Just finished reading an article published yesterday by Simplicius whose main topic is the Ukraine war, thought it was quite good. It can be seen here:
Trump finally ‘wowed’ the world today with his grand announcement on punitive measures against Russia.
simplicius76.substack.com
I think the following line in the article is quite good:
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When asked what would happen after the 50 day mark if Putin refuses to back down, Trump told a reporter: “Don’t ask me that question.”
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Simplicius' followup to that was interesting:
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The bigger debate is whether Trump has now officially taken ownership of the war, despite his feeble attempts to impute his continued failings to Biden; many think so. But I still suspect Trump is trying his hardest to playact the stern and impatient taskmaster to signal ‘toughness’ against Putin for his deep state audience, all while
actually trying to mitigate damage to US-Russian relations.
For instance, ‘senior officials’ told FT just two days ago that Trump still views Zelensky as the primary obstacle to peace:
The US president still regards Russia’s Vladimir Putin as the “main negotiating partner,” the report claims
www.rt.com
That would likely make his ‘anger’ at Putin a put-on.
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I don't know whether Simplicius is right that Trump's alleged anger at Putin is likely a put-on, but I do believe that Trump at least has the wisdom to avoid escalating things much with Russia. Earlier this year, I predicted that the war in Ukraine would probably end this year. I'm no longer so sure about that, but even if it doesn't end this year, I doubt it'll continue for much time beyond it.