Reacting to new comments coming from Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov that Russia has no interest in engaging with Ukraine on stopping the war they initiated, Politico’s Jonathan Martin said this is another blow to Donald Trump’s reputation as a deal maker.
Appearing on MSNBC’s “The Weekend,” the Politico columnist suggested that Trump, and by extension the United States, is being humiliated by Russian President Vladimir Putin in the days since the Alaska summit, saying that not only was no progress made, but efforts to negotiate a ceasefire were abandoned.
According to Lavrov, who appeared Sunday on “Meet the Press," “Putin is ready to meet with Zelenskyy, when the agenda would be ready for a summit, and this agenda is not ready at all.”
That led Martin to tell the MSNBC panel, “It's pretty clear that I think Trump, and frankly the country, is going to be embarrassed here pretty soon if we don't take more aggressive steps against Putin.”
“Keep in mind, Trump already conceded to what Moscow preferred in terms of no ceasefire and then Trump pivoted to, okay, instead of a cease fire, we'll go for a comprehensive deal, and we'll start with a bilateral meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy before the trilateral meeting that includes me, the American president,” he continued. “Well, now the Russians are rejecting Trump's plan.”
“So it's not just like that,” Martin added. “This is bad for diplomacy, this is bad politically for Trump, this is his plan that the Russians are clearly rejecting.”
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