337 - Brutal Trump Grovels Before Putin: Weakens U.S., Shoots Ukraine in the Back

Here is what I think we now know:

· Trump is absolutely set on making geopolitical adventurism easier for Putin.

· He is ok with Putin's imperialistic ambitions, with Putin's deceptions, and with Putin's desire to push the U.S. out of Europe so that Putin can invade the Baltic States and Moldova, and even menace Poland and Romania.

· Pausing $1 billion worth military aid will only encourage Putin to ask for more — including Ukrainian demilitarization and neutrality

· Trump is bent on making Putin's life easier. Trump parrots Putin’s talking points.

· "Putin is not the aggrieved defender of historic Russian interests." According to Bret Stephens in the New York Times yesterday, Putin "is a malign aggressor in pursuit of deeply personal ambitions. A victory in Ukraine won't satisfy that ambition. It will whet it." Amen!

· Trump either doesn't understand or is content with the loss of freedom in Europe, the cascading of consequences that will lead to the loss of freedom and respect for the rule of law worldwide, and the diminution of the role of the United States as the beacon of integrity and defender of democratic freedoms across the globe.

· Trump likes Putin and dislikes Zelensky. For Trump, all politics is personal. He doesn't like Trudeau, either, hence his punishment of our accomplished neighbor, Canada.

· The White House imbroglio was a setup. Trump was determined on finding ways to humiliate Zelensky and to make him be the cause of an American complete reversal in Putin's favor.

· Some claim that Trump is pro-Putin in order to woo Putin away from China. But that is very much wishful thinking. Anyway, he has absolutely no hope of separating the two despots, one of whom is now much more powerful than the other.

· Trump is at best thoroughly amoral and concerned mostly with his own self-image as a dealmaker.

· At worst, I suppose, he is a covert Russian agent, working for Putin.

· As outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pronounced it when announcing retaliatory tariffs to match Trump's raising high tariffs against Canada: “Today, the United States launched a trade war against Canada, their closest partner and ally, their closest friend...At the same time, they’re talking about working positively with Russia, appeasing Vladimir Putin, a lying, murderous dictator. Make that make sense.”

· Weakening our allies as well as ourselves by engaging in ruinous tariff wars only assists Putin.

· Indeed, decimating USAID, the EPA, FEMA, and all the rest of our valuable institutions greatly harms Americans as well as our international reputation. Putin and Xi benefit enormously when we shoot ourselves in both legs.

· Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's ending offensive cyberwar actions against Russia further plays into Putin's hands and vastly weakens the U.S.

· Doing so ties our hands unnecessarily and represents an enormous risk.

· The line between offensive and defensive cyber activity can never be precisely delineated. And don't for a moment think that the Russians are not constantly probing U.S. security and other networks. Lowering our cyber guard is, in this age, more than immensely concerning. What can Trump and Hegseth be thinking?

- Hegseth and the minions at the Department of Justice, the FBI, and the CIA have also fired or otherwise removed all of those talented investigators who had uncovered Russian pro-Trump propagandist activities in 2024, 2020, and 2016. Trump's people are purposely lowering our guard in these critical areas. Their directive presumably means dismantling a group at the National Security Council focused on Russian electoral interference.

· The Russians and Chinese are regularly trying to sabotage undersea communications cables in the North Sea, in the Baltic Sea, and even in the Atlantic Ocean.

· Putin's operatives were caught last year surreptitiously putting explosives in packages on commercial cargo planes traveling from Europe to the U.S. -- weaponizing DHL and FedEx.

· The Russians daily probe NATO defenses in their near abroad -- in northern Norway, along Sweden's east coast, along Finland's lengthy eastern border, and on the Baltic state borders with Russia. Trump is unconcerned.

· Trump is unaware that the Russians are playing for keeps while he is trying -- at best -- to cut a deal that might give him personally or his sons and sons-in-law lucrative business opportunities.

· Secretary of State Marco Rubio claims dubiously that Trump knows how to make deals and that all of these pro-Putin initiatives are necessary to bring Putin to the negotiating table -- a questionable and dangerous presumption.

· Fortunately, the disparate nations of NATO and Europe (excepting Hungary and Slovakia) stand wholly behind Zelensky and the Ukrainian attempt to preserve its sovereignty in the face of malevolent Russian designs and Trump's abetting of them.

· “This is Europe’s moment and we must live up to it," said Ursula von der Leyen, head of the executive arm of the European Union,

· The Kremlin, on the other hand, was overjoyed with Washington's cutting off aid to Ukraine.

· Europe seems ready to transfer Russian frozen bank assets to Ukraine.

· Led by a newly aroused Britain, Europe has pledged to increase its transfer of war materiel to Ukraine, to increase the gifting and selling of armaments and assisting with intelligence gathering, and doing whatever it can to make up for the Trumpian decision to pause equipment deliveries.

· But Europe has neither the supplies nor the manufacturing facilities quickly to replace everything the U.S. had promised to deliver to Ukraine.

· Experts think that Ukraine could continue fighting the Russians for at least several months, given the U.S. equipment now in the country and more support from Europe.

· But they cannot go on indefinitely to make up for a U.S. abandonment.

· And Ukraine must have access to U.S. intelligence discoveries (withdrawn yesterday) and to the Starlink satellite arrangements that they have purchased with U.S. help from Elon Musk.

· Tuesday, Zelensky attempted to win back support from Trump, and to overcome that ogre's personal pique, by pledging an earnest full-bore attempt to make new prisoner exchange arrangements with Putin, to cease attacking Russia's infrastructure if Putin promised the same, and even to stop targeting Russia's Black Sea ships if Russia behaved.

· Zelensky said that he wanted peace, too, but on mutual, not sell-out terms.

· Just possibly there is a formula by which Putin and Zelensky could agree to end the war. Certainly, Zelensky has tried to take the wind out of Trump's arguments by being open and conciliatory.

· Putin may not want anything like that now that Trump has rolled over and barred his chest to Putin's conquest. Trump may have given away all the good cards, and sunk his "deal" even the more it is explored. But then, all Trump wants is to sell out Ukraine and enrich himself.

PS My colleague Prof. Stephen Walt has rightfully pointed out (in Foreign Policy), that Trump absolutely "loathes those with a deep and genuine commitment to limited government and democratic institutions, such as former Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, every recent British prime minister except Boris Johnson, and current Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum." On the other hand, he "admires and feels most comfortable with...autocrats...[who wield] unchecked power. He praises Russian President Vladimir Putin as a “strong leader,' and rhapsodizes about how well he gets along with men (and, yes, they are all men) such as Chinese President Xi Jinping, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, or Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Even the democratically elected leaders he prefers—like Viktor Orban in Hungary, Narendra Modi in India, or Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel—have strong illiberal or autocratic tendencies. Notice also that many of these leaders have used their control of the state to enrich themselves or their supporters; corruption is a nearly universal symptom.... This attitude helps explain Trump’s relationship with Elon Musk and some of the other tech bros; like Trump, they want to eliminate any rules that might prevent them from extracting as much wealth as possible from the rest of us."