Putin Confronts a “Surprised” Trump with a Dilemma
"I don't like it, and it better stop" says our presidentThe Russian president “has gone absolutely CRAZY!”, President Trump tweeted last Sunday on his Truth Social site. Clearly bewildered, he bemoaned, "I've always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him”.
Might Trump be coming to the realization that he has been played all along? From the outset he was taken with Putin and made vulnerable thereby. In a Larry King interview in 2013 he said, “I think he's done a really great job of outsmarting our country". In 2015 he predicted, "I think I'd get along very well with Vladimir Putin”. That same year on the phone with “Morning Joe” he said, "He's running his country and at least he's a leader unlike what we have in this country." Putin saw his opportunity and won Trump over by flattery:
"He called me a genius. He said Donald Trump is a genius and he's gonna be the leader of the party and he's gonna be the leader of the world or something. He said some good stuff about me."
Trump took Putin’s word over his own intelligence agencies’ assessment of Russian election interference when he famously said in Helsinki in 2018,
”He just said it's not Russia. I will say this: I don't see any reason why it would be."
And Ukraine? When the Kremlin recognized the independence of two Russian separatist-controlled regions in eastern Ukraine, Trump said the day before Russia invaded,
"So Putin is now saying it's independent, a large section of Ukraine. I said, how smart is that? And he's going to go in and be a peacekeeper. You've gotta say, that's pretty savvy."
Ukraine apartment building destroyed in Putin's campaign
against the civilian population.
Weeks ago he even called Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “a…
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Trump Returns from Money Tour, But He Won’t Get the Plane
“My goal is to keep foreign money out of American politics,” Trump said at the October 2016 debate for the presidency. “Hillary Clinton’s goal is to put the Oval Office up for sale to whatever country offers the highest price.”
What a difference a few years make, as Trump, in his first foreign trip since retaking the presidency, again 
goes first to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) because that’s where the Trump family has megadollar deals in the works and where influence into the White House is up for sale. Connecticut Democrat Sen. Chris Murphy is the most outspoken of the very few in Congress who have anything to say:
”Let's be clear what this trip is about. This is Trump's corruption tour of the Middle East. He is going to the Gulf in order to collect tribute. What's happening here is an extraordinary level of corruption. “
During Mr. Trump’s first term, the family agreed not to sign any new international deals while he was in office. This time, they issued an ethics statement that said only that they would have “no new transactions with foreign governments”. Just two weeks before papa’s trip, the Trump Organization signed onto a deal to develop in Qatar a $5.5 billion golf and resort. The deal is with a Qatari company called Qatari Diar which happens to be owned by the Qatari government. So much for their ethics statement.
They are doing much the same in Oman (not on the president’s itinerary) – a luxury hotel and golf combination. It’s on government-owned land and the government will get a share. In Dubai (UAE) there is to be the 80-story $1.15 billion Trump International Hotel and Tower, but this time seemingly built by a…
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foreign policy
Tariff Turmoil: Agreements with 195 Countries in 90 Days Is Impossible
May 10 2025
On April 9th, President Trump rolled back the high tariff schedule he had announced on April 2nd, his “Liberation Day”, allowing 90 days for the world's 195 countries to come forward to offer concessions for his consideration. In the interim, tariffs worldwide are 10% in almost all cases, but 145% for China.
On May 8th, twenty-nine days into the pause, he announced the first agreement. Great Britain’s tariff would stay at 10%, in return for U.S. access to their markets, specifically mentioning beef, ethanol, and other farm products. It’s a framework; details to be worked out.
It’s hardly a triumph. The United Kingdom is one of the very few with which we have a trade surplus. They buy more from the U.S. than we buy from them. They didn’t need fixing. And it was immediately pointed out that the British market is already wide open to our products, including beef, ethanol, etc.
China said it would not negotiate until the U.S. lowers the 145%. On Friday Trump backed down, tweeting on Truth Social, "80% Tariff on China seems right! Up to Scott B." Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer are now in Switzerland for talks with China. Wasn’t it Trump to do all the deals?
befuddlement
Okay, that's the latest that we report dutifully but the real story is the madcap confusion that has consumed the administration since the pause was announced.
About three weeks ago, the president sat for an interview by…
Read More »
On April 9th, President Trump rolled back the high tariff schedule he had announced on April 2nd, his “Liberation Day”, allowing 90 days for the world's 195 countries to come forward to offer concessions for his consideration. In the interim, tariffs worldwide are 10% in almost all cases, but 145% for China.
On May 8th, twenty-nine days into the pause, he announced the first agreement. Great Britain’s tariff would stay at 10%, in return for U.S. access to their markets, specifically mentioning beef, ethanol, and other farm products. It’s a framework; details to be worked out.
It’s hardly a triumph. The United Kingdom is one of the very few with which we have a trade surplus. They buy more from the U.S. than we buy from them. They didn’t need fixing. And it was immediately pointed out that the British market is already wide open to our products, including beef, ethanol, etc.
