Steamrolled: Vladimir Putin Shares an Existential Secret with Trump and You Just Saw the Result
I’m not going to say I told you so.
I will, however, say that if what I laid out before yesterday’s ass-handing were true, everything would go just as it did.
The meeting started with the red carpet welcome, with everything looking a bit dingy and Trump looking obeisant.
After a last minute switch, replacing the one-on-one, with a shared meeting, Trump and Putin had a short ride in Trump’s limo, with Putin grinning like the Cheshire cat. The meeting was abandoned early. Putin effectively ran the press event afterwards, in which he emphasized Russian demands that Ukraine subject itself to Russia, and Trump doubled down on his disproven claims that Hillary tried to frame him, when in fact Tulsi Gabbard recently released proof that Russia instead framed Hillary. Fully one-fifth of what Trump said was redoubling on the lie that Russia knows Trump knows to be a lie.
We were interfered with by the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax. It made it a little bit tougher to deal with, but he understood it. I think he’s probably seen things like that during the course of his career. He’s seen- he’s seen it all. But we had to put up with the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax. He knew it was a hoax, and I knew it was a hoax, but what was done was very criminal, but it made it harder for us to deal as a country, in terms of the business, and all of the things that would like to have dealt with, but we’ll have a good chance when this is over.
Trump’s commitment to that lie continued to his interview with Sean Hannity (in which Trump described a second one-on-one moment with Putin after the press appearance). Hannity’s first question was what Trump’s vibe was in the first minutes with Putin, and Trump repeated his claim that “we would have done great things” if not for the “Russia Russia Russia hoax, which stopped us from doing that,” then immediately claimed that the 2020 election was rigged. Then Trump turned to Putin’s claim that if he were President in 2022 the war would never have happened. Later in the interview, when Hannity raised Hillary’s quip that if Trump could make a just peace, she would nominate him for the Nobel Prize and invited Trump to attack Hillary for ruining three years of Trump’s life, Trump said that “she made me tougher.” Trump turned immediately from that to describe that Putin reinforced Trump’s false claims that he had won the election in 2020. And Trump explained why the war would never have happened if he were President: had he remained in office in 2021, then Putin wouldn’t have had to invade.
For Trump, this meeting was about sustaining the lies on which all his power is built: it’s not that Putin put him in charge because he would sell out America. Rather, he’s the victim. And by sustaining that lie, he renewed Russia’s great leverage over him.
Maybe that’s why he has no deal, why Trump told Hannity there’s one big issue Trump and Putin don’t agree on, why Trump’s team was all frowns yesterday, why even Fox News reporter Jacqui Heinrich described the presser as “very unusual.”
This continued to the Hannity presser. Hannity had to interrupt Trump babbling about tariffs to bring him back to Ukraine. Eventually (about four minutes later), Trump returned to the question of whether he could craft a deal to tell Hannity that he shouldn’t have done the interview.
Trump doesn’t want to talk about what demands Putin made of him.
He does want to cling to the lies that he can only sustain if Russia is willing.
And because of that, Trump allowed Putin to look like he owned the joint.
Which maybe he does.
WEAK
If MAGA owns the libs then Putin owns trump. The body language visuals speak louder than words..Putin springing “next time in Moscow” without prior clearance sounded like an order and was the height of political temerity. trump should have been steaming about that all the way back in AF1.
trump subjected himself to global humiliation for a brief respite from L’Affaire Epstein, that’s the price he was willing to pay.
Maybe trump will react with sanctions, secondary tariffs & mil equipment for Ukraine to pay back Putin.trump keeps getting more unstable & vindictive with his perceived unlimited power. Or maybe he’ll just take it out on Iran with another obliteration or have ICE throw down & hog tie Gavin Newsome.
Witkoff is going under da bus.
I wonder how much Zelenskyy can prove about Russian interference in 2016? Or any NATO nation for that matter?
Monday’s meeting in the Oval, for which Zelenskyy will be much better prepared, should be most interesting.
ps at some point these juggled distractions all fall at once
While that’s an intriguing idea, why would Zelensky tick off the one man who can halt the flow of American arms to Ukraine? And if he did would the right wing media accept any such proof?
Four years ago he should have released the full transcript of his “perfect” phone call. This would violate diplomatic etiquette, but as a memo on its contents have been released by the misadministration, this shouldn’t have caused too much of a fuss.
