My guess is that President Trump is trying to make peace with Russia by offering Ukraine as tribute, in order to isolate China.
Economically and financially, Russia is not a threat but China is and with US printers running out of ink to print more money, they need to find ways to reduce China's growing influence over the world.
Fighting the war with Russia will only drain the US economy and reduce the power of petrol dollar.
Therefore, making peace with Russia is merely a smoke screen for getting to China. i.e. they are trying bait Russia.
If Russia takes the bait they will be "hook, line and sinker". Currently, the US is acting both the good cop and bad cop roles.
Does making peace with Russia mean having to be nice to Iran and NK?
Trump is doing what he is doing with regards to Ukraine because it suits his agenda
Trump couldn't point to Ukraine on a map, he doesn't have an agenda other than "Be The President That Stops The War" He's generally supportive of Russia's POV and unsupportive of Ukriane's because he himself and those around him are influenced by the 'ultra' right wing Christian Nationalists who've paid for his win, and are guiding [certainly foreign policy] decisions who are in turn generally supportive of Russia [or more accurately, Putin] because their own politics align quite strongly. Nationalist, "family oriented' (ie very anti LGBTQ+) militaristic, and authoritarian, all of which they'd very much like to replicate in the USA. Further; Trump [very much like Putin] sees the world in power-blocks, he's fine for Europe to be Russia's sphere of influence, just as he'd like Greenland and Panama to be in his own. I agree with you that Putin isn't pulling his strings directly, but they are so closely aligned in their thinking, Putin can safely rely on Trump to be "on message" Zelelnsky is getting in the way of the things that Putin wants to do, and Trump will back Putin because he thinks like Putin does, and doesn't GAS about Ukraine.
The question should be "why wouldn't Trump want a peace deal?" rather than asking why does he want a peace deal and then concluding that it can only be because Putin controls him.
I suspect that Putin doesn't want a peace deal at all and would much rather that the war ended with the total collapse of Ukraine.
It doesn't happen often 🙂 but I agree with ernie on that point
If President Trump was a Russian agent then it would have been found out years ago and the Dems were of course looking at great expense, google the Steele Dossier, which is one of the reasons that that the FBI is suffering his ire now
There's plenty of "raw intelligence" but that has to be winnowed and finessed into the truth and evidence.
Trump seems to be open to a good conspiracy theory, hence revisiting the theories that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election/Hunter Biden/Joe Biden stories years after they were concluded for most people
He's also open to a business deal, e.g. The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China renting Trump Tower office space in 2019, which is allegedly "somewhat murky"
The lease was set to expire on October 31, 2019, according to a debt prospectus filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In 2018, the state-owned bank agreed to a new lease in a different office building nearby, suggesting it might leave Trump Tower. But then, the bank decided to stay in the president’s building anyway. “They are keeping a couple of floors,” Eric Trump confirmed onstage at a business conference in October 2019.
The new arrangement is somewhat murky. Contacted Friday morning, a spokesperson for the Trump Organization initially said that the bank had “consolidated with their other offices in New York.” https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2020/10/23/forbes-estimates-china-paid-trump-at-least-54-million-since-he-took-office-via-mysterious-trump-tower-lease/
Ukraine is the only pawn that Trump can control and his bluster and retract tactics have a mixed success leading to mistrust and uncertain outcomes with consequences for the US, e.g. the US economy and tariffs, Ukraine, etc.
He's also seeding the US with potential foreign agents with all of the disaffected senior military and civil servants that are getting booted out, but that's more consequence than deliberate action.
The most damaging spies are disaffected rather than motivated solely by money, e.g. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-66243806 and https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/28/politics/us-intel-russia-china-attempt-recruit-disgruntled-federal-employees/index.html
Biden wanted a stalemate because either side winning was unacceptable to him, so he fine tuned aid to Ukraine to maintain a stalemate.
Please show your working out on that one.
Trumps never going to make 4 years. He’s basically already Father Jack in the 3 ages of Elvis. He’s going to die on the bog, eating a cheeseburger
Rumour has it that he doesn't even bother going to the bog.
I just assume Trump and Putin wish to carve up the mineral wealth between them personally, and secondly the US and Russia.
Stopping intelligence is pure spite, it costs nothing except lives. Why does no one question this decision with him on camera.
