'Manipulate him': Russian state media brags that Putin can 'lead Trump by his nose'
Vladimir Putin might be President Donald Trump's favorite dictator, but according to a new piece from The i Paper, the Russian leader is "making a fool of Trump again," and this time, it is primed to help him and the GOP crumble in the midterms.
Longtime Washington, D.C., correspondent Simon Marks published a new analysis for the outlet on Sunday, detailing how overboard Trump's special diplomatic envoy Steve Witkoff went with his "gushing" praise of Putin during a recent visit.
"Thank you so much for having us," Witkoff said, placing a hand to his heart. "When we retire, we’ll have all these incredible stories and incredible memories, and yours will be right at the top of it all."
Later in the visit, Putin said that the "situation is difficult," which Marks said could have potentially referred to either his war with Ukraine, which Witkoff and Jared Kushner were ostensibly there to help negotiate an end to, or to the upcoming U.S. midterms, which are widely expected to go poorly for Trump and the GOP.
"Perhaps the Russian leader meant both, knowing that he and America’s voters are equally likely to give Trump short shrift in the days and weeks ahead," Marks wrote, later adding, "Nothing emerged publicly from Saturday’s meeting to suggest any kind of breakthrough, even though the White House described the talks with Putin as making 'substantive plans for next steps' that will only be revealed in 'coming weeks.' That suggests no effort by Putin to provide Trump with the immediate lifeboat he is seeking to end the Ukraine war in time for America’s midterms. With the US war on Iran also unresolved, Trump and his fellow Republicans remain set to traverse the election campaign without any significant achievements to trumpet regarding either conflict."
Putin, he explained further, has been playing Trump, Witkoff and Kushner "like a violin" throughout these negotiations, "raising hopes of some kind of possible breakthrough, and then gleefully dashing them sometimes hours later." Trump claimed on the 2024 campaign trail that, if reelected, he would be able to bring an end to the war in Ukraine within a matter of days, citing his good relationship with Putin, but the reality has been wildly different since then. The Russian leader has proven unwilling to give any edge to his enemies through diplomatic compromises, continuing to demand the surrender of Ukrainian territories to Russia in order to cease the conflict.
Between this quagmire and the one in Iran, Trump and the GOP have been left with little or nothing to tout to voters on his promise to end costly foreign wars.
"'Incredible stories and incredible memories' will indeed abound," Marks concluded. "But most of them may be told by the Russians, as they explain to their friends and loved ones how they toyed with Trump and his representatives like a cat with a mouse, and kept slaughtering Ukrainians with impunity."