He also should have announced an investigation into Manafort and his cabal for bribery, espionage and subversion. “Just announce the investigation and we’ll take it from there.” This would highlight Manafort’s slimy relations with Russian intelligence and his money laundering trail. If Manafort was in an Ukrainian court room, he might have snitched on the Tangerine Terror.
These efforts might have helped keep a mad man out of the White House. Of course that was our job and not his.
Why would Zelenskyy tick off Trump?
He would do so if pushed into a corner and Putin is driving Trump to do so.
Multiple players in the game (I suspect) have the means to drive Trump one way or another.
For all the braggadocio, Trump is just a guy, a thug, but still just a guy.
There are many GOP members waiting to stake their claim.
The situation is very, very fluid now.
Trump is ‘just a guy’ which can be rephrased as ‘just a Man Baby.’
And I agree, there have to be a solid handful wanting their chance to take this power for themselves from Trump. This with his daddy Putin and with his handling of ‘the Epstein files’ plus whatever he did with/for Epstein, someone/s out there should be able to exploit.
“ps at some point these juggled distractions all fall at once.”
Like the Wonderful One Hoss Shay.
My prediction was no progress emerging from the meeting. I don’t know how anyone paying any attention could come to a different conclusion. The only accomplishment was burning a lot of fuel and money to move all those politicians and pundits to the middle of nowhere, and adding a crapload of CO2 to our biosphere. Thanks for nothing.
NB- It is not often one will find an image of Donald Trump next to that of Simone de Beauvoir. I find the accidental antithesis rather allegorical, and a tad unsettling, not unlike the mystery casserole our neighbor makes with what she finds in the back of her fridge.
According to what Gillian Tett said on Stephanie Ruhle (Aug 9) Putin has had his puppets on Russian TV talk for months about Russia having the right to own Alaska. Now Trump is talking about “returning to the United States” from Alaska. Maybe that isn’t his dementia showing but his acquiescing again to Putin.
Could I get a reference to where trump said that he was “returning to the United States” ?
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If you could do a short internet search, you’d find it. Per one article, he said it at least three times.
Republicans Against Trumpism
@rpsagainsttrump.bsky.social
· 3h
“Trump before his meeting with Putin: We’ll see what happens. If it’s bad, if it’s something I don’t see a future in, I’m gone, I’ll leave… I’ll go back to the United States.
“Newsflash: Alaska is part of the United States” https://bsky.app/profile/rpsagainsttrump.bsky.social
If trump returns Alaska to Russia he won’t have to change the 50 star flag when he adds Canada.
Trump shorthands a lot of stuff when he speaks, and the repetition comes because he’s not sure he’s quite got it or made himself clear. Best guess? He meant to say he was returning to “the lower 48.”
Should we spend our time trying to figure out what Trump MEANT to say? How about Trump simply speak in more precise terms?
That may well be what was in his mind but it does not say much for the interior of the mind of a man with a nuclear football at his beck.
Seems highly probable that Putin has something on him.
My best guess: felonious business dealings with Putin cronies. Most likely example: Trump’s European golf courses — including two that in 2021 narrowly escaped investigation by the Scottish Parliament — have always laundered Russian money and are still at it.
Also: wouldn’t be surprised if he knows more about Trump/Epstein than DOJ will ever disclose. But maybe he doesn’t.
I’ve speculated here before that Putin *must* have the Epstein goods on Trump–and not the redacted version that Bondi had all those FBI agents produce, scrubbing for Trump’s name last spring, but a much fuller array that may include the financial details (SARs involving Epstein and his backers/blackmailees) that American investigations seem not to have pursued in detail.
But EW is also right: Putin’s grasp on Trump’s short and curlies is built fundamentally, for reasons having to do with Trump’s fragile ego, on 2016–on Trump’s *need* to see Russia’s intervention as a “HOAX” perpetrated by Hillary to make him look small, weak, and unable to win on his own. Crucially, Putin knows the truth: that Russia did indeed intervene on Trump’s behalf, against Hillary, and ten years of screaming about “HOAX” can be blown away by a Putin disclosure that will make Trump look even weaker and closer to death than he does selling his country out to a KGB agent in the foreign land of Alaska.
Trump has several Lady Macbeth-like hang-ups: “Out, Out damn Russia Hoax”, “Out, Out Damn 2020 Election”, “Out, Out Damn Epstein”. He is a broken record, unable to move on. His inability to move on indicates his consciousness of guilt. I suspect Putin has whatever Kompromat there is to have. To continue with Shakespeare(at least in operatic terms) Putin is Iago to Trump’s Othello – endlessly picking at Othello’s wound – jealousy. Trump must be exhausted by his meeting with Putin.