The other question I never hear is if Putin agrees a peace deal, why does he care who provides the peace keepers or if Ukraine joins NATO unless they plan on invading again, which they obviously do.
It's a couple of weeks old but here is an interesting interview with Belarusian born and raised political commentator Tatsiana Kulakevich
Something which shouldn't be forgotten is Trump's obsession with the growing threat China posses the United States. IMO from a US president perspective he is right to take it seriously, China is the only country which is a real threat to US interests and global influence. US sanctions and the war in Ukraine has driven Russia much closer to China, a reversal of that situation would be significantly beneficial to the United States.
Btw some further info on Tatsiana Kulakevich :
Dr. Tatsiana Kulakevich is an Associate Professor of Instruction in Research Methods and Quantitative Analysis at the University of South Florida's School of Interdisciplinary Global Studies and a research fellow and affiliated faculty at the USF Institute for Russian, European and Eurasian Studies.
My guess is that President Trump is trying to make peace with Russia by offering Ukraine as tribute, in order to isolate China.
President Nixon (Rep) tried to isolate Russia by making peace with China in 1972. It didn't work then and the much-written about "reverse Nixon" won't work now because nobody trusts Trump. When he announced a "pause" in weapons supplies to Ukraine Dmitry Peskov's response was that they'd need to see the details first.
Russia is massively linked to China because they are one of the few countries buying Russian energy in bulk. They also supply Russia with a variety of essentials
Economically and financially, Russia is not a threat but China is and with US printers running out of ink to print more money, they need to find ways to reduce China's growing influence over the world.Fighting the war with Russia will only drain the US economy and reduce the power of petrol dollar.
Supplying Ukraine with aid and weapons is confining Russia, the second listed "issue" for the US, massively and all for a bargain price in US$. Supplying them more would quicken the likelihood of a fair and reasoned peace deal
Therefore, making peace with Russia is merely a smoke screen for getting to China. i.e. they are trying bait Russia.If Russia takes the bait they will be "hook, line and sinker". Currently, the US is acting both the good cop and bad cop roles.
They won't take any bait, but they will take advantage
This made me chuckle this morning
Has this been already posted? It's the first I've seen of it and my first reaction was that I might have missed April 1st
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/25/politics/us-gold-card-foreigners-trump/index.html
offering a path to citizenship in exchange for a $5 million fee.
Asked whether he would consider selling the cards to Russian oligarchs, Trump responded: “Yeah, possibly. I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people.”
I am not sure how being a very nice person comes into it, presumably even not very nice people have $5 million.
^ no I posted it a few pages back.... as I said then: if you we to write a list of "things a Russian asset might do", Selling US citizenships to Russian Oligarchs would be one of them.
Since my post (2 days ago) - we can also add:
- Voicing his intention to lift Russian sanctions
- Pausing all supply of arms (even those already paid for) to Ukraine
- Stopping sharing Intel with Ukraine
- Stopping cyber activities aimed at Russia
As I said then - whether or not he IS a Russian asset seems irrelevant - he's acting exactly like one.
<deleted stuff I posted on the wrong thread>
<deleted stuff I posted on the wrong thread>
Well, just a day or two after Trump pulled the plug on intelligence sharing, Russia launched a huge strike.
The Guardian are drawing a direct link between previous forewarning coming via US-derived intel and the effectiveness of this attack being a result of Trump's action.
Interestingly the BBC is majoring on the angle that Ukraine used French fighter aircraft for the first time in trying to interdict this strike.
So Trump is likely to now have actual blood on his hands. Not real blood, of course. That's the kind of thing that having 'bone spurs' stops you from having to see.
Someone above said that Trump is probably the first person they've ever actually wanted to die. I'm in the same camp.
Trump now saying he'll put tariffs on Russia due to the strikes on Ukraine. How much stuff does he think the USA imports from Russia? Why would they care?
While I understood the hatred and anger I was horrified by some of the comments on here about Thatcher after her death.
Trump has meant I now understand it perfectly. (Yes I know Vance may be worse, but I'm not sure he will have the same cultish following to keep it going)
How much stuff does he think the USA imports from Russia? Why would they care?
Pretty much nothing. But talk of tariffs on Russia are designed to con his **** support Base into thinking he's being tough on Putin.
Yeah I’m a bit young and middle class to hate Thatcher but I also get it now. A cheezburger on the bog would be the bigly way to go but equally happy for him to drink bleach.
