told, is that the president's simply frustrated that Russia has shown no interest in his efforts to attempt to bring about negotiations to end the war."

Stokols cited Putin's increased bombing of Ukraine even after Volodymyr Zelensky accepted a 30-day ceasefire.

Stokols added, "I'm told he's been cooler to Putin in their phone conversations. They had a long conversation last week -- did not go very well. You heard the president afterwards saying he was frustrated. And, so, we are hearing the president's frustration rhetorically. We're not seeing that translate yet into any kind of response."

Bash interjected, "I would argue that the action is what he is doing vis-à-vis Ukraine. Meaning, that he is not listening to those in the MAGA wing of his party who don't want to have anything to do with Ukraine...but the fact that the president is now sort of allowing weapons once again to go from the U.S. to Ukraine, perhaps, is a way to send a message to Vladimir Putin."

Watch the clip below via CNN.

Vladimir Putin tells Trump: 'Russia will not back down' on Ukraine goals

President Donald Trump staged a Thursday morning phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin where they discussed issues including a ceasefire with Ukraine, as well as diplomatic solutions with Iran, Reuters reported.

Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters that Trump "again raised the issue of an early end to military action" in Ukraine, but that Putin refused to back down from accomplishing his original goals for the region.

" Vladimir Putin, for his part, noted that we continue to seek a political and negotiated solution to the conflict," Ushakov said.

"Our president also said that Russia will achieve the goals it has set: that is, the elimination of the well-known root causes that led to the current state of affairs, to the current acute confrontation, and Russia will not back down from these goals," he added.

Reuters reported that the phrase "root causes" Putin used "is shorthand for the Kremlin's argument that it was compelled to go to war in Ukraine to prevent the country from joining NATO and being used by the Western alliance as a launch pad to attack Russia."

Ushakov said that Putin and Trump "did not talk about the U.S. decision to halt some shipments of critical weapons to Ukraine."

Trump has not yet spoken about the phone call.

Read the Reuters story here.

'Bluster and lies': Diplomat shocked by Trump's question time

American diplomat Ned Price, who served as deputy to the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, blasted President Donald Trump's "pernicious lies" made at a Thursday Oval Office news conference with Norway's prime minister.

MSNBC anchor Chris Jansen introduced Price by recapping Trump's comments about giving Crimea plus 20 percent of Ukraine over to Russia, but stopping Putin from "taking the whole country."

"Do you hear a deal there that's acceptable?" she asked.

"Let's be clear about what we just heard," Price began. "It was a lot of bluster and a lot of lies. And I'm glad you started where you did, because I think one of the most pernicious lies that we just heard was this idea that President Trump is putting pressure on President Putin."

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Price continued, "President Trump is right that he is exerting a strategy of carrots and sticks. The problem is that it's all carrots for Russia, and it's all sticks for Ukraine. And I say that because, going back to the start of this process...you might recall, President Zelensky's visit to that very room, the Oval Office, when he was berated by President Trump, thrown out of the White House, and after that, the administration halted security assistance."

Price claimed that the gap in security and intelligence assistance "had a practical impact on the ground, and it cost Ukrainian lives."

Regarding the peace deal, Price claimed, "The problem is that this would not be a just peace, this would be, again, capitulation; this would be appeasement rather than peace."

Price warned that as it stands, the U.S.-brokered deal "would do nothing but incentivize President Putin, and dictators, and wannabe dictators the world over to attempt to undertake the same type of territorial aggression that has cost Ukraine so much in terms of blood and treasure."

Watch the clip below via CNN.

'Why didn't they fight for it?' Trump shames Ukraine for letting Russia take Crimea

President Donald Trump took aim at Volodymyr Zelensky in a lengthy Truth Social post Wednesday after Ukraine's president said his country would not "legally recognize" the Russian occupation of Crimea.

The United States is promoting a cease-fire agreement contingent on Ukraine's recognition of Russia's control of the Black Sea peninsula that President Vladimir Putin annexed in 2014. Russia staged a full-scale invasion in 2022.

"Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is boasting on the front page of The Wall Street Journal that, “Ukraine will not legally recognize the occupation of Crimea. There’s nothing to talk about here,” Trump wrote.

"This statement is very harmful to the Peace Negotiations with Russia in that Crimea was lost years ago under the auspices of President Barack Hussein Obama, and is not even a point of discussion. Nobody is asking Zelenskyy to recognize Crimea as Russian Territory but, if he wants Crimea, why didn’t they fight for it eleven years ago when it was handed over to Russia without a shot being fired? The area also houses, for many years before “the Obama handover,” major Russian submarine bases."

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Trump continued, "It’s inflammatory statements like Zelenskyy’s that makes it so difficult to settle this War. He has nothing to boast about! The situation for Ukraine is dire — He can have Peace or, he can fight for another three years before losing the whole Country."

Trump maintained that he has "nothing to do with Russia" except for wanting to save the 5,000 Russian and Ukrainian solders who are killed each week.

"The statement made by Zelenskyy...will do nothing but prolong the 'killing field,' and nobody wants that!" Trump wrote. "We are very close to a Deal, but the man with 'no cards to play' should now, finally, GET IT DONE. I look forward to being able to help Ukraine, and Russia, get out of this Complete and Total MESS, that would have never started if I were President!"

Read The Wall Street Journal article here.

'Extortionist!' Columnist flags Trump move 'deserving of an exclamation point'

President Donald Trump's dealings with everything from Ukraine to Ivy League universities amount to blatant extortion, Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker wrote Friday.

"Trump isn’t a dealmaker; he is closer to an extortionist," Parker wrote. "At least he meets the definition of the term: someone who uses coercion or punishment to get what he wants."

Parker explained how Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's "first lesson in the art of the deal" came in 2019, "when Trump essentially threatened to withhold $400 million in military aid if Zelensky didn’t investigate — or at least say he was investigating — Hunter Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine."

Zelensky's second lesson came, according to Parker, when President Trump demanded Ukraine's mineral rights, as well as hundreds of billions of dollars, in exchange for continued U.S. military aid.

Parker noted that Trump has since moved on to higher education, where he is demanding an end to academic freedom in exchange for billions in federal funding.

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"In addition to requiring the elimination of diversity, equity and inclusion programs, Trump wants universities to ban masks at protests and ensure merit-based hiring practices. As though Trump can claim bragging rights on the latter," Parker wrote.

She added, "He also wants to audit student and faculty viewpoints (if there were ever a sentence deserving of an exclamation point)! Is Trump, the nonreader, going to start reviewing term papers and dissertations? I’d like to watch."

Next up, China, which Parker argued, "like Harvard, has a healthy endowment — a $17.8 trillion gross domestic product — and leverage resulting from the decline in the United States’ value to China’s export economy."

She concluded, "Our extortionist, winning-obsessed president could lose — bigly — to China’s superior position and the patience of ancients. It seems unpatriotic to pull for the 'enemy,' but this time the greater danger lies within."

Read The Washington Post opinion piece here.

'Total idiot': Dem lawmaker gobsmacked that Trump envoy is echoing the Kremlin

Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA), who sits on the House Armed Services Committee, didn't try to hide his dismay Monday when asked about a top U.S. official echoing Vladimir Putin's talking Points on Ukraine.

Steve Witkoff, U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, told Fox News over the weekend that some parts of Ukraine are "Russian territory."

Witkoff also appeared on former Fox News host Tucker Carlson's podcast and CNN's Kate Bolduan played a clip of Witkoff telling Carlson that "There have been referendums where the overwhelming majority of the people have indicated that they want to be under Russian rule."

Moulton reacted with total disbelief.

"It's just insane, and I think we've known for a while that Tucker Carlson is on the Kremlin's side and has been for some time, but now the lead negotiator for the United States is taking the Tucker Carlson/Putin position on these negotiations. He's literally negotiating for the other side, negotiating for the aggressor, negotiating for the violator of international law. And what does he say? He says, 'Oh, I take Putin at his word.' Is this guy a total idiot? Is he just completely naïve?"