WRT the KGB reference, Lavrov showed up to the dog and puny show wearing a CCCP sweatshirt. IOW, It really isn’t hyperbole of any sort for you to make that statement.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/4-43zgXz9jY
How many people under 60 will “get ” that shirt?
It was an in-your-face message to those who weren’t under 60, that the Putin regime met with Trump in overt bad faith on American soil.
There was the massive Russian Solar Winds hack of a large number of US government agencies and corporations near the end of the first Trump administration.
The Treasury Dept hack may have uncovered some of the Epstein, and maybe Trump financial details of crimes.
I’m with you: Trump is a fiddle easily played as long as the player helps him appear “powerful” in that superficial way he projects.
I certainly wouldn’t be surprised if there are truly compromising secrets that can be used as leverage over Trump, but he seems to hand himself over to Putin for any opportunity to get any level of performative legitimacy from Putin.
Regarding Putin having something on Trump: an image of the two of them after this meet brought to mind a similar image from his first admin and a meeting with Putin. The two, in both images, have Putin looking upright and energized and Trump appearing down-beaten and dejected and, in the recent image, old.
All hail President Putin with Vice President Trump. I wonder what noise these two ancient dinosaurs made at each other. The summit was noise. That’s is the Ras-putin joke. Oh, Rasputin come back to life.
The screen shot from that FOX news segment in Marcy’s post is as telling as the FOX personalities in the clip exhibiting gobsmacking confusion: a slop-shouldered Trump looking like a kid who, on a bet, swallowed a spider: it should be shown in every Dem attack ad going forward, and otherwise meme’d the hell out of. “Putin’s little puppy” is my entry for the caption.
But the most telling detail in that pic — even more than Putin’s gleeful, maniacal cherubic mug — is Trump’s open right hand being squeezed in Putin’s death grip. The Handshake Champion of the World has relinquished his cherished title to a surgically enhanced Chucky doll!
Pure performative dominance. If you look at the screenshots of the Helsinki meeting, Trump had an identical look about him: A transparently broken man, distressed beyond any concern for just how much he is projecting his distress, a man who doubtlessly practices his mug shots in the mirror.
Come to think of it, what would cause Trump that amount of psychic injury? He talks non-stop about how Russia didn’t help him win the White House. What if it isn’t something tawdry like a pee tape, could Putin be threatening to go public with just how much of an assist he gave him? “I got you elected, Comrade.”
OTOH, maybe a crushed hand is just a crushed hand?
I think it highly likely that the KGB closely covered the Epstein goings-on for a long time. What a juicy target…a group of pedophile-adjacent billionaires! I doubt that Trump was even very high on their target list, but it is very easy to imagine that he knows Putin has enough kompromat to destroy him in short order.
Based on that, my hypothesis is that Alaska was payback for the Russian signals they will hold back what they know…at least for now.
My vague understanding is that Epstein was running a global blackmail operation and may have even targeted certain individuals, based on instructions from his superiors. No doubt that if this is the case that Russian intelligence services would at least be cognizant, if not the aforementioned superiors.
Here’s an unavoidable, question:
Given the facts uncovered by Marcy’s and others’ diligence, why hasn’t Hillary sued Bondi and Patel and those other malign actors for defamation for these knowing fabrications, and to tune of, say, $10 billion each? Certainly. over and above the patently false claims against her character, malice can easily be demonstrated.
Like the CA redistricting plan, it’s time to fight fire with fire, no?
Hilary Clinton is virtually a textbook case of a public figure. Wouldn’t it be very hard to prove actual malice for any of those comments? Especially since the comments relate to her performance as a public servant.
Sure, if she can’t prove that the utter bullshit they’re making up isn’t just a pile of knowing lies that are clumsily crafted and personal-vengeance-prompted. But she *can* prove that if she follows the physical evidence they’ve given her, of obviously concocted provenance and even more obvious malignity. Have you listened to Trump’s mind- and language-scrambling diatribes about this? Just because he has immunity doesn’t mean his henchpersons do, and his clear lies and the RU spycraft that they’ve shuffled and stitched together out of sheer, projected desperation would collapse like the house of cards it is, in a courtroom.
Actually, with his personal immunity (thanks, JR) and the power of the pardon, his henchmen pretty much have immunity as well.
There was much discussion here and elsewhere after the SC immunity ruling that it did not apply beyond the office of POTUS. Any suggestion it does is in the service of the further desecration of democracy that Trump embodies. If you commit a crime at the behest of a covered superior, your responsibility for it does not evaporate.
