Dear America,
Once again, Donald Trump met a "strong and powerful" Vladimir Putin, and once again he went into the meeting a bull dog and came out a lap dog. Putin engineered yesterday's meeting--Trump said it was Putin's idea and that he agreed to it but would walk out in minutes if Putin was stringing him along one more time--and it was obvious in the end that it went just as he had planned and satisfied his purpose in manipulating Trump into it. At the podium after the meeting, Putin read a speech obviously written before he even got on his plane for the purpose of saying absolutely nothing of substance by stating indubitably that his position is now what it has always been. He will accept nothing but what he has wanted all along: Ukrainian submission and the annexation of 20% of that country...at a minimum. It was all premeditated and designed to make it clear that it was so. Putin listened to Trump's bluster for a month or so and then decided to make him eat his words in front of the entire world with the crowning invitation to come to Putin next time in Moscow, to which the best Trump could respond was that it might be interesting. The irony of all this is that Trump touts himself as the ultimate negotiator and deal maker, and all he had to do on this occasion was to say virtually, or even literally nothing. If after the meeting Trump had declined to hold the press conference that occurred, Putin would have been thwarted and Trump could have, albeit falsely, proclaimed himself the leader of the free world. In other words, he could have prevailed by doing nothing...but n-o-o-o-o. He had to take the stage and have the last word, even though he had nothing to say and wound up hopelessly prevaricating about what had transpired, which apparently was nothing.
As we all know, Trump is our president, and as such he is our face in the rest of the world. He is supposed to be the embodiment of American might, principle, integrity, perseverance and indomitability, but as such, he is an embarrassment. Rather he is an example of the antithesis of all those things. Putin has played him like a trump card (sorry, I couldn't resist, and it is apt) every time their paths have crossed. And now, Putin has done it in public as if to laughingly tell the world that Trump wets his pants when confronted. Trump's plan to show Putin and the world who's boss turned out to be a contretemps that left Trump disgraced and put our capacity to wield the power of the strongest nation in the world in doubt. I would not be surprised if the next step in Trump's TACO humiliation were the EU telling him publicly to, "go ahead and impose those tariffs. We'll match you tit for tat and see who yields first." Yesterday's embarrassment was an invitation to the world to flout every attempt by us, America, to exercise moral leadership in world affairs. Our formidability has been put in question if not completely debunked, and the Great Lump is responsible...along with his Republican Party enablers.
I raise the issue of Republican culpability for Trump's failure on this profoundly visible occasion because we are just over a year from the mid-term elections, and the party has ridden Trump's ostensible invulnerability to victory since he won the electoral college vote in 2016 despite losing the popular vote. They continue to indulge him with things like his "Big Beautiful Bill," of which it turns out the majority of Americans disapprove. And then there are the other misadventures, like the usurpation of control of Washington, D.C. and his refusal to comply with court orders regarding deportations, which the majority also disapproves the modality of incidentally, as well as spending tax payer dollars for things like "alligator Alcatraz" and Qatari luxury jet renovation at a cost of a hundred million dollars. He can fly wrapped in gold now, and though the plane is to be government property, the plan is for it to be donated to his presidential memorial library, from which you can be sure he will be "borrowing" it whenever he chooses for the rest of his life. It is through these Republican poltroons that he has been able to indulge in self-dealing that has made him even more rich than he was thanks to the hundreds of millions he has been reputed to have purloined from his father's business when old Fred began to suffer from dementia.
It is not enough for Trump that he already has more money than he could ever possibly spend while he steam rolls poor people living in tents because he thinks they're unsightly. He isn't satisfied that he finagled the dismissal of cases against him that obviously had merit like that alleging that he stole secret documents when he left the White House in 2020. He has to "weaponize" the DOJ to persecute everyone who participated in making the case. He has to continue to play the unstoppable wise-guy. I think the voters will remember that he couldn't have done all that without his party...not your party...his party in 2026. I think everyone is sick of sycophants, and that's all the Republicans are: Trump's rubber stamp.
