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The Ukraine 'peace plan' clearly points to Trump family corruption

=I don’t know why this wasn’t above-the-fold news all across the country over the past few days as the details of the “peace plan” Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff took to Vladimir Putin this week came out.

Kushner, it appears, had added in a provision that would have forced both Ukraine and Russia to take actions that would specifically benefit Saudi Arabia, a country that is paying the presidential son-in-law at least $25 million a year.

Can you imagine what the response would have been if George Marshall, while negotiating the 1948 Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe after WWII, had been personally taking millions from, say, Saudi Arabia, and thus inserted a provision ensuring that country could permanently benefit from the peace plan?

Given that then-President Truman and Marshall were Democrats, it’s safe to predict that the GOP would have melted down, but so would have the press. After all, the early-1920s Teapot Dome scandal — then one of the most infamous in US presidential history — only involved an oil company bribing the then-Secretary of the Interior with around $300,000.

The brutal kingdom of Saudia Arabia owns agricultural land in many far-flung places, from alfalfa farms in Arizona to 400,000 acres in Western Ukraine devoted to growing grain for export. The only way to get that grain to the Black Sea where it can enter world markets is via barges down the Dnieper River, which cuts across Ukraine.

So, as Judd Legum points out over at Popular.Info:

“Point 23 of the peace plan that Kushner helped draft fulfills Saudi’s policy objective: ‘Russia will not prevent Ukraine from using the Dnieper River for commercial activities, and agreements will be reached on the free transport of grain across the Black Sea.’”

Which should have provoked a collective “What the hell?!??” across the planet and ring alarm bells in newsrooms from Tokyo to Topeka to Tallinn but has instead been largely met with a shrug.

“Of course,” politicians and the press seem to be saying, “it’s the Trump family. What did you expect?”

And, indeed, the corruption and self-dealing of the Trumps is breathtakingly world-class, run at a scale beyond anything ever seen in America.

  • Remember when Jimmy Carter almost lost his peanut farm, his only major asset, because he’d put it in a blind trust and the guy he’d entrusted to run it screwed operations up badly leaving the Carters a million dollars in debt?
  • Or when Saint Ronald Reagan put his small fortune — $700,000 ($2.7 million in today’s dollars) — in a blind trust and didn’t have a clue what was happening with it for the next eight years?
  • How about when the Bulgarian president gave President George W. Bush a puppy and the dog was sent to the National Archives before placement to ensure conformity with the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution?

Presidents not taking and keeping gifts or money from foreign governments, in compliance with that Clause and associated federal anti-bribery laws, has a history that dates back to Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln. But complying with any law has never been a strong suit for the Trump Crime Family.

Donald Trump tried to convince us in his first term that he was complying with the law by calling a press conference where we were treated to huge stacks of papers and manilla file folders supposedly representing his complex estate that he was handing off to his kids, but we soon learned it was entirely a scam: Trump was getting checks to sign every two weeks in the Oval Office, and all that paper and those folders were blank.

This second term he’s not even trying. He extracted millions of dollars from his suckers followers in exchange for his and his wife’s so-called digital coins (they’re just “collectible” digital images); the value of those “coins” has now fallen by 86 percent (Donald) and 99 percent (Melania) respectively. And don’t get me started on the so-called “Trump Phones” scam.

But those are chump change compared to the billions he’s accumulated in crypto, and the billions being thrown at Trump-branded/licensed properties being negotiated or built right now in over 20 countries including India, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman, Qatar, Vietnam, Serbia, Romania, Uruguay, and the Maldives.

Or the $400 million plane Qatar gave Trump, along with the billion-dollar Trump-branded resort they’re building for him, which were followed by the US giving that country — and only that country — an astonishing NATO-style security guarantee that our soldiers will shed their blood to defend that kingdom’s potentates.

So, it probably shouldn’t surprise us that Jared, after taking $2 billion from the Saudis along with his $25 million/year “fee,” would insert a paragraph into the Russia/Ukraine deal that would benefit the Saudi crown prince who’s been his top benefactor.