As to pardons, this discussion is about civil actions, not criminal.
Hillary’s cross to bear is Bill, who was just as wrapped up with Epstein as Trump.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/painting-of-clinton-in-blue-dress-hung-in-jeffrey-epsteins-home/
Rumor has it that B. Netanyahu hinted at blackmailing Bill over the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
The pee-tapes were never disproven. All we have to the contrary is the ipse dixit of a man who never tells the truth, even in the face of documentary or photographic proof. And the old Chekist has so much more up his sleeve. Sorry, Ukraine.
Not how it works. Proponents have to establish the pee-tapes exist, not the other way round. “All we have” is the absence of proof they do exist.
I’m not talking about the rules of evidence, Your Lordship. I am talking about blackmail. If it happened, Putin has it on video and Trump knows it. Trump wouldn’t dare risk their disclosure. That’s “how it works”.
Pee tapes??
https://youtu.be/8cs4tKdiiI4
Well, I have no inside knowledge of this but have a firm belief that there is some kompromat involved.
That said it is possible that ‘pee’ is actually ‘P’ as in the first letter of the former KGB podpolkovnik last name. The P-tapes could just as easily be the ‘Putin-tapes’ and contain compromising details of money laundering for example.
Who knows? But the scenario just described reminds me of the old Jack Paar joke that was censored from the Tonight Show in 1960:
https://witwisdom.wordpress.com/2011/02/10/jack-paars-water-closet-joke/
tRump went to Moscow in 2007 to promote his vodka brand and he went in 2014 to the Miss Universe pageant that he and CBS sold the rights to the Russians to host. Since it was well known that tRump had a proclivity for sex with underage women I am fairly certain that during one of these visits tRump could not resist the temptation, the “Pee Tape” is really a video of tRump having sex with a minor. Having that over his head as well as the fact that he owes his first presidency to Putins Russia he has no choice but to be subservient to Putins demands. That is why he carries himself like a beat down dog after the meetings with Putin, He is being told in no uncertain terms what the deal is, what’s at stake and that he must obey Putins orders.
When you think about it, everything he does makes sense if you understand he works for Russia. Virtually all of his foreign policy decisions have been to the benefit of Russia.
The thing to repeat is that Putin has proof on Trump/Epstein, unless Trump can prove otherwise (Yes, I am aware of the logical fallacy but the Media seem not to be).
But the only way the summit’s course and outcome make sense to me is if SVR and Putin have proof that’s damning but not air-tight. Putin rubs his face in it and Trump’s fragile ego and monumental insecurities mean that Trump just denies rather than find a way around things.
What I do NOT understand is that a halfway competent spy chief (so, not the US) could manufacture something that would last long enough to placate Trump and get him to destroy Putin. It doesn’t have to last forever, just long enough to get Trump to slam Modi and Xi for buying Russian oil and support Ukrainian strikes on Russian soil. Heck, use the weak job reports to invoke WPA and step up HIMARS and Patriot workforces (even if that’s not immediately possible, this is messaging).
NPR has an article about Trump’s OpSec in Anchorage. Seems someone on team Trump used an Anchorage hotel’s office machines to print or duplicate part of the Putin-Trump meeting agenda. They also left eight pages of it on one of the machines. Pete Hegseth’s standard for OpSec seems to be metastasizing.
With an entire air base and the elaborate facilities of AF1 at their disposal, a Trump staffer used office machines at a downtown hotel – and left behind a few pages?. They dealt with who would attend, and with lunch – boring, except for the adventurous “creme brule [sic] with ice cream” – but still, a few heads should roll. They won’t.
https://www.npr.org/2025/08/16/nx-s1-5504196/trump-putin-summit-documents-left-behind
I understand the lunch didn’t even happen.
“…“creme brule [sic] with ice cream…”
How gauche.
That’s up there with Trump’s ostentatious gold accent decor of the Oval Office and planned ballroom.
Didn’t actually say that.
https://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1468139/story_image/npr.brightspotcdn.png?1755358171
(left side).
I never click on DailyKos anymore. You might check to see if you need to delete everything from the question mark on back. Looks like tracking info.
If you’re referring to the lunch menu, p. 7 lists the dessert as “creme brule with ice cream.” P. 8 gives a more elaborate presentation of the same menu, in which ice cream is deleted and creme brulee is spelled correctly.
