Tomorrow Volodymyr Zelenskyy will be in Washington to meet with Donald Trump. And so will a lot of other people.
Leaders from Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Finland are rallying around the Ukrainian president after his exclusion from Trump’s summit on Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Their pledge to be at Zelenskyy’s side at the White House on Monday is an apparent effort to ensure the meeting goes better than the last one in February, when Trump berated Zelenskyy in a heated Oval Office encounter.
“The Europeans are very afraid of the Oval Office scene being repeated and so they want to support Mr. Zelenskyy to the hilt,” said retired French Gen. Dominique Trinquand, a former head of France’s military mission at the United Nations.
“It’s a power struggle and a position of strength that might work with Trump,” he said.
Those expected to show up with Zelenskyy include European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, and secretary-general of the NATO military alliance, Mark Rutte. My understanding is that this entire crew are adamantly opposed to a peace deal that depends on Ukraine giving up any territory taken by Russia since the February 2022 invasion. National borders are not to be changed by force. They also want a cease fire asap, before there are any more talks.
I assume this meeting will be televised. I might actually watch this one.
Update: Interesting article in Mediaite about the big fail in Alaska.
MSNBC host Antonia Hilton claimed Saturday that President Donald Trump’s aides appeared “frightened” by their experience at the Alaska summit with Vladimir Putin.
“A lot of the press corps that was there, they reported in the minutes and hours after the presser that they saw members of the administration, like Karoline Leavitt, look ashen, almost frightened after what they had seen behind closed doors.
And then there are some remarks from former Russian ambassador Michael McFaul, who shows up on MSNBC from time to time. And he says, in effect, that the way the staff has been talking to the press indicates that the meeting was a disaster.
Michael Wolff has reported that a White House staff member texted him after the meeting. He texted the adjective form of the F word — “F–ked.”
It would probably be useful if one of the first topics of discussion is how the Nobel Peace Prize committee would never consider his role in ending a war, if he encouraged a defender to swap territory with the aggressor, to end that war. So, you know, if he wants the peace prize, he should clandestinely aid the heck out of Ukraine so they can kick Putin's balls properly.
It's too much to hope to imagine he'd figure out, on his own, that "letting the aggressor win doesn't advance the cause of peace."
“A lot of the press corps that was there, they reported in the minutes and hours after the presser that they saw members of the administration, like Karoline Leavitt, look ashen, almost frightened after what they had seen behind closed doors. "
My understanding was that President Putin was joined by Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov while Trump was accompanied by special envoy Steve Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. I would assume two or more interpreters were also present.
Why would Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, be wandering around looking "ashen, almost frightened? She was not at the meeting. A Trump tantrum after the meeting? Or just journalistic "licience"?
Given the short meeting and the cancellation of the "working breakfast" or "working lunch" whichever it was, I'd say the meeting was a salutory shock to Trump.
Doing real estate deals is not quite the same as high level international negotiations, from what I've read.
It wasn't just Leavitt. It was the entire WH staff in Alaska, reporters said. And now Trump is back to saying that it's entirely up to Zelenskyy to end the war. Something happened.
Something did happen. Donald Trump ran into reality in the form of a not–particularly–conciliatory Vladimir Putin who told him some home truths.
My only quibble is about how fast this affected those who were not at the meeting. The media jumped on it before I would have thought the Trump entourage could be properly briefed.
In the longer run I can see there might be some worry, even distress as Trump seems to have switched from calling for a ceasefire to calling for a peace settlement.
I just would not thought it would have so fast and so striking an effect on Trump staffers.
According to this psychic, they were shown photos of Trump that shocked them to their core. Kompromat. This psychic and others also think "Putin" was really a double.
Is it really surprising? Putin is a master at this. The circumstantial evidence is overwhelming.
There are a lot of rumors floating around about what happened. It might be the staff was shaken at watching their senile and compromised boss being controlled by Putin. That much is publicly obvious.