And, even more astonishing, that he is serving in this position without any legal authority in violation of federal law. As Legum explains, if he’s a private individual it’s a felony crime for him to negotiate with a foreign government, and if he’s acting on behalf of our government he’s a “special government employee” and therefore subject to the Emoluments Clause.

Either way, what he’s doing is deeply illegal. As well as apparently deeply corrupt.

But where’s the press on this? And when will Democrats begin an investigation into it?

Inquiring minds want to know…

'Deep betrayal': Experts rip Trump's plan to concede Ukrainian territory to Russia

President Donald Trump is under fire over a report that claims he is proposing that the U.S. recognize Russian control of parts of Ukraine, including Crimea, which Russia has unlawfully annexed, as a means to end the war.

“The Telegraph understands that Donald Trump has sent his peace envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner to make the direct offer to Vladimir Putin in Moscow,” the news outlet reported. “The plan to recognize territory, which breaks US diplomatic convention, is likely to go ahead despite concerns among Ukraine’s European allies.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin “on Thursday said Washington’s legal recognition of Crimea and the Donetsk and Luhansk regions as Russian territory would be one of the key issues in negotiations over the US president’s peace plan,” according to The Telegraph.

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Critics are blasting President Trump.

Shaun Pinner, a former British soldier who served as a contracted Marine fighting in Ukraine’s armed forces, responded to the report:

“I’ve lived through the cost of losing ground. I’ve seen the bodies, the destroyed homes, and I’ve been tortured by Russia like so many others. Land is never ‘just land.’ It’s people. Families. Lives shattered.”

“So yes, watching Trump casually bargain away territory that isn’t even his to give feels like a deep betrayal,” he added. “It’s a lesson I wish none of us had to learn the hard way, and one far too many are being forced to relive again because one of our so-called allies is now suggesting we reward genocide.”

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Michael McFaul, former U.S. Ambassador to Russia, remarked, “Trump would be rewarding imperial conquest, thereby encouraging other autocrats to do so, resulting in a very unstable world.”

Russian chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov, co-founder of the Renew Democracy Initiative, issued a warning:

“If the US recognizes territory taken by force, just replace ‘leader of the free world’ with ‘for sale’. Xi can come up with more cash than Putin for Trump and his pals to do the same for Taiwan.”

Marko Mihkelson, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Estonian Parliament, remarked, “If this is true, then we have a major problem, Houston.”

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Trump's 'insatiable thirst for shiny awards' may be what saves key US ally: analysis

Washington Monthly editor Bill Scher said President Donald Trump is still futilely chasing a Nobel Peace Prize, and this may be the only thing keeping Ukraine alive.

“Fundamentally, the three leaders [of Russia, Ukraine and the U.S.] want different things,” said Scher. “[Russian leader Vladimir] Putin wants an exclusive sphere of influence beyond Russia’s borders. [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky wants no Russian influence within Ukraine’s borders. Trump wants a medal and a better lead on his obituary than ‘first president to be convicted of fraud and impeached twice.’ These interests do not align.”

Scher pointed out that Trump is still the president who has downplayed the deaths of countless Ukrainians fighting off Russian invaders. And he’s still the president who just recently threatened to yank U.S. support, giving Zelensky a Thanksgiving deadline to accept a 28-point “peace” plan heavily favoring Russian interests.

“Then, things got weird,” said Scher, explaining that Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Marco Rubio suddenly appeared to have “excised” parts of the peace plan that forever barred Ukraine from joining NATO and banned NATO member states from forming a security force inside Ukraine to expel a new Russian invasion. These changes went against the preferences of other anti-Ukraine elements filling the Trump administration, including Vice President JD Vance.

“Rubio wouldn’t have the leeway to conduct negotiations with Ukraine without Trump’s permission,” said Scher. “Other Trump officials have been sent packing for less subordinate behavior. Why is Rubio still around?”