Your friend,
Mike
Once again, Donald Trump met a "strong and powerful" Vladimir Putin, and once again he went into the meeting a bull dog and came out a lap dog. Putin engineered yesterday's meeting--Trump said it was Putin's idea and that he agreed to it but would walk out in minutes if Putin was stringing him along one more time--and it was obvious in the end that it went just as he had planned and satisfied his purpose in manipulating Trump into it. At the podium after the meeting, Putin read a speech obviously written before he even got on his plane for the purpose of saying absolutely nothing of substance by stating indubitably that his position is now what it has always been. He will accept nothing but what he has wanted all along: Ukrainian submission and the annexation of 20% of that country...at a minimum. It was all premeditated and designed to make it clear that it was so. Putin listened to Trump's bluster for a month or so and then decided to make him eat his words in front of the entire world with the crowning invitation to come to Putin next time in Moscow, to which the best Trump could respond was that it might be interesting. The irony of all this is that Trump touts himself as the ultimate negotiator and deal maker, and all he had to do on this occasion was to say virtually, or even literally nothing. If after the meeting Trump had declined to hold the press conference that occurred, Putin would have been thwarted and Trump could have, albeit falsely, proclaimed himself the leader of the free world. In other words, he could have prevailed by doing nothing...but n-o-o-o-o. He had to take the stage and have the last word, even though he had nothing to say and wound up hopelessly prevaricating about what had transpired, which apparently was nothing.
As we all know, Trump is our president, and as such he is our face in the rest of the world. He is supposed to be the embodiment of American might, principle, integrity, perseverance and indomitability, but as such, he is an embarrassment. Rather he is an example of the antithesis of all those things. Putin has played him like a trump card (sorry, I couldn't resist, and it is apt) every time their paths have crossed. And now, Putin has done it in public as if to laughingly tell the world that Trump wets his pants when confronted. Trump's plan to show Putin and the world who's boss turned out to be a contretemps that left Trump disgraced and put our capacity to wield the power of the strongest nation in the world in doubt. I would not be surprised if the next step in Trump's TACO humiliation were the EU telling him publicly to, "go ahead and impose those tariffs. We'll match you tit for tat and see who yields first." Yesterday's embarrassment was an invitation to the world to flout every attempt by us, America, to exercise moral leadership in world affairs. Our formidability has been put in question if not completely debunked, and the Great Lump is responsible...along with his Republican Party enablers.
I raise the issue of Republican culpability for Trump's failure on this profoundly visible occasion because we are just over a year from the mid-term elections, and the party has ridden Trump's ostensible invulnerability to victory since he won the electoral college vote in 2016 despite losing the popular vote. They continue to indulge him with things like his "Big Beautiful Bill," of which it turns out the majority of Americans disapprove. And then there are the other misadventures, like the usurpation of control of Washington, D.C. and his refusal to comply with court orders regarding deportations, which the majority also disapproves the modality of incidentally, as well as spending tax payer dollars for things like "alligator Alcatraz" and Qatari luxury jet renovation at a cost of a hundred million dollars. He can fly wrapped in gold now, and though the plane is to be government property, the plan is for it to be donated to his presidential memorial library, from which you can be sure he will be "borrowing" it whenever he chooses for the rest of his life. It is through these Republican poltroons that he has been able to indulge in self-dealing that has made him even more rich than he was thanks to the hundreds of millions he has been reputed to have purloined from his father's business when old Fred began to suffer from dementia.
It is not enough for Trump that he already has more money than he could ever possibly spend while he steam rolls poor people living in tents because he thinks they're unsightly. He isn't satisfied that he finagled the dismissal of cases against him that obviously had merit like that alleging that he stole secret documents when he left the White House in 2020. He has to "weaponize" the DOJ to persecute everyone who participated in making the case. He has to continue to play the unstoppable wise-guy. I think the voters will remember that he couldn't have done all that without his party...not your party...his party in 2026. I think everyone is sick of sycophants, and that's all the Republicans are: Trump's rubber stamp.
Your friend,
Mike
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