Recently Trump has been criticizing Putin, and even allowing more weapons for Ukraine.
This is a 180 degree shift from Trump’s attitude for the past several years, when he always bowed down to Putin, and stopped supplying weapons for Ukraine..
My question is : Why ?
For years, everybody has “known” that Trump was scared of Putin.
There was lots of speculation .on why–Maybe Putin has sex tapes of Trump, maybe Putin is paying Trump in cash, or giving Trump some land to build a golf course in Russia.
But now, Trump seems to have changed his tune. Why?
It surely isn’t because Trump has a conscience and wants to help Ukraine stay free. So… what happened?
I don’t know why, but I’m certain it means that whatever Putin has/had over Trump, in Trump’s tiny little mind, there are more important things at risk than the peepee tape/golf resort investment/flat out bribes that Putin represents. Maybe Trump has realized that if Putin succeeds in crushing Ukraine, he’s a larger threat to whatever else Trump values than the tape/investments/bribes. All things in Trumpworld are transactional, so that’s the lens through which I’m speculating.
Trump only does things that benefit or aggrandize himself or his family. For some reason, and we may never know why, all of a sudden it’s in his personal interest to challenge Putin and support Ukraine. Perhaps Ukraine made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.
I thought of this, too. But what else does Trump value, except money?
He doesn’t want to be written about in the history books, because he’s never read a book in his life.
He does want to satisfy his ego by being carved into Mount Rushmore, and by winning a Nobel Peace Prize; but those are both unlikely to happen. And challenging Putin won’t help Trump accomplish them anyway.
During the campaign, Trump boasted that he could end the war in Ukraine “in 24 hours”. He has also boasted many times about his “great relationship” with Putin. By continuing the war against Ukraine and even escalating attacks against civilians despite Trump’s attempts to negotiate a peace deal, Putin is showing the world his utter contempt for Trump, and Trump’s powerlessness over the situation.
The continuation of Putin’s aggression against Ukraine puts the lie to both of Trump’s grandiose boasts and is a major slap in the face.
Like @wolfpup says, Putin is making Trump look bad.
That said, if Trump ignored it, his followers would probably forget his promise. The bigger issue is that his team tried shutting down the pipeline of weapons to Ukraine, and the true Republican party is opposed to that. Congress would start poking in on the White Houses’ doings if they didn’t get back on the right side of history.
Whether Trump is an idiot or a traitor, he’s effectively obligated to keep pushing back against Russia or else he’ll become a lame duck. Ultimately, the Executive is only as strong as Congress chooses to allow him to be.
If you play boardgames that feature a traitor character, just knowing that you need to doubt that one particular player is enough to largely defeat the traitor motive. You watch what they’re doing and ask some pointed questions every once in a while and, miraculously, they do the right thing. It’s not nice to quarterback people and their moves under general play but, in a traitor game, it’s the one real solution. Their only alternative for the traitor is to reveal themselves, so they can openly trash everything.
I’m not seeing that moment coming. As others have said, Trump has built up a solid enough teflon coating and AI generated video will invalidate anything posted to the internet. He’s largely free to do what he wants and, if there are any incriminating materials floating around, they’re not as strong as they used to be.
I never thought Trump’s stance on Russia originated by any fear he might have had towards Putin. And while I was never convinced there was kompromat on Trump, given how much he has bent over backwards to favor Russia I could never quite convince myself they didn’t have something on him.
Trump views relationships as existing for his benefit. Russian money has been going through his business for years and Putin helped Trump win his 2016 election. This benefited Trump, so therefore Putin was a friend. Putin had Trump’s back, so Trump has Putin’s back. Trump no longer needs Putin. Not really. But that’s only part of it.
I heard someone describe Trump as being completely enamored with Putin. Like a kid meeting their favorite actor. It could be that this honeymoon phase is over, and Trump is no longer as enamored with Putin as he once was. Trump said he would end the Russian/Ukraine war on day one, and Putin makes Trump look weak and stupid. This might be another reason Trump is making noises at Putin.
Yep, Trump was counting on Vlad to make him look like a negotiating genius by cutting his losses and declaring victory, freezing the lines where they are. Thing is, why would Putin want to do that?
And insofar as the other factor often at play here, admiration for a tough bully alpha-male type, the way Putin’s taking too long to beat the “weaker” opponent, and continues to incur heavy damage rather than cut losses and declare victory, takes away from what used to impress Donald.
I don’t think Putin has anything on Trump. Trump envies his complete authority. Trump knows nothing about world history and only sees opportunities to spread his brand globally. He thought he could just offer Putin a Trump Casino Moscow and that’d be the end of it.
There was a great line on Yes, Minister where Hacker, a politician, asked Bernard, a civil servant on his department, whose side he’d be on when the chips were down. Bernard’s reply was “it’s my job to see that the chips stay up.”
I’ve always thought that line described Trump. I don’t think he negotiates with Putin, or anyone else, for what he can get from the deal, he just gets off on the negotiations themselves. He dare not lose, and he doesn’t want to win the way most people would. If he wants the deal to be concluded, it’s only to free up his time to start his next deal.
With that in mind, the way he talks about Putin is just his way of moving the game to the next move. If Putin starts negotiating more seriously for a cease fire, great. If he doesn’t, Trump can act tough, delegate the fighting to someone, wash his hands of it, and find another sandbox to play in.
I don’t see him so charitably. I think in Trump’s mind, not only must he win, but the other party must lose. It’s only when he realizes that he cannot win, or even falsely claim victory, will he move on to something else.