“Trump must know he would never win a Nobel for washing his hands of Ukraine, ending military support, and letting Moscow steamroll Kyiv. Any fantasies of a medal ceremony in Oslo hinge on an actual peace agreement,” Scher continued. “The president’s insatiable thirst for shiny awards and recognition from elites he otherwise disdains gives him reason to grant Rubio latitude to negotiate. Most crucially, it offers Ukraine leverage to resist a bad deal. But it gives Putin nothing.”

If a deal just came down to drawing new borders, Scher said a painful but acceptable middle ground could likely be found. But Zelensky wants security guarantees backed up by NATO, and Putin wants NATO out of his backyard, so there’s no middle ground.

In this kind of intense push-and-pull, Scher said it may be Trump’s base desire for recognition and accolades that shape the outcome.

“In other words, Trump’s narcissistic and futile compulsion for a Nobel Peace Prize may be what allows Ukraine to fight on.”

Read Scher's Washington Monthly column at this link.

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'Not an accident': Trump kept his own CIA director 'out of the loop' on Russian peace deal

President Donald Trump's administration appears to have excluded top intelligence officials from sensitive negotiations with a major adversary — even CIA Director John Ratcliffe.

That's according to journalist Michael Weiss, who reported Monday that Ratcliffe was "not privy" to the Russian peace deal that Trump administration special envoy Steve Witkoff has been negotiating with Vladimir Putin's government. Weiss cited an unnamed "U.S. intelligence source" who confided: "It was not an accident CIA was kept out of the loop on an American deal with a Russian operative."

Ratcliffe wasn't the only top American official kept in the dark about the deal. Foreign policy analyst Jimmy Rushton — who is based in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv — pointed to a recent Washington Post report while observing: "The State Department didn't know about Witkoff's 'peace plan,' congressional GOP didn't know, the US IC didn't know, and apparently even Trump didn't know the detail.

The peace plan between Russia and Ukraine was reportedly assembled without any input from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The Post reported that U.S. lawmakers from both parties were concerned that the plan could be interpreted as "rewarding" Putin for his 2022 invasion of Ukraine's Donbass region.

"Some people better get fired on Monday for the gross buffoonery we just witnessed over the last four days," Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), a retired brigadier general in the U.S. Air Force, wrote on his official X account. "This hurt our country and undermined our alliances and encouraged our adversaries."

Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said that Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Marco Rubio quipped that the peace plan was "not the administration’s position" and is "essentially the wish list of the Russians." Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) made similar remarks, said during the recent Halifax International Security Forum that the agreement Witkoff and Putin's government brokered "is not our recommendation" and "not our peace plan." Rubio later refuted wrote on X that the peace plan was "authored by the U.S." and is "offered as a strong framework for ongoing negotiations."

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Trump admin crafted Russia-friendly peace plan with help from Kremlin in 'secret meetings'

The peace plan that President Donald Trump's administration offered to end the ongoing war in Ukraine has been widely criticized for being overly accommodating to Russia. Now, a new report shows that Russia may have been even more intricately involved in its composition than previously known.

The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that the proposal — which Trump administration special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner (who is also the president's son-in-law) — relied heavily on input from a "Kremlin insider." Kushner, Witkoff and the Kremlin advisor huddled behind closed doors in multiple "secret meetings" in Miami, Florida, according to the Journal.

That Kremlin advisor was identified as Kirill Dmitriev, who the Journal described as an envoy of Russian President Vladimir Putin who also has ties to Kushner. Witkoff also met Dmitriev during his April trip to Moscow. The 28-point plan has been described as a "framework" to end the war, though multiple senators allege Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Marco Rubio described it as "essentially the wish list of the Russians." (Rubio has denied making that comment)

The three men reportedly met for three days in late October at Witkoff's home in Miami, where Dmitriev communicated multiple items the Kremlin demanded in order to agree to end hostilities with Ukraine. The Journal reported that Dmitriev called for Ukraine to never be allowed to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), pull all troops out of the eastern Donbass region and other territory Russia wanted to control (like the Crimean Peninsula, which it illegally invaded in 2014). The Kremlin also wants Ukraine's military to be capped at a much lower number than its current 900,000-member force.

