Games Putin and Trump play…

It’s hard to dissociate the push for a Trump led Ukraine peace effort from his Nobel Prize fantasy that was that primarily driven by political allies capitalizing on short-term diplomatic wins, but lacked the broad international consensus or lasting impact typically required for the award.

This said, Trump’s naivete hit a major speed-bump when he tried his rapprochement with the Russian dictator. Putin is super-smart and can tell a bully when he meets one and went tit for tat against Trump, humiliating him and showing him who “had the cards” among the two of them. 

I believe that Trump dislikes Zelensky, doesn’t want him to win and agrees to “play the time” along with Putin’s strategy. In the greater scheme of things, Putin has a plan and Trump none, preferring “knee-jerk” moves that keep his visibility high on the world scene, and he obviously fears Putin. 

With his trademark cruelty, Trump is wasting Ukraine’s precious time and is only interested at exploiting the lingering stalemate to sell arms in order to keep that war alive. If the theory you might hold is different, I’d like to hear from it...