President Trump says he wants a quick cease-fire in Ukraine. But President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia appears to be in no rush, and the blowup on Friday between Mr. Trump and Ukraine’s president may give Russia’s leader the kind of ammunition he needs to prolong the fight.
With the American alliance with Ukraine suffering a dramatic, public rupture, Mr. Putin now seems even more likely to hold out for a deal on his terms — and he could even be tempted to expand his push on the battlefield.
. . .
For the Kremlin, perhaps the most important message came in later remarks by Mr. Trump, who suggested that if Ukraine did not agree to a “cease-fire now,” the war-torn country would have to “fight it out” without American help.
That could set up an outcome that Mr. Putin has long sought, at the cost of tens of thousands of Russian lives: a dominant position over Ukraine and wide-ranging concessions from the West.
Everything Trump and Vance said in that meeting was clearly by proxy.
Russian state media was somehow magically in The White House for fuck’s sake.
Attempted dressing down
No shit. It was a planned ambush.
The whole point was to make Zelensky grovel at Trump’s feet for continued aid while they humiliate him live on television. Russian state media was there, but major American outlets like AP and Reuters weren’t. And somehow Marjorie Taylor Greene’s boyfriend got credentials to be there and was allowed to even get a cheap shot of his own in. His sole purpose was to ask something provocative. Why do you think that is? Because they wanted to make sure that somebody set Zelensky off if Trump and Vance weren’t enough to ruffle his feathers. They wanted to make sure Zelensky was in a position where he had to either defend himself or make himself and Ukraine look like cucks on the world stage.
The whole point of this was to (a) humiliate Zelensky as revenge for not going along with the corruption in 2020, (b) further humiliate him for stumping for Harris in 2024 (Vance openly admitted to this), and (c ) give Trump a pretense for pulling all support for Ukraine, which Trump is already allegedly working on.
This was as scripted and pre-planned as a WWE “heel turn”.
Agreed in full.
Did you catch Zelenskyy’s response to Greene’s boyfriend?
“I will wear costume after this war will finish. Maybe something like yours, maybe something better, I don’t know. We will see. Maybe something cheaper.”
It’s worth noting that the Russian and Ukrainian word for a suit is pronounced costume, but Zelenskyy’s English is so good that this was not an error, if anything I think it makes the response better.
He also said suka blyat when JD Vance was speaking. Fucking bitch or fucking shit depending on context.
The world needs Europe to step up big-time right now, and the leaders of many countries are talking a good game.
Has he ever said anything bad about Russia? He’s said something bad for basically all of his allies and China. But Russia and North Korea?
