Summary
Democratic Senator Jack Reed accused Trump of “surrendering to the Russians” as his administration pushes for U.S.-Russia talks over Ukraine.
Special envoy Steve Witkoff suggested Ukraine’s NATO ambitions provoked the war and declined to blame Russia.
Zelenskyy, under pressure, said he would step down for peace if Ukraine gained NATO membership.
The Trump administration denies favoring Russia and claims its strategy brings peace closer without criticizing Putin’s invasion.
Putin must have dirt on Trump. I doubt Trump cares about anyone but himself.
Trump probably owed the money, Putin got a bunch of dirt on Trump via honeypots or documented illegal activity. I suspect now all Putin is saying is “you’re touchable. Play right or the daughter ends up in a rape camp in Siberia.”
I don’t think he’d care about the daughter really. He would care though about being shown for a fool he is. And I have no doubt that Trump understands this fully. Putin’s propaganda machine both helped this orange narc get elected and is the means to strip him of it if he misbehaves.
With all the blatant proven scandals, straight up convicted felonies, and international crimes, this guy still squats in the Whitehouse. Beyond all sanity, somehow this happened. I seriously wonder what kind of dirt would actually be able to control him at this point.
It could come out tomorrow that he hired Wagner Group personally to exterminate an entire island of indigenous people to put a golf course on it. There could be documents with his signature and recorded audio of the phone call, and that news would just blend in with the rest of his noise.
I dunno, I think he just sees other fascists as “fellow businessmen” and has an insatiable lust after his own ego. Like it’s overly simplistic maybe but “He’s just evil.” Seems to be an ample explanation for everything about him…
He could get destroyed in public’s eye same way he got created (well to the extent of actually getting to be a president). The propaganda machine that created him could just as well annihilate him.
He is not the one controlling all the media and more importantly all the internet propaganda.
I’m certain that he owes Russia a lot of money, but now that he’s captured the US government you’d think he wouldn’t care about that any more. As you say, he obviously admires other dictators, but it’s still strange how unwaveringly positive he’s always been toward Putin - it’s not typical of him to never stab an associate in the back.
Some of what Trump does is against his own interests, and I can’t explain that, but most of the time he’s an opportunist; there’s no point in trying to betray people if they have the power to hurt you back.
He pointlessly antagonizes other countries with the power to hurt the US economically all the time. I think this is personal - it’s well-known he’s has financial dealings with Russia going back decades. He clearly feels beholden to Putin in a way that he doesn’t seem to with anyone else.
That’s a REALLY good point. It is really strange, since we’ve come to expect him to constantly renege on “the very biggliest best deals” and then say “So what? Winning lol.”
I can’t recall any time he’s ever put pressure on or even vaguely threatened Pooty either, and half the air out of his face is vague threats at people. Lol
It used to be easily explained by him owing so much to him, but Trump’s a full-on dictator now. Maybe kissing Putin’s ass is and old habit that’s hard to break? I can’t see Trump planning for when he’s no longer president and wanting to keep Putin in his good graces for that. Maybe he’s concerned abut his family’s safety? Not because he actually cares about them in and of themselves, but because they’re his legacy, the only way a narcissist like him could care about them.
If Trump ever loses power, he wants a country he can flee to without being extradited.
This would be a level of restraint and thinking ahead that he’s not capable of. It has to be something more personal and immediate - it’s the only thing narcissists understand.
Evil is a superstition word. Psychology more than explains his behavior. He’s a narcissist and probably has other mental health issues.
However, he has enough money that he is never forced to address these issues and surrounds himself with people who benefit from manipulating him by using these traits.
He’ll probably never even realize how dysfunctional he would be as a regular person that has to interact with society to survive.
Still, he did achieve his goal of being a president of US not once but twice. He had to make a deal with the devil to achieve it but he did. And if he was totally incompetent even the devil wouldn’t help. And it’s not like his deal has cost him much at all so far.
I think there is a good chance he’d know how to skirt the law if he’d start at a lower rung too.
Sure, even with its gaps in contemporary understanding, psychology still does explain his behavior.
What I meant by evil wasn’t to use it as a “superstition word” so much as a philosophical one. I say “he’s evil”, because he’s well aware of the harm, misery, and grief he causes countless people, and not only doesn’t care, he actively accelerates that behavior whenever possible.
This is a person who enjoys being a villain, a malady, a negative force on this earth that actively avoids not ruining someone’s day if he can help it. Not even to gain some kind of advantage or because he believes it’s “right” in some twisted way. He just literally enjoys being a dick, and will tirelessly seek out the most ruthless way to do so.
Mustache-twirling cartoon bad guys seem rational by comparison. Like, man, after seeing Musk and Trump, I’d bet He-Man and Skeletor could just talk it out. LOL
Sure, there’s plenty of rational explanations of thought patterns and pre-existing beliefs behind it, but on a fundamental level, morally, ethically, philosophically, “evil” is a very apt shortcut description for the man and his cohorts.
But of course, I’m not trying to dive into semantics or write some kind of provable thesis here. Just contributing to conversation. :p