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Moulton then suggested that Witkoff was being "paid off by Russia."

Bolduan interjected, "I get your point, but there's no evidence that that has been presented, that there's any payoff that has actually been happening to Steve Witkoff."

"I'm not I'm not saying there's any evidence," Moulton acknowledged. "I'm just trying to understand why on earth would a U.S. negotiator takes our adversary's side? I mean, Reagan must be rolling over in his grave here. The Republican Party has become subservient to Russia."

Boulduan read a portion of a new Time Magazine interview with Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky that read, "I believe Russia has managed to influence some people on the White House Team through information. Their signal to Americans was that Ukraine doesn't want to end the war and something should be done to force them.

Moulton claimed that Zelenskyy was trying to introduce some reality "that the trump Team apparently can't figure out because Vadimir Putin is a KGB agent who is playing Trump like a violin."

Watch the video below or at this link.

Trump may have just helped Putin cover up war crimes involving children: report

The Washington Post reported Tuesday that the U.S. could be inadvertently helping Russian President Vladimir Putin cover up alleged Russian war crimes involving children.

The controversy revolves around a now terminated, U.S.-funded initiative that contained "a sensitive database detailing the mass deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia," The Post reported. The project was headed up by Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab, but that contract was recently scrapped by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.

When the it abruptly ended, researchers reported losing "access to a trove of information, including satellite imagery and biometric data tracking the identities and locations of as many as 35,000 children from Ukraine."

National security reporter John Hudson wrote that the researchers were no longer able to transmit "evidence to prosecutors pursuing multiple criminal cases, including the International Criminal Court’s landmark indictment of Russian President Vladimir Putin for what it has called the 'unlawful transfer' of children from occupied areas of Ukraine."

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Hudson quoted a group of lawmakers led by Rep. Greg Landsman (D-OH) in a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent: “We have reason to believe that the data from the repository has been permanently deleted. If true, this would have devastating consequences. This vital resource cannot be lost."

One anonymous researcher told The Post, "The Trump administration, through either its incompetence or its intent, has now cast doubt on the validity of three years and $26 million of taxpayer-funded war crimes evidence."

According to the report, "Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said any agreement to stop the fighting must include Russia’s return of missing Ukrainian children and accountability for those responsible for their abduction." The Post reported that the State Department didn't comment on whether the data has been compromised or deleted.

President Donald Trump held a phone call Tuesday with Putin to discuss a pending ceasefire agreement with Ukraine.

Read The Washington Post story here.

'An adversary to mobilize against': Trump's bullying seen as boon to liberal world leaders

World leaders who are speaking out against U.S. President Donald Trump and his bullying ways are garnering massive support in their home countries, according to a new piece in "The Morning" newsletter from The New York Times.

"It’s a phenomenon known in political science as the "rally ’round the flag effect," according to the article. "When a country faces a crisis, public support for the leader or the current governing party often rises."

That's because, according to Editor Lauren Jackson, "People don’t like to ditch their leaders in a crisis, research shows. The rallying phenomenon can shift the balance of power both within and between countries."

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Trump's insistence on enormous punitive tariffs, his expansionist threats, and his constant insults, "have infuriated voters in Britain, Mexico, Ukraine and elsewhere," the article read, and have caused citizens to gather round leaders "who take a stand against him."

Jackson described the enormous amount of international outcry Trump has fomented over his nearly two months back in office.

"Trump imposed global tariffs on metal and announced a 25 percent levy on all goods from Mexico and Canada. He fought with Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office. Soon after, the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, welcomed Zelensky in London with a hug. Mr. Starmer has continued to back Ukraine," Jackson wrote. "In each of these cases, the leaders and parties who stood up to Trump saw a lift in their domestic approval ratings."

Jackson explained that "the world is dealing on Trump's terms now," since they're forced to react as the U.S. president forces his agenda.

"Opposing Trump is a delicate art. Still, liberal leaders who do it well are finding success," she wrote adding, "That may not last: The rally effect is sometimes temporary."

Read "The Morning" newsletter via The New York Times here.