That adds to my derision. Whomever added the ice cream, probably for Trump’s benefit, had the correct spelling at hand and didn’t get it right. Staff for a country’s chief of protocol have difficult things to do, but should get such simple things right. Correct protocol is…their job.
More importantly, their process should be to avoid using insecure public machines for anything. They have plenty of secure govt machines available.
Yes, it did. All eight pages can be viewed via a link NPR provides in its article’s second paragraph.
Btw, dkos’s use of extensive tracking info is one reason I refuse to read it.
It’s a link to an image. I pull the tracking, not wanting that stuff either. (Not all their links have tracking.)
@earlofhuntingdon utm trackers only say where/how an article was found so they can determine the most efficient ways to publish – it’s anonymous, though it makes for uselessly long urls. I second your motion to delete everything from the question mark forward, or use ‘copy clean link’ of your browser supports it.
I once gave kos money, and my inbox has paid a very heavy price for that mistake.
“…only the best people…”
Unbelievable! Such incompetence.
This seems to show a steady stream of rookie errors from the White House staff. There are support issues you have to establish, even in a short-notice trip. There are lots of support resources available at Elmendorf-Richardson, often under the care of people who can work fast and keep their mouths shut.
Jeez…Just in the travel I used to do around the U.S. we always established local support capabilities, and sometimes made our hotel choices based on how close they were to lodging and meeting sites. In the U.K. I would work with a local POC and at our first meeting, give them a run-down of what we knew we needed at every stage of the project, including potential outlier events.
Only the best people.
I can’t say if true, but apparently hotels refused to host “the staff” who had to stay in Univ. dorm rooms. So I guess there were no copy machines available. It’s odd that MSM has not picked this up if true.
This is not the time of year to “drop in” to Anchorage. It’s the height of the tourism season. Another rookie error when it came to location and scheduling decisions. This is where having good contacts with the locals really pays off.
True that. Anchorage is in the top three in daily sales, if not number one on most days for the company that I work for. This is out of 634 locations in the U.S. Anchorage was our tenth location back in the day.
*daily summer sales
Numerous remarks out there among the commtariat along the lines of Trump knows nothing but how to be an impresario.
Trump’s success as a tv personality was due entirely to the efforts of Mark Burnett and company. They resurrected a boorish business failure and set him up as a caricature of a deal maker & keen judge of character. He was neither. And as is his wont, he clearly paid no attention to the work going on around then; and just as clearly has no idea how to structure a functional tv event now. This “show” co-starring Putin was a dog, from cheesy red carpet to canned outtakes.
Some impresario.
That’s a great angle to view it from.
Slightly OT, but fun for a laugh at Mark Halperin’s expense: apparently he actually thought (& was foolish enough to say on camera) that Trump tricked Putin into meeting him in Alaska so he could *have him arrested*. It boggles the mind that anyone could think that a) Trump wants Putin taken down, or b) that he has the smarts to trick him…
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-putin-2673888855/
Or that Putin could be arrested in the US, which is not a signatory to the ICC conventions.
R. O. T. Russia Owns Trump. What did Putin say to Trump in the belly of the Beast? I’m done waiting, Donald. Throw Ukraine under the bus now or I’ll release the Epstein files. Putin’s had them all along, which is why Trump spent his first term kissing Putin’s ass and why he refuses to use vast U.S. leverage (much harsher sanctions, much more military help and weapons to Ukraine) to force Putin to make peace. It’s not because Putin might “reveal” Russia helped him win in 2016 or that Trump’s afraid of some nebulous pee tape. Trump’s base would likely shrug that off and maybe even admire him for being “smart” enough to team with Russia to defeat the satanic libs. But they wouldn’t shrug off proof their hero raped children. I’d bet that’s why Trump was all smiles on the red carpet yesterday, but after his little ride with Vlad looked like he’d been kicked in the balls.
Here’s shot to add to the one in Marcy’s post above, definitely a painful-groin look on his face.
https://www.npr.org/2025/08/16/nx-s1-5504196/trump-putin-summit-documents-left-behind
That’s the story of the meeting documents that were left in the public printer at the hotel business room. We’re doomed if these jackasses have an precipitous national emergency, which they haven’t concocted themselves, to deal with.
That photo in the link above, btw, looks like it’s taken at the moment Putin has taken the podium for the outro portion of the meeting, supplanting Trump who as the principal host should have been the first to speak in that setting. FOX’s Heinrich made a big deal of it although she was perplexed, not willing to understand that Trump was obviously being purposefully humiliated. I guess she’s waiting for Trump to disabuse her of the obvious.