Dmitriev also specifically called on the Trump administration to engage in multiple economic agreements in the areas of artificial intelligence, energy and other industries. The Journal also reported that the bulk of the plan was written by both Kushner and Witkoff before they even engaged with Russia or Ukraine.

When Witkoff and Kushner attempted to engage senior Ukrainian officials to get their input on the peace plan, one told the two Trump administration envoys that the deal was better for Russia than for Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked the two men for working toward ending the war, but also said their plan needed revisions.

Trump administration officials maintain that the final version of the plan will be more accommodating to Ukraine, and suggested amending it to raise the cap on the size of the Ukrainian military beyond what Russia wanted, and that language permanently barring Ukraine's membership in NATO could be removed.

Click here to read the Journal's report in full (subscription required).

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Trump blames Ukraine: 'You don’t take on a nation that’s 10 times your size'

President Donald Trump is blaming Ukraine for being attacked by Russia in President Vladimir Putin’s illegal war against the sovereign nation.

In a rambling and wide-ranging “Fox & Friends” interview on Tuesday, the President covered a lot of ground, including declaring that it would be unfair to Russia to allow Ukraine to become a part of NATO.

“It can’t be NATO because that’s just not something that would ever ever happen. He couldn’t. They couldn’t do that. If you were Russia, who would want to have your enemy, your opponent, sitting on your line? You don’t do that,” Trump said.

Trump then falsely claimed, “It was always thought that Ukraine was a, sort of a buffer between Russia and the rest of Europe — and it was, it was a big, wide buffer — everything worked out well until Biden got involved.”

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Ukraine was promised future entry into NATO at an undetermined date, back in 2008. Finland borders Russia and is a member of NATO. Trump also did not say why there needed to be a “buffer” between Russia and Europe.

Trump also expressed that, he believes, Ukraine will have to give up land to Russia.

Asked what the European leaders thought about “land swaps,” which may or may not include Russia giving back land it took illegally, but no actual Russian land, Trump replied: “While they understand — look, everybody can play cute and this and that, but, you know, Ukraine’s gonna get their life back.”

“They’re gonna stop having people killed all over the place, and they’re gonna get a lot of land,” he claimed, not mentioning that that land belongs to Ukraine.

Then he accused Ukraine of attacking Russia, and suggested they were the provocateur.

“But this was a war, and Russia is a powerful military nation, you know, whether people like it or not, it’s a powerful nation,” Trump said. “It’s a much bigger nation.”

“It’s not a war that should have been started. You don’t do that. You don’t take on a nation that’s ten times your size and you know, military experts — look, look, here, if it wasn’t for the greatest military equipment. We make the greatest military equipment in the world, and we gave them— So, you know, whatever they took — probably a lot of money, too — but they had tremendous, you know, they had the Patriot missile, which is the best in the world.”

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“All the equipment, we make the best equipment in the world by far. Everyone else is like, nothing. So we gave them a lot of equipment. Now, with that said, the Ukrainian soldiers were brave as hell. Cause’s fighting a force that’s much, much bigger. Superior, much more powerful.”

Critics denounced Trump’s claims.

“For the umpteenth time, Trump blames Ukraine for starting the war. Trump can never be trusted. He works for Putin,” wrote podcaster and former GOP congressman Joe Walsh.

“Really crystallizesTrump’s world view that bigger nations can bully smaller ones just because they can,” wrote communications expert Eric Koch.

Watch the video below or at this link.

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'Manipulate him': Russian state media brags that Putin can 'lead Trump by his nose'

A weekend call between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy devolved into a "shouting match," and Russian state media pundits are now declaring it the result of Russian President Vladimir Putin's influence over Trump.

Mediaite reported Monday on a recent segment by CNN's Erin Burnett, in which she highlighted comments by Russian media bragging about Trump being captive to Putin. Burnett said Trump's "complete 180" on supporting Ukraine in its war with Russia prompted Russian propagandists to refer to the U.S. president as "Putin's puppet."