I'm sure Puty has "Kompromat" on Stump but it wouldn't really make sense to show it to his staff, sort of takes a card away from Putin to use later, if a staffer spills the beans it's all over don't you think? Maybe he showed diaper don his unredacted copy of the Epstein files!
If you listen to the psychic, Trump already knows what Putin has, and could probably intuit his next move, hence all the fawning and supplicating.
You could make the opposite argument, that if some staffers saw the dirt, they could knock sense into Trump. It strengthens Putin's hand, that it isn't Trump making stuff up or obsfucating what Putin is doing. It brings reality to the situation, getting the point across, loud and clear.
Whatever happened, it's refreshing to see these people shaken out of their delusions. It's self-preservation time kiddos! Another psychic says that about half of the people in Trump's orbit are in this mode already.
Putin doesn't need to have anything salacious on Trump to damage him. The most devastating thing Putin could say is to publicly reveal his role in manipulating public opinion during the 2016 campaigns to help Trump defeat Hillary Clinton. He just needs to confirm the "Russia hoax" wasn't a hoax. This wouldn't hurt Putin in any way, but it would destroy Trump.
Epstein was (is???) Mossad, not KGB/FSB.
I suppose Russia could have bought, swiped, or intercepted some Epstein tapes, but they probably have plenty of other sources of Kompromat on Trump.
'Epstein Files' are most likely being used by Israel to get Ghislaine Maxwell pardoned.
Well as John Maynard Keynes said, "God created economists to make psychics look good".
To think Putin does not have terabytes of data on Trump is just foolish. Conservatives have been collecting and organizing data on anyone they suspect might gain power for decades now, and that is a wide blanket. Do not forget that fearless leader once identified as a Democrat by my understanding. No, that alone would be a factor, but the main factor is the power one. Ask some never-Trumpers.
Think also of the current "investigations" into Clinton, Obama, Comey, and others which is nothing more than a fishing expedition to attempt to gain data that can be used if needed. This KGB tactic has been used by international level by some right- wing factions for years now. Social media has made it a gold mine. Remember that fearless leader is personally blocking any action on TikTok, in spite of bipartisan legislation to make sure China is not collecting a data bank. China just has one political party. Fearless leader is hell bent the U.S. just has one political party too.
Paranoid? Don't be. Keep it rational. Still, it should not take a trip to Alaska to find out there are people who are out to get you and are willing and able to wield all sorts of power to get their way. Fearless leader could see that by looking in a mirror if not for the curse of Narcissus. Not the flower but the one from Greek mythology. The one that distorts your self-concept.
The Putin smirk from the beast said it all. Cards…I'll show you some cards. Secret cards. Cards we won't show everyone just yet.
Speculation, sure but remember Occam's razor. The simplest answer is usually the best. It is a principle not a rule. In some circles rules cannot be broken, principles have exceptions.
On a less speculative note, Drones and batteries were probably on the agenda today. AI is big but a lag in battery production and tech along with security issue of both the US and the EU including those who still convert from pounds. Also note Russia's propensity to go after power grids in addition to other civilian targets.
China is well ahead on battery tech and electric vehicles. We are woefully behind in a lot of races, as the pandemic taught us. Not a time to seek isolation by tariff and aiding and abetting in other unpopular wars with dubious moral problems. (those which starve people and pile rubble). We need to spend fast on drone related tech and electric energy supply security and they both are desperate for batteries. So too the British and the rest of free Europe. Here Ukraine has quite a deck as they have experience in building drones and the war application of that tech. They are also having to protect their public power supply including reactors from the Russians. The Ukrainians have experience with what works and what doesn't and Russian capabilities and techniques in attacking public power systems. Some ground reality or any kind of reality at all seems what our government is desperate for now or should be. It seems it got a big reality smackdown last Friday.
Lech Walesa will be on a speaking tour here soon to remind our dear leader how it's done.
https://historyexplorer.com