The Trump-Putin relationship is intriguing. I’d love to hear the dialogue that goes on between them. Wonder if it’s anything like the Godfather films. Maybe someday someone will make the movie.
I really can’t get my head around this. Yes, Epstein had some Russian contacts, but for the Russian FSB or SVR or whoever to collect “Epstein files” type material they would have had to have been enormously prescient in the late 80s early 90s, they must have had the means to collect the information (agents or friends) and a concept of what to do with it once collected – a concept that could, in effect, see a quarter century into the future.
Alternatively, they might have decided to start collecting from court documents, etc., starting with Epstein’s first trial, but why would they? Again, it seems to require knowingly collecting information on a large scale that would only become useful decades into the future.
I could be wrong (I often am, the world being so corkscrew like in its construction), but it seems to me unlikely they have much on the Trump/Epstein nexus, and if they do, it was probably only recently acquired.
Have you been to the moneyed parts of South Florida? Trump made a mint selling overpriced condos to Russians and Russian expats. It’s a melting pot and alleged hotbed for money laundering and organized crime. Has been for decades. It would be a veritable training and recruiting ground for intelligence and influence peddlers, several of which, like Russia, have a global reach.
They probably have an interest in South Florida going back to the 60s and the Cubans emigres
EoH @5:40 Don’t forget the Russian anchor babies in the luxury maternity suites in south Florida.
The Russian anchor babies, whose mum is living in a rented or purchased condos from Donald Trump in South Florida? Those anchor babies?
Fun fact: Robert Maxwell, Ghislaine’s father, was rumored to have a relationship with both the GRU (Russian intelligence) and the Mossad (Israeli intelligence). Before he assumed power, Putin was a KGB operative. There have been rumors lately that Jeffrey Epstein was just the front man for the trafficking operation Ghislaine ran. Wouldn’t it be interesting if that was actually a decades-long Russian “honeypot,” set up to sexually compromise prominent Western individuals with underage girls and blackmail them, either for money or into working for Russian intelligence. Or, in the case of a certain sociopathic reality TV star, to ultimately own a president of the United States and destroy the country from the inside, a triumph for Putin and Russia long after the Cold War’s assumed end. I know, it sounds like a bad spy novel, but the KGB was well-known to play the very long game. Sure, the bet on Trump might not have paid off — he might have lost the first election or the second or dropped dead — but judging from Anchorage yesterday, it sure looks like it did.
I suspect your naivete. Russian intelligence is world class and their ability to forge long range plans is known. One likelihood is that Epstein was an agent of theirs, knowingly or not, who was engaged in collecting compromising info on all sorts of persons of power (mostly men), and not just Americans.
JPJ @ 5:04 The FSB or whoever knew enough to cultivate Trump in the 1980’s.
“But they wouldn’t shrug off proof their hero raped children.”
I’d like to think so or hope so too. But I don’t. Because unless the “children” their hero raped were clearly prepubescent if not in diapers, then Trump’s defenders will see it as just more of the billionaire life style they envy and vicariously live through their hero. They will DARVO them simply for being in Trump and Epstein’s orbit.
The question is, when will the Project 25ers and religious fanatics who over the last 4 years harnessed Trump to their purposes decide to put him to pasture. They can do it any time.
They’ve been able to shrug off stuff like that from other of their political and religious “leaders”, while screaming when it’s a Dem who deviates from the straight and narrow by as much as a millimeter.
Ness @ 8:00 pm I too wonder what P25’s succession plan is.
I disagree that Trump knows he’s lying about the Russia Hoax. Trump never understood the difference between business and politics, so working with Russia to do a business deal is no different than working with Russia to win an election. That’s why we see him doing deals with businesses so America gets a cut of AI chips exported to China because he doesn’t see Xi as an enemy, but just another businessman like himself who happens to run a country. Same as Putin. And he assumes every other president was just getting their cut under the table and is upset he isn’t getting his cut.
His denial isn’t that he didn’t work with Russia in 2016. His denial is that it was wrong to work with Russia since laws are for suckers and everyone cheats. And he thinks Hillary poisoned the well by making it appear as if working with Russia as a politician is wrong; unaware that it’s the other way around and working with Russia as a politician was the problem. In the quotes above what he’s really saying is that he would have worked closely with Putin going back to 2017, except the Russia Hoax invented by Hillary tainted the relationship to make it look bad and that’s the only reason they aren’t buddies.
