Real World Problems
There are real world problems for the Trump Administration to deal with. Not the crazy ones they made for themselves; like creating an American Gestapo force to terrorize folks who might be migrants. Or other “authoritarian” stuff: like trying to rig the 2026 Congressional elections by stealing seats in Texas and other “Red” states; or, of course, the fumbled EPSTEIN FILES!!!
No, they are really blowing it, in the area that Donald Trump supposedly has the “most” authority. The two world leaders who supposedly were Trump’s “best buddies”, are thumbing their nose at the United States.
No Soul
Start with Vladimir Putin. He’s perfectly happy to have the President of the United States fly to Moscow to have a “chat”. But there’s a reason why Heads of State don’t just “chat”. When the President goes to talk to another leader, there’s usually months of preparation and agreements beforehand so that both look good. There needs to be a “deal” and a “handshake” that has some meaning. And Trump sees himself as the “Great Deal Maker”. But there’s no agreement.
That’s why Biden wouldn’t meet with Putin. There was no “deal on the table”, nothing to shake hands about. Biden didn’t need to do what George Bush did: “…I looked the man in the eye. I found him very straightforward and trustworthy – I was able to get a sense of his soul”. Biden knew Putin wasn’t straightforward or trustworthy; just a soul-less brutal dictator willing to kill his opponents and sacrifice his countrymen for his own dreams of power.
The meat grinder in Ukraine continues, with the gallant Ukrainians holding their own against the Russian machine. Hundreds of thousands have died on both sides (more Russian than Ukrainian), and Putin hasn’t demonstrated any interest in stopping. Sham negotiations with Trump are useless, the United States needs to weigh back in on the Ukrainian side of the conflict. Only then will Putin see the futility in his actions. Despite George Bush’s observation, there is no “soul” in his eyes, just lust in his heart to re-build the Soviet Empire.
So Trump is going to Moscow, and Putin will use the trip to make himself looks “acceptable” to the world, and the mass killing in Ukraine will go on. Trump will look like he did in Helsinki so many years ago: used and abused by Putin.
Jared’s Godfather
And talk about a “buddy”. Trump is so close to Netanyahu that the man is the godfather to his son-in-law, Jared. Trump and Netanyahu shared the ultimate benefactor, billionaire Sheldon Adelson from Las Vegas. And the two shared a similar problem; ongoing court actions that could put either one of them in jail.
Netanyahu even named an illegal settlement (violating standing treaties) in the occupied Golan Heights after Trump, “Ramat Trump”. He knows how to “schmooze” the American leader. But he also knows how to ignore the Trump White House. Today Israel is poised to send occupation troops back into Gaza, to ultimately take over the entire enclave. It’s the end of the “two-state” solution, pursued by America for the past half-century, and a true “middle finger” to the United States efforts to establish a cease-fire in the region. That middle finger is going right in Trump’s eye.
Obliteration
And, of course, if thousands of Palestinians in Gaza starve to death along the way, it’s no problem for Netanyahu. In fact, it seems like Israeli national policy, obliteration of the Palestinian state, and its people. The greatest achievement of the first Trump Administration was the vaunted Abrahamic Accords; getting the Arab states to reach full diplomatic relations with Israel. Today, Netanyahu is obliterating that as well. And there doesn’t seem like anything that Trump is willing to do about it.
The Trump administration is blowing it. Sure, we dropped really, really, really big bombs on Iran. And they certainly did some damage, though the “obliteration” standard Trump touted probably wasn’t achieved. Those bombings probably served everyone’s interests: the Israelis, the Saudis and the other Middle Eastern states, the United States and NATO. But in the end, it simply put the Iranian nuclear question on the back burner for a while – nothing was finally solved.
Putin and Netanyahu will continue to do exactly as they want – because they don’t believe the Trump Administration will do anything about it.
They’re both probably right.