Burnett then played a clip captured by Daily Beast columnist Julia Davis, who runs the Russian Media Monitor account. Davis reported that on the show "Sunday Evening with Vladimir Solovyov," one pundit said Trump is simply playing Putin's game when it comes to Ukraine.

"Putin understands Trump all too well. Trump doesn’t understand Putin," the guest said. "Putin can manipulate him very well and lead Trump by his nose."

During the call with Zelenskyy, Trump didn't commit to sending Ukraine long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles despite earlier suggestions that he may do so. Davis wrote Monday that one Russian media host said that Trump was simply teasing Zelenskyy with the potential for Tomahawks "like dangling a carrot in front of a donkey." He further opined that in the coming summit in Budapest, Hungary between Trump and Putin, if Zelenskyy ends up attending it will be "solely to sign his capitulation."

As CNBC reported, the source of the tension on the call between Trump and Zelenskyy came from Trump insisting that the Ukrainian leader accept Putin's conquest of Ukraine's Donbas territory in the east for the sake of ceasing hostilities. The initial 2022 invasion was over the Donbas territory, and came eight years after Russia illegally annexed Ukraine's Crimean peninsula.

“It’s cut up right now, I think 78 percent of the land is already taken by Russia," Trump said on Sunday. "They should stop right now at the battle lines. ... Go home, stop killing people and be done."

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'Becoming a daily thing': Trump deflects questions as Ukraine weapons scandal grows

The halted Ukraine weapons scandal is growing as President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he had not even thought about who gave the order to pause the shipment of vital munitions—which caused tremendous turmoil inside the White House, Congress, and Kyiv—but if it had been given, he claimed, he would have both known about it and likely been the one to give it.

Last week, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, for the third time, approved the decision to pause the shipments of weapons to Ukraine—just before President Donald Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Hours after that conversation, Russia launched one of the largest bombing attacks since the start of its illegal war against Ukraine.

“Sir,” a reporter asked President Trump at the White House on Wednesday afternoon, “yesterday you said that you were not sure who ordered the munitions halted to Ukraine. Have you since been able to figure that out?”

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“Well,” Trump replied, as he acknowledged the munitions had been halted, “I haven’t thought about it because we’re looking at Ukraine right now and munitions, but, uh, I have no, I have not gone into it.”

“What does it say that such a big decision could be made inside your government without you knowing?” the reporter pressed.

“Uh, I would know,” Trump insisted. “If a decision was made, I would know. I’d be the first to know, in fact, most likely, I’d give the order, but I haven’t done that yet.”

The President then moved on to take a question from a different reporter.

President Trump on Tuesday had claimed he had no knowledge of who ordered the halt in weapons shipments. That pause came just after his July 3 call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Hours later, Russia launched a massive bombing campaign against Ukraine.

“So who ordered the pause last week?” a CNN reporter had asked Trump on Tuesday.

“I don’t know,” Trump replied. “Why don’t you tell me?”

The halt of weapons to Ukraine was so catastrophic and damaging that it set off “a scramble inside the administration to understand why the halt was implemented and explain it to Congress and the Ukrainian government,” CNN reported.

Critics blasted the President.

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“This is quite literally becoming a daily thing, where Trump disavows making decision after decision, some of which would be wildly illegal without his involvement,” observed civil liberties and national security journalist Marcy Wheeler.

“There are some people who I think are really principled callers-out of cognitive decline, just like deeply invested in the matter as something that self-evidently needs to be called out publicly and not swept under the rug, who I can’t wait to hear from,” noted Pat Dennis, president of American Bridge, a Democratic Super PAC.

Watch the video below or at this link.


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'He gets mixed up': Former Ambassador worries 'erratic' Trump unprepared for Putin meetings

Former U.S. ambassador Michael McFaul tells MSNBC he’s alarmed by how quickly President Donald Trump keeps changing his mind about Russian leader Vladimir Putin as he prepares to negotiate an end to war in Ukraine.

