As part of a deal
What happens when a child is head of state.
During the news conference, Trump spoke at length about his upcoming meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska.
He says he finds it “very respectful” that the Russian president is meeting him on US soil, and he thinks the pair will have “constructive conversations” on Friday.
By finding it very respectful he of course means flattering to him personally. Not the transactional courtesy of international diplomacy but dude to dude flattery and submission. He thinks Putin is kneeling to him as opposed to dragging him around by the balls. That’s how stupid he is.
But his comments on a possible “land swap” with Ukraine might not please President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has insisted his country will not give up any land as part of a peace agreement.
Trump says there will be “some land swapping” and “some changes in land” as part of a deal. He knows this “through Russia and through conversations with everybody”.
This “land swap” will be “for the good of Ukraine”, he says. “Good stuff, not bad stuff.”
But then, perhaps less reassuringly: “Also, some bad stuff for both.”
Asked if Zelensky was invited to Friday’s meeting, Trump says Ukraine’s president “wasn’t a part of it” but that he “could go” if he wanted to.
Yes sure. Trump cuddles up to the aggressor and breezily tells us the aggressed can tag along if he wants to.
What business does Trump have meeting with Putin to decide the fate of Ukraine while excluding Ukraine?
“Probably in the first two minutes I’ll know exactly whether or not a deal can be made,” he adds. A reporter asks how he will know.
“Because that’s what I do, I make deals,” he says.
He makes real estate deals. Those are not comparable to “deals” with an aggressor head of state who invades another country with the goal of absorbing it.
Putin to Trump: Alaska isn’t US territory! It’s part of the Glorious Russian Empire, since 1741.
At the risk of invoking American neo-conservatives’ favourite analogy from history, this is like when the Czechslovak government was barred from attending the Munich Agreement on the future of their country.
Setting aside the lunacy of inviting an internationally wanted war criminal to the United States — that’s bad enough all by itself — but even setting that aside, Alaska is a doubly dubious place to meet: Russian nationalists have been increasingly vocal about reclaiming “their” territory lately, and control over the Arctic region is the apparent next front in the Kremlin’s geopolitical ambitions. There’s a high risk that Putin could pull a stunt.
It brings to mind when Charles de Gaulle came to Montreal 1967 and shouted “Vive le Quebec libre!” to the crowd. The ensuing political turmoil lasted for years, and catalyzed the 1970 October Crisis, the most dramatic confrontation in modern Canadian history. Separatists kidnapped politicians (murdering one), the War Measures Act was invoked — just short of an all-out declaration of martial law — and for two terrible months, TV screens flooded the nation’s homes with images of soldiers, tanks and helicopters in the streets of Ottawa, Quebec City, and Montreal.
Jayzus.
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Putin manages to manipulate Trump into signing something that hands over Alaska to Russia. Whether or not it’s constitutional.
In 1938, the French, British, and Poles dealt away Czechoslovakia’s national integrity to Hitler….while shutting the Czech diplomats out of the room.
ArtyMorty #3
I recall seeing some non-typical military activity in Ottawa in October 1970.