Even now he still thinks he can do business with Putin and is confused why Putin isn’t reciprocating because he sees it as another business deal; not international relations with our biggest enemy. And he’s probably still hoping for that sweet Trump Tower Moscow deal they were dangling in front of him. He’s a child who gladly takes candy from strangers and is upset that his parents won’t let him get more.
I tend to agree, actually. It’s pathetic but then Trump is pathetic. Needy and weak.
This dog-and-pony show in Alaska is cringingly lame from beginning to end. While Putin once again gets to strut the international stage and play master to puppet Trump, it’s become such an embarrassing spectacle that I’m beginning to think that even he must be beginning to rate this as a reputational loss.
This is “Reagan and Gorbachev” replayed as farce. On both sides.
No, it’s all part of vranyo grooming:
“You know I’m lying, and I know that you know, and you know that I know that you know, but I go ahead with a straight face, and you nod seriously and take notes.”
…
“But when a government does vranyo, the nature of the fabrication can change. We may well be talking about “the big lie”, and the reason for vranyo might not be evasiveness, but contempt.”
https://theconversation.com/ukraine-war-vranyo-russian-for-when-you-lie-and-everyone-knows-it-but-you-dont-care-181100
Exactly this – 100%.
I lean toward Biobrain that part of the ‘hoax’ is that what Russia did for Trump was bad. And that girl Hilary eff everything up for all the men who have gotten their secret help from Russia without anyone making a big fuss about it.
Why the America should be run like a business by a businessman is stupid.
Something else is stupid too, Joe.
Rolled
Coup goon
You saw me without backbone
With every scheme in my heart
A lout with a govt of my own
Coup goon
You knew just what I was there for
You lured me to be slayer for
Someone I’d overbear for
And then there suddenly
appeared before me
The only one alarms foretold
I heard somebody whisper
“Don’t ignore me,”
And when I looked,
the goon had taken hold
Coup goon
My conscience is still ingrown
And with the schemes in my heart
I’m still without my backbone
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmIwamZzkOs
“Four Seasons – Blue Moon”
8/31/23, rev. 8/16/25
“Do you think Putin will be going to The Miss Universe Pageant in November in Moscow — if so, will he become my new best friend?” – donald trump in 2013 (currently convicted felon & elected president who Choked in Anchorage)
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In spite of Karoline down playing expectations of the summit as the week went along, I believe Trump really did go into the summit with expectations of making a deal with the fantasy of a Nobel Peace prize dancing in his head.
Trump’s conceit, cockiness, and arrogance received a reality check.
To my eyes, the worst, the nadir of the entire fiasco was in Trump’s interview with Hannity, when Trump gushed that Putin agreed he was cheated in the “rigged” 2020 election. And Trump offering Putin as an authority on honest elections and mail-in voting.
Sorta begs the question of how Putin knows so much about US election details. (Rupar has the clips on his bluesky.)
And Trump can take all his frustration out on Zelensky on Monday. That’ll help. You know, the guy who wouldn’t help Trump out in an election.
Someone thinks Zelenskyy should have to wear a suit for meetings at the WH. Apparently his army clothes aren’t respectful.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GygtYqxXcAA8DdL?format=jpg&name=900×900
Ah, kostyum again. I do believe Zelenskyy knew exactly how to turn a phrase. From a BBC atricle:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1d4r9yvqzpo
When the meeting was opened up to questions from reporters, one came from Brian Glenn, chief White House correspondent for conservative cable network Real America’s Voice.
“Why don’t you wear a suit?” Glenn asked. “You’re at the highest level in this country’s office, and you refuse to wear a suit.
“Do you own a suit?” he continued. “A lot of Americans have problems with you not respecting the dignity of this office.”
The aggressive questioning marked the moment when the Ukrainian president – who until then seemed to be having a diplomatic, even friendly, conversation with Trump – first appeared tired and irritated.
“I will wear costume after this war will finish,” Zelensky replied. (The word “suit” can be translated into Ukrainian as “kostyum”.)
The Ukrainian president then made a verbal jab at the reporter.
“Maybe something like yours, yes. Maybe something better, I don’t know,” he said, to laughter in the room. “Maybe something cheaper.”
The meeting with Zelensky on Monday evening will be grotesque.
Z is taking an EU posse with him. Mr. Smokey Eyes better keep his big mouth shut this time.
“I can see Trump’s head from here.”
–Putin looking down at his lap in Alaska
“Everybody is saying Trump’s turds smell like shit but let me tell you why they actually smell like roses and lavender.”
