It’s late coming, but ‘Daily Blast’ podcast host Greg Sargent says it may finally be dawning on President Donald Trump that Putin does not exist to inflate President Donald Trump’s ego.
“Trump’s frustration at Vladimir Putin is rising,” said Sargent. “This week he accused Putin of hitting him with ‘bull----,’ and even admitted Putin’s word to him is ‘meaningless.’ This comes as it’s now being reported that Putin is escalating the war against Ukraine, and that he’s brushing aside Trump’s anger about it. Add it all up and Trump is plainly humiliated, realizing that Putin is laughing off his demand for ‘peace.’”
Sargent began by asking Bulwark policy Editor Mona Charen how a decision to withhold pivotal arms shipments to Ukraine gets paused under Trump’s watch apparently without Trump’s knowledge. When asked by reporters who had made the decision to pause shipments, Trump confessed ignorance, saying he didn’t know, while simultaneously insisting that no big decisions happen inside his administration without his knowledge.
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“I would know. If a decision was made, I will know,” Trump said.
“Mona, how is it conceivable that Trump doesn’t know who made this decision and how it was made given how enormously consequential it could have been?” Sargent asked.
“You’re not serious, right?” Charen demanded with a long laugh. “We live in 2025 America and anything that ordinarily would be considered so outlandish as to be impossible is perfectly possible. Trump apparently does not know what goes on in his own administration. This is not shocking.”
Sargent said Trump appears surprised to finally learn the height of Putin’s villainy, that he is serious about “eradicating Ukraine as a country” and the threat he poses to the lives of Ukrainian people.
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“You’re giving Trump too much credit,” argued Charen, explaining that Trump has likely always known Putin’s true vicious intent with Ukraine. “…Trump has [merely] discovered that Putin is unwilling to give Trump a fig leaf, a pretend ceasefire that Trump can wave around at the Oslo committee that hands out Nobel Peace Prizes. That’s his frustration. And so, now he’s angry. As far as the suffering of the Ukrainian people, Trump is utterly indifferent.”
Charen reminded Sargent of Trump’s dismissal of photos Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky showed Trump and Vance the day they “ganged up on Zelenski.”
“When Zelenski showed them images of emaciated prisoners of war, Trump’s attitude and his body language was like ‘Tough. Too bad,’ said Charon. “This is about his own personal desire for a Peace Prize. He’s resentful that Obama got one and he has not.”
Charon said Trump could easily be back in Putin’s arms, depending on Putin.
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“His main goal is personal and ego gratifications, so he could go back for more with Putin. And if Putin wises up and gives Trump his fig leaf, we know where that will go. Trump will rush for it. He’ll swallow it whole,” Charon said.
She added, however, that most Republicans are not “with the Putin-loving minority on the far right. … and there is a certain segment of voters who chose Trump in 2024 even though they don’t like Trump and they don’t like MAGA. They’re not MAGA.”
“There’s new research coming out from the organization More in Comon (of which Charen is a board member) … which shows 20 percent of voters who voted for Trump in 2024 do not consider themselves MAGA and are open to other appeals. … But it’s a long way to 2026, which could weaken the MAGA movement if it suffers from rebukes.”
Hear the full ‘Daily Blast’ podcast at this link.