“I’m surprised by [his recent criticism of Putin] because if there's been one thing that Trump has been consistent with over the decades, really, it's been his admiration for Vladimir Putin,” McFaul told the crew of MSNBC’s ‘The Weekend’. “The whole first term was all about how great Putin was. But I'm also worried about the erratic nature of the president of the United States today.”

Trump is meeting Putin in Alaska to convince him to end his invasion of Ukraine in exchange for chunks of Ukrainian land. The meeting is off to a bad start because Ukraine has not agreed to hand over land, but McFaul said Trump appears unprepared for negotiation regardless.

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“So, he did say all those [mean] things [about Putin], and then his special envoy goes to Moscow a few days ago, and suddenly the whole tone has changed. … and I hope he won't roll into the meeting with Putin thinking that he's got a new relationship with him.”

McFaul said Trump “personalizes bilateral relations” with world leaders and makes the mistake of treating meetings themselves as some sort of end-game.

“He thinks that a good meeting is some kind of outcome,” said McFaul. “A good meeting is a means to some other end that is good for the American people and the free world. And oftentimes President Trump gets mixed up. I hope he doesn't get that mixed up in Alaska.”

MSNBC host Eugene Daniels asked McFaul if he believed Trump could outsmart Putin, but McFaul called Putin a “very savvy negotiator.”

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“President Trump had better prepare. He better not just wing it and think that it's all going to work out, because it will not,” McFaul said.

“Now, ambassador, do you really think Donald Trump is going to be out here preparing and reading big old documents and white papers?” asked Daniels.

“I do not,” McFaul admitted. “I hope that maybe a staff member might be in the room. How about that?”

Watch the video below, or by clicking here.

- YouTube youtu.be

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Art of the Deal? Trump’s 'poor negotiating tactics' fail to bring peace

The peace talks between the United States and Russia over the war in Ukraine have failed because of poor negotiating tactics, according to a report in Time Magazine.

"So far, no compromise version of a peace settlement has been found,” Yuri Ushakov, an advisor to Russian president Vladimir Putin, said after Tuesday's five-hour meeting between Putin and U.S. Special Envoy and former Long Island real estate lawyer Steve Witkoff.

Time writer Daniel Fried says this is no surprise, writing, "Putin has never negotiated in good faith since his first invasion of Ukraine in 2014. Instead, he has consistently demanded maximalist aims to secure Ukrainian territory and erase its sovereignty."

Witkoff and President Donald Trump's civilian son-in-law Jared KushnerJared Kushner met with Putin Tuesday to discuss a proposed peace plan for Ukraine, which the Kremlin described as "useful" but yielded no immediate breakthroughs or "compromise plan".

"While details of the Kremlin talks are only beginning to emerge, it appears Putin again offered nothing on the key issue of territory, meaning the location of a cease-fire line, and security for Ukraine. After much diplomatic drama, U.S. negotiators are leaving the Kremlin with little," Fried notes.

Trump has thus far been unsuccessful in mediating an end to Russia's war against Ukraine, Fried says, in large part due to the fact that "the Administration’s approach has been haphazard and its negotiating tactics poor."

Witkoff's inexperience has shown, especially after Tuesday's meeting with Putin, he notes.

"Witkoff put together an initial 28-point plan that had heavy Russian input if not authorship. That gave his Russian counterpart, Kirill Dmitriev, two bites at the negotiating apple: at the outset and in the actual talks, a tactical mistake," Fried says.

Also contributing to the failure, he notes, is infighting within the Trump administration and the vague role of Secretary of State Marco Rubio in these talks.

"Worse, divisions within the Trump Administration between those more supportive of Ukraine and those less so have been visible and lines of authority uncertain," Fried writes.

"Is Secretary of State Marco Rubio in charge of the U.S. position? He was in the lead in Geneva and during the Florida talks. But he was not in Moscow for the critical talks with Putin," he adds.