China said it would not negotiate until the U.S. lowers the 145%. On Friday Trump backed down, tweeting on Truth Social, "80% Tariff on China seems right! Up to Scott B." Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer are now in Switzerland for talks with China. Wasn’t it Trump to do all the deals?
befuddlementOkay, that's the latest that we report dutifully but the real story is the madcap confusion that has consumed the administration since the pause was announced.
About three weeks ago, the president sat for an interview by… Read More »
the presidency
Shouldn’t Our Presidents Know Our History? This One Doesn’t.
May 9 2025
On the last day of April, President Trump was giving ABC's Terry Moran a tour of the Oval Office.
“Over here you have the original of Abe Lincoln and George Washington and of course you have the Declaration of Independence"
He was pointing to a framed copy on a wall. Moran asked, "What does it mean to you?" Trump replied:
"Well it means exactly what it says. It’s a declaration, it’s a declaration of unity and love and respect and it means a lot, and it’s something very special to our country.”
Moran looked dumbstruck. Very special it is, but the antitheses of "unity and love and respect". Trump revealed he had no idea what the document was about.
Last Sunday on "Meet the Press", the president was interviewed by NBC's Kristen Welker. Part of the interview went as follows:
Welker: Your secretary of state says everyone who’s here, citizens and non-citizens, deserve due process. Do you agree, Mr. President?
Trump: I don’t know. I’m not, I’m not a lawyer. I don’t know.
Welker: Well, the Fifth Amendment says as much.
Trump: I don’t know…
He continued with his constantly repeated refrain of “thousands of people that are some murderers and some drug dealers and some of the worst people on Earth”.
Welker: Don’t you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States as president?
Trump: I don’t know. I have to respond by saying, again, I have brilliant lawyers that work for me, and they are going to obviously follow what the Supreme Court said.
Not long before, on January 20th, he had sworn to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States”, but here he shows himself to know nothing of one of its fundamental precepts, the…
Read More »
On the last day of April, President Trump was giving ABC's Terry Moran a tour of the Oval Office.
“Over here you have the original of Abe Lincoln and George Washington and of course you have the Declaration of Independence"
He was pointing to a framed copy on a wall. Moran asked, "What does it mean to you?" Trump replied:
"Well it means exactly what it says. It’s a declaration, it’s a declaration of unity and love and respect and it means a lot, and it’s something very special to our country.”
Moran looked dumbstruck. Very special it is, but the antitheses of "unity and love and respect". Trump revealed he had no idea what the document was about.
Last Sunday on "Meet the Press", the president was interviewed by NBC's Kristen Welker. Part of the interview went as follows:
Welker: Your secretary of state says everyone who’s here, citizens and non-citizens, deserve due process. Do you agree, Mr. President?
Trump: I don’t know. I’m not, I’m not a lawyer. I don’t know.
Welker: Well, the Fifth Amendment says as much.
Trump: I don’t know…
He continued with his constantly repeated refrain of “thousands of people that are some murderers and some drug dealers and some of the worst people on Earth”.
Welker: Don’t you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States as president?
Trump: I don’t know. I have to respond by saying, again, I have brilliant lawyers that work for me, and they are going to obviously follow what the Supreme Court said.
Not long before, on January 20th, he had sworn to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States”, but here he shows himself to know nothing of one of its fundamental precepts, the… Read More »
education
For Trumpism, the Universities Are the Enemy. Just Ask JD Vance.
Apr 25 2025
Going far beyond the stated purpose of fighting anti-Semitism in American universities, Donald Trump is using the power of the federal government to try to crush Harvard University, the nation's oldest 
school, founded in 1636, older that the United States by a century and a half.
When the University's president, Alan Garber, rejected a long list of reform demands, Trump lashed out like a spoiled child who doesn't get his way. Withholding $2.26 billion in research grants was not enough to make Harvard buckle, so he has moved to have its tax exempt status revoked, and when that wasn't enough, threatens to block foreign students from enrolling – an important source of revenue. Our embarrassing president is in the grip of tantrum, tweeting on his Truth Social…
“Harvard has been hiring almost all woke, Radical Left, idiots and ‘birdbrains’ who are only capable of teaching FAILURE to students and so-called ‘future leaders’”
Harvard was the first to fight back against the administration, which has posted a list of 60 colleges and universities the administration is investigating under the rubric of its anti-Semitic crusade. Which…
Read More »
Going far beyond the stated purpose of fighting anti-Semitism in American universities, Donald Trump is using the power of the federal government to try to crush Harvard University, the nation's oldest
school, founded in 1636, older that the United States by a century and a half.
When the University's president, Alan Garber, rejected a long list of reform demands, Trump lashed out like a spoiled child who doesn't get his way. Withholding $2.26 billion in research grants was not enough to make Harvard buckle, so he has moved to have its tax exempt status revoked, and when that wasn't enough, threatens to block foreign students from enrolling – an important source of revenue. Our embarrassing president is in the grip of tantrum, tweeting on his Truth Social…
“Harvard has been hiring almost all woke, Radical Left, idiots and ‘birdbrains’ who are only capable of teaching FAILURE to students and so-called ‘future leaders’”
Harvard was the first to fight back against the administration, which has posted a list of 60 colleges and universities the administration is investigating under the rubric of its anti-Semitic crusade. Which… Read More »