Trump is threatening tariffs and sanctions on Russia. I don't know what the sanctions could be because I believe Joe Biden imposed very extensive sanctions on Russia which as far as I am aware Trump hasn't lifted.
Trade wise it would appear that last year the US had a $2.5 billion trade deficit with Russia.
While I understood the hatred and anger I was horrified by some of the comments on here about Thatcher after her death.
Can you actually hate someone that you don't know on a personal level? I assumed that it was said mostly for effect. Thatcher was my least favourite ever prime minister but I felt nothing when she died. And by then she was just a confused old woman anyway so there was even less reason to hate her.
I don't even feel any strong emotions for Benjamin Netanyahu who I consider to be a genocidal mass murderer of children. If he died tomorrow it might help the Palestinian cause but it wouldn't bring a smile to my face.
Can you actually hate someone that you don't know on a personal level?
Yes, feeling an intense dislike for Thatcher for example would be quite natural.
I'm not sure that an intense dislike and hatred for someone is the same thing but okay.
So yeah, I intensely disliked Thatcher. But only whilst she was PM, she became an irrelevance to me afterwards, and even more so by the time she died.
I don't even feel any strong emotions for Benjamin Netanyahu who I consider to be a genocidal mass murderer of children. If he died tomorrow it might help the Palestinian cause but it wouldn't bring a smile to my face.
I think the main difference is that they at least appear to think they're acting in the best interests of their own country and the logic behind their actions can be followed even if you disagree with it. Trump is just out for himself, be it misguided personal prestige, wealth, or even just attention.
On the contrary I think Benjamin Netanyahu is doing incalculable damage to Israel and the zionist cause. That in fact is the only glimmer of hope among all the senseless death and destruction, which is why he is intensely disliked by so many in Israel. So I guess that maybe if he died tomorrow it might not help the Palestinian cause long term.
But that's not a topic for this thread. I only mentioned Netanyahu because I couldn't think of a politician that I dislike more and yet I don't really have any strong feelings of hatred towards.
I cannot believe that the New Zealand High Commissioner was literally sacked for asking whether Donald Trump really understood history
Goff said he had been re-reading Winston Churchill’s speech to the House of Commons in 1938 after the Munich Agreement with Adolf Hitler, which allowed Germany to annex part of Czechoslovakia. “He turned to [prime minister Neville] Chamberlain, he said, ‘You had the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour, yet you will have war’,”
“President Trump has restored the bust of Churchill to the Oval Office. But do you think he really understands history?” Goff asked, which garnered laughs from the audience.
MSNBC reporting Musk effectively "demoted" losing the ability to "fire" employees.
I think MSNBC are clickbaiting a bit, the BBC report suggests it wasn't quite like that. Suspicion is Trump is trying to put some space between him and the legal cases against DOGE.
Yeh, that seems plausible.
I'm not sure that an intense dislike and hatred for someone is the same thing but okay.
I don't make the rules, 'intense dislike' is the very definition of hate.
Trump is threatening tariffs and sanctions on Russia. I don't know what the sanctions could be because I believe Joe Biden imposed very extensive sanctions on Russia which as far as I am aware Trump hasn't lifted.
Biden only imposed his latest sanctions on the Russian oil industry in January, just before President Trump took over.
The problem with the energy sector is that it's a constant balance between supply (and therefore cost) and sanctions. Coming out of winter there's likely to be headroom for more sanctions on the O&G sectors
The other issue is that sanctions on the Russian tanker fleet can be circumvented by changes of owner, flag changes, etc. Europe has been looking at seizing vessels since last month https://www.politico.eu/article/russia-shadow-fleet-finnish-bay-snow-eagle-s-december-oil-baltic-sea-europe-waves-europe-kremlin/
There are more individuals, companies, banking processes, etc that can be sanctioned as well
As is the new normal, let's wait and see what happens and, importantly, what sticks
Large amounts of Russian oil are being laundered through India anyway.
Sink one super-yacht every day until the oligarchs deal with Putin themselves. And stop outsourcing staffing and manufacturing to India at the same time.