The Kremlin has taken note of all of this and has seemingly benefited from it, Fried says.

"The Administration has been negotiating in public and with itself, with occasional tensions with Ukraine on display and infighting not hard to spot," he says.

"The Kremlin has been in the happy position of sitting back, maintaining its maximalist demands, and waiting for new concessions. These are standard Kremlin negotiating tactics and it seems Putin followed them with Witkoff," Fried notes.

A deal can still be done, he writes, but the Trump administration has to make some serious modifications to their position.

"The Trump Administration must now decide how to respond to the Kremlin’s stonewalling. To end the war, the U.S. will have to stop trying to find concessions that will satisfy Putin," Fried says.

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If Trump went after Russia half as hard as Harvard, he could stop Putin from destroying Ukraine

The Trump administration has been relentless—merciless—in its attacks on America’s oldest and most prestigious university, continually stripping Harvard of funding, trying to force it to get in line. The goal is to control the university and its curriculum, make no mistake. And Harvard is fighting back hard, with lawsuits and defiant words from its president, its faculty, and its students.

Donald Trump’s determination to basically destroy Harvard—taking away its free speech rights and no longer allowing for independent thought and education free of government control, in line with what he’s doing to other universities—is in sharp contrast to how Trump is dealing with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, a threat to Europe, the U.S., and the world.

Over the weekend, Trump feigned outrage over Putin’s escalation of the war in Ukraine, after Russia launched one of the worst attacks on Ukrainians since the beginning of the war.

Trump looked weak and also compliant. To watch the video of him answering questions as he was going onto Air Force One is to see Trump faking anger, making as if he’s furious at Putin for “killing a lot of people” while he and Putin are supposed to be having talks. “I don’t like it all,” Trump said, sounding completely phony.

“I don’t know what the hell happened to Putin,” he said when asked about the attacks. “I’ve known him a long time, always gotten along with him… What the hell happened to him?”

This was vintage Trump, both lying about having a supposed close relationship with Putin—having told Americans during the presidential campaign that Putin will listen to him and end the war immediately—and then professing shock that Putin is doing what he’s doing, explaining that it’s just “crazy.”

Putin, of course, has been doing what he’s doing for three years now in Ukraine and for many years before that elsewhere. So Putin hasn’t changed and become “crazy.” But that’s how Trump tries to excuse himself.

When asked if Trump would now move ahead with more sanctions, Trump only said, “Absolutely.”

Yet when the European Union further sanctioned Russia last week, the U.S. did not join. And it likely won’t. Don’t forget that Russia was the only country that didn’t get hit with tariffs on the so-called “liberation day.”

Trump is doing Putin’s bidding. He professes outrage and then makes like he can’t understand what’s happening. But does nothing. Putin is determined to take Ukraine—and then he’ll continue on. As David Sanger at the New York Times put it, everyone is on to Trump, as he’s done this over and over.

The result is a strategic void in which Mr. Trump complains about Russia’s continued killing but so far has been unwilling to make Mr. Putin pay even a modest price.

One European official said that in a meeting with European leaders, it was clear Trump was moving on from the war, leaving our longtime ally Ukraine to fend for itself, which means a complete takeover by Russia.

“He said, essentially, ‘I’m out,’” the official told the Times. Putin has now seized more land, and there is no stopping him.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Pentagon is actually preparing for war with Russia should Putin take Ukraine and invade other European countries.

Of course, that makes no sense, particularly since Trump has teased pulling out of NATO—unless Trump wants a war with Putin in Europe and then plans to conquer him. Or maybe it’s just the Pentagon—the generals—preparing despite what the lunatic commander in chief is saying.

Whatever is going on, it’s all so dangerous. And if Trump only spent half the energy he’s expending against Harvard on Putin, he’d beat him back. But Trump is focused on his grievances, attacking elite universities, while his bromance with Putin has him going soft on the dictator—even as the Pentagon is preparing for the scenario the president might actually create—no matter what the outcome is for the U.S. and the world.

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