Waiting for Trump’s Yuge Russia Announcement
The world waits and wonders what Donald Trump will say on Monday evening about Russia. Given his narcissism and his belief that he is invincible — as illustrated in NEMO’s cartoon at the top of this article — I think that Trump is poised to reverse himself on his promise to bring a quick end to the war in Ukraine, and he will announce a series of steps that he foolishly believes will put pressure on Russia and its allies. He continues to ignore the West’s responsibility for provoking this conflict and he does not assign any blame to Ukraine. Instead, it is “Russia, Russia, Russia. Trump’s shifting position regarding the war in Ukraine is sparking hope in the neocon community, as illustrated by the following image:
The folks at DD Geopolitics provided a nice summary of Senator Lindsey Graham’s remarks to CBS on Sunday:
Senator Lindsey Graham told CBS News what to expect from Trump’s upcoming statement on Russia. First, he pointed to possible moves regarding Russia’s frozen assets. “Watch for news about the seized assets. I don’t want to speak ahead of the President, but the Europeans want to cap the interest that goes to Ukraine. Treasury Secretary Bessent wants to go further,” Graham said.
He also spoke of a plan where the US will start selling large volumes of weapons to European allies — supposedly to help Ukraine. “I expect a record flow of weapons in the coming days to help Ukraine defend itself,” he said.
Graham also confirmed that Congress is close to passing a sanctions package targeting countries that buy Russian oil and goods.
The tariffs may not be fixed at 500% as earlier proposed — Trump will have authority to set them between 0% and 500%. “He’ll have maximum flexibility,” Graham stated.
“Congress is about to pass the most significant sanctions package in US history. It will give President Trump tools he doesn’t have now — a real sledgehammer. The main violators are China, India, and Brazil. India buys cheap Russian oil and resells it. It’s disgusting. I spoke with Trump, and last week he said it’s time to act,” Graham added. He said Trump wants to force those supporting Putin to choose between the U.S. economy and backing Russia.
“China, India, Brazil — you’ll suffer if you keep helping Putin,” Graham said.
If Trump pursues the course of action outlined by the Little Old Lady from South Carolina (aka, Lindsey Graham), the President will further strengthen Russia’s resolve to end the affair militarily; he will reinforce the conviction of the BRICS nations that they must pursue an economic and financial policy that frees them of US coercion; and he may unleash unanticipated economic blowback on the US and World economy that could ignite a financial crisis. For example, as of 10 pm Eastern time, gold futures are trending up.
I suppose there is always a chance that Trump will surprise and adopt a conciliatory policy proposal, but given his comments about “Putin’s bullshit,” I don’t think that is likely. I will be happy to be proved wrong.
Trump may announce he is sending more Patriot missile batteries and missiles to Ukraine… Good luck with that. US supplies are depleted, as I and many others have pointed out over the last two weeks, and Russia has proven to be quite adept at blowing them up. Also, the Patriot is totally ineffective against Russia’s hypersonic missiles, which Moscow is regularly launching.
Monday’s speech may be the moment when Trump takes full ownership of the war in Ukraine. Instead of garnering a Nobel Peace Prize, Trump will be setting himself up for winning a resurrected Public Eye Award — i.e., Public Eye Awards were annual “shame-on-you” prizes given from 2005 to 2015 to corporations with the worst records in human rights abuses, environmental damage, poor working conditions, lack of transparency, and corruption. The folks in Switzerland, who dreamed up the Public Eye Award, may want to create a new category… Fanning the flames of conflict.
I did an interview on Friday with a relatively new podcaster… Christian White. We discussed Epstein and the Mossad:
I am curious about this proposal: selling large volumes of weapons to European allies.
It is my understanding that many of the European countries' economies are struggling and weak. How can they afford to purchase a lot of weapons? Will those weapons then be gifts to Ukraine, or will each country attack Russia on its own?
The idea of a sanctions package targeting countries that buy Russian oil and goods is basically the US wounding itself. If the US punishes China for buying things from Russia, what's to stop China from retaliating by halting business with the US?
The idea of the US telling another country (via sanctions) that it cannot conduct business with any country it chooses is absurd to me.
Who made Donald Trump King of the World?
The 'poor' Peacemaker Donald Trump......
The guy just can't get the Russians, the Iranians, the Chinese, the Yemenis to do what he orders them to do.
I don't know anything about how New York real estate deals are transacted, but I would imagine there must be some negotiated give and take involved in the process.
America long ago forgot how to engage in real negotiations on anything. For the USA, it is all about threats of violence, sanctions or whatever.
LBJ's war became Nixon's war; Biden's war is about to become Trump's war. Best of luck with it.....