–Former NSC Chief of Staff Fred Fleitz doing damage control on Fox
(For those who don’t get sarcasm, I’m paraphrasing.)
It’s all so depressing. Does anyone see any possible end in sight for the war in Ukraine? Trump certainly isn’t helping. I don’t see an end and expect the horrible war to slog on indefinitely with the EU and the US continuing to spend billions on weapons to the AFU, and many more casualties suffered by both countries.
It’s possible for the world to have no idea what’s truly going on in Russia and the Russian govt. The end of the Cold War for example. And with Trump’s fealty to Putin it’s possible the Trump govt does know but won’t tell or use the info to benefit Ukraine (or America).
The Felon Guy only knows what he imagines he knows. The people he appointed to know this stuff are either incompetent (Kegseth) or useful idjits (Gabbard).
Fortunately none of those people are attending the meeting tomorrow, at least from what I’ve read. I would guess Vance and Rubio will be there.
I’m pleased a group of European leaders will be joining the meeting tomorrow in the Oval Office with with Trump and Zelensky. If Russia has internal weakness that can be leveraged to help end the war, the EU intelligence agencies likely possess some of that intelligence.
The greatest benefit to the rest of the planet is ending the war, and a security agreement that prevents future attempts by Russia to occupy and possess territory. Continued war is destabilizing, especially with Russia having such a vast arsenal of nukes. Their saber rattling is just that ( we all hope), but it does the global economic markets no favors.
The Song of the Two Thrones (From Chat GPT)
[Moderator’s note: Do not post AI-generated content here. /~Rayne]
Apparently Melania wrote Vlad a personal note that was hand-delivered by Trump before the summit began
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/first-lady-melania-trumps-peace-letter-putin-it-time
====
Melania has the very same signature at Donald? I say auto pen. I suppose the warm sweet letter was to have the same effect on Putin as playing a violin has on King Kong.
Her letter is code for, “Get me the hell out of here! Now!!”
Due to cynicism, I suspect the Melania missive to have been crafted to reveal the warm, soft heart of the Trump regime. I hope she was told it was being done.
It’s not the first time she’s been rolled out as the “soft heart”. The did it in the previous go-round, and it didn’t go over well then, either.
LOL. Neither Melania nor Trump have a heart softer than granite.
@eoh
Could be worse – they could have hearts like hull plates drifting in deep space.
The “soft heart” wearing the “I really don’t care” jacket. Yeah.
Too good to miss – Mr. Stanfill over at Raging Pencils nails the tone of that “summit”:
https://www.ragingpencils.com/2025/8-15-25-putin-peace-talk.jpg
Heigh-Ho…
Ranting, Ventilating, and Idle Speculating:
The readers of tea leaves are beside themselves trying to decode why lying perv Trump bends over for Putin. What is the nature of Putin’s hold over lying perv Trump?
A la Mephistopheles, is Putin playing on lying perv Trump’s vanity or his twisted psyche? Or is it kompromat more egregious than pee tapes?
The only thing that is clear, IMO, is that lying perv Trump is willing to sell out our country, Ukraine, Palestine, whatever – to bow to his owner. He really is Putin’ s bitch, in addition to being a lying perv.
There seems to be a disconnect between the rabid rightwing’s venerating of lying perv Trump and the typically “America First,” red, white, & blue mentality that also belongs to rightwing circles.
Do Project 2025 authors realize they have signed on for a Russian takeover of the U.S?
(Perhaps it doesn’t matter because they think they’ll be rich?)
It cannot be anything based on values or integrity, because lying perv Trump does not possess any.
(IMO, it is no surprise Ivana had to die. She was probably the sole figure that could spill the beans and rat him out.)
Lack of facts there. And ignores The Felon Guy’s beliefs that he’s a great businessman and a great negotiator, and will get his Moscow Tower.
Does anyone seriously believe Trump is bending over for Putin because he wants a Trump Tower in Moscow? Because he’d make so much money from a hotel in an impoverished pariah state? Because he can’t get enough cash from his far richer, more amenable Gulf state buddies and his incredibly lucrative crypto grift? Because he itches to have his name in gold next door to the Kremlin? Trump Tower Moscow is a cover story intended to hide Putin’s iron grip on Trump’s genitals and will never, ever be built.
Like Marcy recommends, the Dutch should release the SVR intelligence they obtained in 2016. As she says “that would go a long way to undercutting Putin’s stranglehold on Trump.”
Remember, he’s not smart. He associates with rich people, therefore everything in Russia and the US must be fine, or they wouldn’t be rich.