In 50 days, Trump will have a serious amount of egg on his face when Russia’s defeat of the NATO proxy war becomes more evident.
What’s behind Trump’s angry
ultimatum to Russia this week? The short answer: failure and frustration.
Donald Trump promised American voters that he would end the Ukraine war in 24
hours upon his election in November 2024. Six months into his presidency, Trump
has failed to deliver on his boastful promises.
This week, Trump flipped his
pacemaker image by pledging billions of dollars worth of new American weaponry
to Ukraine. He also issued a warning to Russia to call a ceasefire within 50
days or else face severe secondary tariffs on its oil and gas exports. The
tariffs, quoted at 100 percent, will be applied to nations purchasing Russian
exports, primarily Brazil, China, and India. The latter move indicates that the
U.S.-led proxy war in Ukraine against Russia is really part of a bigger
geopolitical confrontation to maintain American global hegemony.
In any case, Moscow dismissed
Trump’s ultimatum. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that Moscow
would not comply with pressure and that Russia would not back down from its
strategic goals in Ukraine to counter NATO’s historic aggression.
It is clear that Trump and his
administration have failed to understand Russia’s strategic position and the
root causes of the conflict.
Trump’s supposed diplomacy is
seen to operate on a superficial basis more akin to showbiz, with no substance.
He wants a peace deal with Russia to show off his vaunted skills as a business
negotiator and to grab the limelight, headlines, and adulation.
Resolving a conflict like Ukraine
requires deep historical understanding and genuine commitment to due diligence.
Moscow has repeatedly stated the need to address the root causes of the
conflict: the expansion of NATO on its borders, the CIA-sponsored coup in Kiev
in 2014, and the nature of the NATO-weaponized Neo-Nazi regime over the past
decade.
Trump and his administration have
failed to appreciate Russia’s viewpoint. Thus, expecting a peace deal based on
nothing but rhetoric and vacuous claims about “ending the killing” is futile.
It won’t happen.
This failure, based on
unrealistic expectations, has led Trump to adopt an increasingly bitter
attitude towards Russian President Vladimir Putin in recent weeks. Ironically,
Trump has accused Putin of duplicity and procrastination when, in reality, it
is Trump who has shown no serious commitment to resolving the conflict.
Now, with chagrin and bruised
ego, Trump has reacted with frustration over what are his own failings by
issuing ultimatums to Russia. Trump’s 50-day deadline for a Russian response to
his demands has a similarity to the 60-day deadline he threatened Iran with,
after which he carried out a massive bombing attack on that country. Trump’s
aggression towards Iran has turned out to be a fiasco and failure. Threatening
Russia is even more useless.
This proclivity for threatening
other nations has the hallmark of a Mafiosa megalomaniac. It is also causing
Trump to lose support among his voter base, who believed he was going to end
“endless wars.” It’s shambolic. Biden’s war is becoming Trump’s war because, at
the end of the day, it is the U.S. imperial deep state that rules.
Trump’s mercurial switch from
professing peace in Ukraine to ramping up the promise of weapons shows that his
previous aspirations were always hollow and contingent on other interests.
It seems that the 47th American
president did not want peace after all. What was driving his apparent desire to
end the conflict in Ukraine – what he deprecated as “Biden’s war” – was simply
to cut American financial costs.
What has appealed to Trump is
that the proposed new supplies of American weapons to Ukraine will be paid for
by Europe. Money and profit are all that matter to him. It is significant that
when Trump announced the new arms racket scheme, he was sitting beside NATO
chief Mark Rutte in the Oval Office. Rutte has a knack for wheedling,
previously referring to Trump as “daddy” and this week absurdly praising the
U.S. as the world’s policeman for securing peace. It seems that the NATO and
transatlantic ruling establishment have found a way to manipulate Trump. Tell
him that the Europeans will henceforth directly subsidize the U.S.
military-industrial complex.
The trouble for Trump and the
NATO establishment is that it is all an unworkable bluff. For a start, the U.S.
arsenal of Patriot missiles and other munitions has been depleted and destroyed
by Russia over the past three years in Ukraine. There are no “wonder weapons”
that can alter the battlefield dominance of Russia.
Secondly, the European economies
are broke and can hardly sustain the proposed purchase of U.S. weapons for
Ukraine, even if such supplies were feasible, which they are not. At least four
European states, including France, the Czech Republic, Italy, and Hungary, have
said they will not engage in any scheme of buying American weapons for Ukraine.
Thirdly, Trump’s threat of
secondary sanctions against Brazil, China, India, and others for doing business
with Russia is a blatant assault on the BRICS and Global South that will only
garner international contempt. Trump’s bullying is neither viable nor credible.
His earlier trade war against China has already failed and shown that the
United States is an impotent giant whose power is a thing of the past. Trump
had to climb down from his hobby horse towards China.
So, threatening to hit China and
others with 100 percent tariffs for doing business with Russia is like a former
prizefighter shaking a feeble fist while sitting in a wheelchair. He is liable
to incur more self-harm.
Lastly, Russia is decisively
winning the NATO-led proxy war in Ukraine. The Kiev regime’s air defenses are
non-existent at this stage. Therefore, Russia can and will press its strategic
terms to end the conflict because it is the military victor.
Trump’s ultimatum to Russia is
nothing but bluster and bluff. He once mocked Ukraine’s puppet president
Zelensky, that he had no cards to play. Trump, for all his bravado, has only a
couple of deuces himself.
In 50 days, Trump will have a
serious amount of egg on his face when Russia’s defeat of the NATO proxy war
becomes more evident.
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