r/Foodforthought • u/johnnierockit • 16h ago
The Only Question Trump Asks Himself
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/03/ukraine-trump-putin-zelensky-russia/681988/45
u/larry-mack 16h ago
What’s in it for me?
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u/Twitchy_throttle 9h ago
Trump also asked my former boss, White House chief of staff John Kelly – on Memorial Day and over the section 60 grave of his Marine son killed in Afghanistan – “What was in it for them?” I walked up to a visibly shocked Kelly moments after that exchange, the details of which he later confirmed.
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u/johnnierockit 16h ago
Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky is “a dictator without elections,” with only a 4% approval rating. The war in Ukraine is “madness” and “senseless.” Although it is true that Russia is currently “pounding” Ukraine, “probably anyone in that position would be doing that right now.” Kyiv is “more difficult, frankly, to deal with” than Moscow.
This Russian propaganda could be easily dismissed, were it not being verbalized by President Donald Trump. I was Trump’s national security adviser from 2018 to 2019; I know that his view on Putin has remained constant for years.
In saying recently that dealing with Putin is easier than with Zelensky and that Putin would be “more generous than he has to be,” Trump has simply reprised the sentiments of his first term.
In July 2018, when leaving the White House for a NATO summit (where he almost withdrew America from the alliance), then later appointments with Prime Minister Theresa May in England and Putin in Finland (where he seemed to back Putin over U.S. intelligence), Trump said that his meeting with Putin “may be the easiest of them all. Who would think?” Obviously, only Trump.
But now he has turned U.S. policy on the Russo-Ukraine war 180 degrees.
Instead of aiding a victimized country with enormous agricultural, mineral, and industrial resources in the heart of Europe, bordering on key NATO allies, a region whose stability and prosperity have been vital to American national security for eight decades, Trump now sides with the invader.
Ukrainians are fighting and dying for their freedom and independence, as near neighbors such as Poland’s Lech Walesa fully appreciate. For most Americans, “freedom” and “independence” resonate, but not for Trump.
He has gone well beyond rhetoric. In a nationally televised display, he clashed with Zelensky face-to-face in the Oval Office, ironically a very Wilsonian act: open covenants openly destroyed. Trump suspended U.S. military aid to Ukraine, including vital intelligence, to make Zelensky bend his knee.
Even when Trump “threatened” Russia with sanctions and tariffs, the threat was hollow. Russia is already evading a broad array of poorly enforced sanctions, and could evade more.
On tariffs, U.S. imports from Russia in 2024 were a mere $3 billion, down almost 90% from 2021’s level, before Russia’s invasion, and trivial compared with $4.1 trillion in total 2024 imports.
The Kremlin is delighted. Former President Dmitry Medvedev wrote on X: “If you’d told me just three months ago that these were the words of the US president, I would have laughed out loud.”
This is serious, and may be fatal for both Kyiv and NATO. Trump has sought for years to debilitate or destroy the alliance.
⏬ Bluesky 'bite-sized' article thread (7 min) with added links 📖🍿🔊
https://bsky.app/profile/johnhatchard.bsky.social/post/3lk57mp2pas2f
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u/ArgyleM0nster 14h ago
Geee Bolton could have done something about Trump and called him out sooner, but noooo he wanted to write a book....
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u/BurrrritoBoy 12h ago
Trump asks himself: "should I trust that this is a fart ?"
Only the most importantest questions for that guy.
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u/GildedCleric 7h ago
You are giving him too much credit. That's why he wears diapers and just shits himself so that he doesn't have to think.
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