The thing is that what Musk/DOGE is doing is actually popular with the American people, as is indeed much of what Trump is doing. Despite the fact that here in the UK Trump's actions and policies tend to be seen as totally unhinged and unique to him.
https://www.newsweek.com/elon-musk-doge-influence-government-popular-trump-job-cuts-2040771
CNN polling analyst Harry Enten said on Thursday's broadcast: "This to me, was one of the more shocking figures that I saw. Made me go, 'Wait a minute. Hold on one second. Whoa!' .... But these cuts and the idea of spending cuts, at least within the federal government and cutting a government agencies that actually has majority support. I was truly surprised by this, but the numbers are the numbers."
I guess this is the logical consequence of voters being exposed to a lifetime of the "big government is bad" myth.
And we have been there before, Ronald Reagan's attacks on federal government spending, deregulation, low taxation, etc, which like Project 2025 was fully backed by the Heritage Foundation, was hugely popular with American voters.
It wasn't until 25 years later that the shit hit the fan and those policies resulted the worse economic crisis, for America and the rest of the world, since the 1930s
I don't make the rules, 'intense dislike' is the very definition of hate.
I think you have decided the rule. It isn't my definition anymore intensely liking someone is my definition of love.
Just heard the US is no longer providing satellite imagery of Russian troop movements (or anything else) to Ukraine. Why would Putin settle for a partial win now. Insane.
think the main difference is that they at least appear to think they're acting in the best interests of their own country and the logic behind their actions can be followed even if you disagree with it. Trump is just out for himself, be it misguided personal prestige, wealth, or even just attention.,
I think he’s just turned the world into his plaything all he does is on a whim.
IMHO I don’t think he knows what he’s doing, he just wakes up and the first thing that comes into his mind.
I think he just reacts to stuff as opposed to actual thought and having a spiteful,nasty and selfish personality doesn’t help.
The thing is that what Musk/DOGE is doing is actually popular with the American people, as is indeed much of what Trump is doing.
Not with this Trump voter and others like her
Piggott is among more than 125 people dismissed in February from the Treasury Department's Bureau of Fiscal Service in Parkersburg, West Virginia, unsettling a community that voted overwhelmingly for Republican President Donald Trump. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/doge-job-cuts-shake-trump-voting-west-virginia-town-2025-03-07/
I watched JFK again the other week. Now there's a line of chat I might get banned, edited or in trouble for, haha.
The thing is that what Musk/DOGE is doing is actually popular with the American people
There's a vast difference between what a lot of the American people think Musk/DOGE is doing and what Musk/DOGE is actually doing.
Domestically it's sold as cutting government waste and making tax dollars work harder for American causes.Trumpers believe to the very core of their souls that this is what's happening because that's what the Fox News talking heads tell them is happening, and what freedom-loving patriot could possibly be against a more efficient government dedicated to the betterment of its people?
They have absolutely no clue what's actually happening because they simply don't believe non-Fox news reports. There are three of us Brits at work and more than a handful of dyed-red Southern state Republicans and they simply cannot accept that the BBC, or the Guardian, or the AP, or Reuters might have a valid point to make about anything going on in the US.
So I don't think it's fair to say that Republican voters (at least not the real fruit loop MAGAs anyway) agree with the Trump administration as us outsiders see it. The one they agree with they see through a very different lens.
There's a vast difference between what a lot of the American people think Musk/DOGE is doing and what Musk/DOGE is actually doing.
Precisely. The reason that many of his policies are popular with voters is because they "think" that he is making America great again, when he is actually screwing America.
That's why I thought it was important to add the last two paragraphs:
And we have been there before, Ronald Reagan's attacks on federal government spending, deregulation, low taxation, etc, which like Project 2025 was fully backed by the Heritage Foundation, was hugely popular with American voters.
It wasn't until 25 years later that the shit hit the fan and those policies resulted the worse economic crisis, for America and the rest of the world, since the 1930s
I have no idea when the full consequences of the Trump presidency will become obvious but depending on how things pan out and how much backtracking he does it might also be long after he has gone.
I think you have decided the rule. It isn't my definition anymore intensely liking someone is my definition of love.
Dictionaries have decided the rules, loads available on the internet if you want to check it out. Or just continue arguing the toss, whatever you prefer.
Or just continue arguing the toss, whatever you prefer.
LOL! It's you challenging my comment not the other way round! 😂
I can intensely dislike Trump/Thatcher and yet not hate them. In the same way that I can intensely like Mick Lynch and yet not love him.
Call me a weirdo but I keep any strong emotional feelings for people who I actually know on a personal level.
