Trump’s Negotiators Fail to Understand Russia and Europe Crashes and Burns
When Donald Trump made his promise to bring peace to Ukraine in 24 hours, he obviously was thinking in terms of how time is counted on the planet Venus… on Venus, one Earth day is equivalent to 243 days. That’s his only hope of delivering on that promise. Trump may be a master at negotiating a deal to build a hotel, but he has no clue how to bring an end to the war in Ukraine.
The process is stalled — not because of Russian intransigence — because Europe and Ukraine’s Zelensky are throwing up roadblocks. The Black Sea deal, for example, hinges on Europe lifting economic sanctions on grain and fertilizer exports from Russia and reconnecting one of Russia’s key banks to SWIFT. Europe said, “hell no!”
Trump also expressed anger over President Putin saying he won’t talk to Zelensky. Even though Trump himself called Zelensky a dictator, Donald insists that Putin must talk to the green goblin. President Trump apparently does not realize that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy enacted a decree on October 4, 2022, based on a decision by the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) of September 30, 2022, prohibiting negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Even if Putin decided to engage Zelensky tomorrow, it is illegal under Ukrainian law to do so. For starters, Trump needs to order Zelensky to withdraw that order.
But Trump and his negotiating team have a bigger problem — they don’t understand that Russia will not, under any circumstances, accept a complete ceasefire, and it will not compromise on the positions that Vladimir Putin laid out to senior officials of the Russian Foreign Ministry in June 2024. Marco Rubio and his team fail to grasp this point:
The US sees a peaceful settlement in Ukraine through achieving a complete ceasefire and negotiations between Moscow and Kiev without introducing temporary governance in the country – State Department
➖”We work with the understanding that the negotiations will require Russia and Ukraine to make tough decisions and compromises. And we are working with Russia and Ukraine, and we intend to continue our work to bring them to the negotiating table,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said at a briefing.
Many inside the Trump administration, along with the pundits and analysts that populate Washington think tanks, continue to wrongly believe that Russia is suffering terrible military losses and that the Russian economy is on the verge of collapse.
You may be familiar with the old adage: a picture is worth a thousand words. If that is true, then a video must be worth a book the length of War and Peace. Check out this video, which compares the NYC subway with the Moscow metro system. Then tell me whose economy is stronger:
Let’s take a look at volume two of War and Peace. The Europeans continue to indulge the fantasy that they are a real power in world affairs and need to be taken seriously. They think they can cobble together a military force that will make the Russians tremble in fear. So they tried to launch their first orbital rocket today. The video reaffirms my position that Europe is a clown show:
Maybe this is part of a sneaky European plot — i.e., they hope the Russians will die from laughing at the Europeans’ feckless attempt to launch a rocket.
The Adam Entous New York Times article that I shredded in yesterday’s column (Hell, almost every credible analyst on the internet is bashing it as well.) provided irrefutable evidence that the United States has committed multiple acts of war against Russia. It is a miracle that Russia has not retaliated. Instead, Putin and his generals have chosen to focus on destroying Ukraine’s military and, as a side benefit, eviscerating NATO’s ability to supply weapons and ammunition.
Western delusions are not confined to Russia. China also is getting the same condescending, dismissive treatment. But check out the following video. I do not believe there is a single European or American construction company that could do what the Chinese are doing, not just in this case, but in repeated projects throughout China:
I will close with a couple of videos from today. First, my regular Monday chat with Judge Napolitano. Second, I was interviewed on Friday by George Papadopoulos and his wife, Simona. I have been hoping for this opportunity for the last eight years, because I wanted to explain to George how British and US intelligence, along with the FBI, conspired to use him as a pawn to attack Donald Trump.