Vladimir Putin Is Playing Trump Like a Fiddle
In an unsurprising development, President Trump has failed to stop any of the death and destruction caused by Russia's war on Ukraine—a conflict he promised to end 'in 24 hours' on the campaign trail.
A report from The New York Times documents how Trump's 'embrace' of Putin and the Kremlin, previously unheard of from a Republican, has only resulted in Russia doubling down on its aggression. The only new developments are negative, as Trump verbalized his frustration with Putin's continual refusal to commit to a ceasefire deal after Russia carried out its largest bombing campaign in Ukraine to date last weekend.
'What Vladimir Putin doesn't realize is that if it weren't for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened to Russia, and I mean REALLY BAD,' Trump wrote on Truth Social Tuesday night. 'He's playing with fire!' Trump has even floated placing sanctions on Putin.
Trump would have you believe that he and Putin go way back. The 2016 Russian investigations seemed to give Trump the idea that he had a real connection with the Kremlin. After leaving office, he constantly heaped praise on Putin's invasion of Ukraine and when he returned to the White House, he eliminated the Justice Department office responsible for collecting evidence of Russian war crimes for international court prosecution. Now Putin is ignoring Trump and committing more war crimes.
'The president is the last one to figure out that Vladimir Putin doesn't want a peace deal, that he's playing for time, and he's been playing the president, and it's about time the president wakes up and understands that,' said New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the highest ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee.
Trump has been thoroughly outwitted and out-strongmanned here. The least he can do is continue to acknowledge that and provide Ukraine with the actual material and political support they need, rather than berating their president like a child.
'It does sound like from his various comments that Trump is starting to understand what was clear from the beginning of all of this, which is Russia is the problem here,' the Center for a New American Security's Richard Fontaine told the Times. 'Russia is the obstacle, Russia is the reason this war started in the first place, not Ukraine.'
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