“I think the meeting was a 10 in the sense that we got along very well.”
That was the qualification of President Trump, being 10 the highest possible score, in case he asked, his tete-a-you with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday. Trump explained why he gave the meeting a perfect score: “It's good when you know, two great powers are taken, especially when they are nuclear powers.”
Because Trump sat down with Sean Hannity of Fox, whose interview style with Trump can be described as blunt only if a marshmail that falls on a pillow can also be described as blunt. We did not get much tracking, no matter a simple, “Why do you say that?”
Trump seems to think, or wants people to think, that everything that stands out between the world and a nuclear conflagration is its joke with Putin. That is absurd and it is not worth stopping beyond that.
My opinion is that it is fine if our presidents get along with foreign leaders, but in reality it is not a big problem. Good relationships are better than bad, everything else is the same. But its usefulness is determined in its entirety by what a president takes from them, or what it cost him.
On a smaller scale, it is the same principle as alliances, which are good if we obtain tangible benefits: greater security, more trade, broader geopolitical influence, etc. But there is no reason to have an alliance just for having an alliance. In international affairs, friendships are half for an end, not an end in themselves. So, if being friendly with a vicious and criminal war of war, raising him with his own people and undermining Western unity, it is somehow beneficial to the United States, I am willing to listen to the argument. But such an idiot also has an obvious cost. The only relevant question is whether the benefits exceed costs.
What is clear is that Putin benefits from his relationship with Trump. Putin wants to absorb Ukraine back to Russia in some kind of reconstituted Russian empire. This is not conjecture or mental reading. It has been said so many innumerable times, even in JuneEven arguing that “the Russian and Ukrainian people is a nation, in fact. In this sense, all Ukraine is ours.” He aggregate“We have an old rule: where a Russian soldier passes, it is ours.”
If Putin cannot have Ukraine at the same time, he will take it little by little, what he has been doing since 2014, breaking innumerable agreements, treaties and cessation in the process. And if something that can be called “Ukraine” remains, he wants it to be a flexible vassal country as Belarus.
All these objectives require time, and that is what Donald Trump gave him in Alaska, once again. Days before the summit, Trump said there would be “serious consequences” if Putin did not agree with a high immediate fire. After the summit, that is no longer a priority. To date, despite several intimations that Trump's patience with Putin was running out, Trump has not put any new load of any kind in Putin, while he has repeatedly pressed Ukraine to make an “agreement.”
The Putin treatment reportedly Offered in Anchorage, to a dismayedly receptive audience, it was that Ukraine gave the Donbas in eastern Ukraine to the Russians, including the portions that Russia has not been able to conquer militarily. Trump's Public response: “President [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy of Ukraine can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if you want, or you can continue fighting. ”
To yield this territory would not simply and politically disastrous for Zelensky, but strategically ruinous because it would require delivering crucial defensive positions, which makes future aggression, which, again, is inevitable, easier for Putin. It would also mean condemning hundreds of more Ukrainians to Russian oppression.
One of Trump's favorite conversation points is his statement that Putin would never have invaded Ukraine if Trump had been president in 2022. Putin supported this claim at his joint press conference on Friday, to Trump's delight. The fact that Putin Continue For wild Ukraine, while Trump is president, he never seems to arouse much contemplation. In fact, what says your friend has intensified The killing on Trump's clock?
Trump's collegiality with Putin has not won anything tangible and cost the Ukrainians a lot. But Putin's charm offensive with Trump has greatly benefited Putin. A “peace” that allows the Russian leader to regroup, reorganize and replace his economy, while giving him land that he could not take militarily, would generously reward Putin's aggression. It would also facilitate Putin to finish the job. And when I reinvizes it after Trump leaves the position, Trump could simply say, once again, “he wouldn't have done it if he were president.”
X: @jonahdispch
