He’s less coy now. Their phone call on 12 February lasted 90 minutes – and changed the world.
What did Putin say? It must have been persuasive. Since then, Trump has been falling over himself to please and appease the Kremlin’s dictator. He has suspended US military aid and intelligence assistance to Ukraine, pilloried and plotted to oust its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and demanded a “peace deal” on Russia’s unjust terms. Meanwhile, the wider ramifications of Trump’s sellout carry huge negative implications for Europe and western interests in China, the Middle East and Africa.
If Trump is not Russia’s stooge, what explains his epic volte-face? Apologists offer several excuses. One is that Ukraine is not America’s problem. Nonsense. Unprovoked armed aggression against a sovereign democratic state is every free nation’s problem. Another is that the US should not have to fight Europe’s wars. Answer: it doesn’t. It fights its own wars on other people’s territory, out of self-interest. It always has.
Supporters say Trump is a master dealmaker and peacemaker. Phooey! He has already offered crucial Ukraine giveaways to Putin, for zero return. Remember his North Korea and Afghanistan fiascos? And look at Gaza. How’s that going, Comrade Krasnov? Fans claim he’s performing a clever “reverse Nixon” by disrupting Russia-China ties, like that other disgraceful US president in 1972. Except, only days ago, Putin and President Xi Jinping reaffirmed the “unique strategic value” of their alliance.
Whatever Trump’s reasons, the shocking truth is that Putin owns him now, even if he didn’t own him before. The US has switched sides. Trump boasts, self-incriminatingly, that he alone has inside information about Kremlin intentions. This dumb patsy likes the strongman vibe. He’d like to be a dictator, too. He admires how Putin terminates opponents “with extreme prejudice”, as in Apocalypse Now. Except in this twisted White House remake, JD Vance is mad, bad Colonel Kurtz.
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