After a period when President Trump seemed to be more inclined to the Ukrainian side, he now seems to be taking the side of Russia again. On board his plane the Air Force One he told reporters that Ukraine and Russia should stop fighting and that he wants to leave the situation in the largely Russia-occupied Donbas as he is.

And the British newspaper the Financial Times (FT) writes that the meeting between Trump and Zelensky at the White House went dramatically Friday. Trump is said to have urged Zelensky to accept the Russian conditions for ending the war and to give up the Donbas to Russia.

Based on sources, the newspaper reports that Trump warned that Russian President Putin will “destroy” Ukraine if the country does not cooperate.

Turn of Trump
A little over a month ago, Trump said Ukraine could win the war with the support of the European Union. Then he was remarkably positive about that. In a post on Truth Social, he stated that the country, with the help of the EU and NATO, can take back all territories occupied by Russia.

It seems that last Thursday’s phone conversation with Putin has changed his mind.

According to the FT and The Washington Post, the Russian president has made a new proposal whereby Ukraine will give up the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in exchange for small parts of Cherson and Zaporizha. Exactly that exchange would have been introduced to Zelensky on Friday.

Two sources told Reuters that they had the impression that Trump was influenced by Putin. Trump and Putin have agreed to meet in Budapest in a few weeks.

Screaming
Zelensky came to Washington on Friday in the hope of getting more weapons from the U.S., but according to insiders, the meeting degenerated into a screaming party, with Trump constantly cursing.

That this was not an incident turned out last night on board the Air Force One. Trump said the Donbas region - in southeastern Ukraine - should be divided “in the way that it is now.” “Negotiation is possible later,” he said. “Go home, stop fighting and stop killing people.”

The Donbas consists of the regions of Luhansk and Donetsk. Luhansk is almost entirely occupied by Russia, Donetsk about three quarters.

What Trump is asking of Ukraine:

Pete Hegseth’s tie during this meeting:

    • Tehbaz@lemmy.wtf
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      91
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 months ago

      Because Putin has irrefutable evidence of Trump fucking kids, committing treason, or something else he doesn’t want MAGA to see.

        • Monument@lemmy.sdf.org
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          2 months ago

          I don’t think it’s individual evidence, really. I suspect it’s probably more the bot farms and pressure campaign. Those carry a lot of water for the illusion of continued group consensus.

        • ZeekLTK@lemmy.zip
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          4
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          2 months ago

          The only thing I can think of would be irrefutable proof that the election was tampered with and that Harris actually won. That would either force him to step down and hand it back over to Dems or start a Civil War.

          Anything else, related to Epstein or bribery or even if they came out and said he is a confirmed Russian asset and is purposefully destroying the USA because it’s in Russia’s best interest… none of the MAGAs will care. They will suddenly all have clothing that says I (heart) Moscow and shit like that. They ALREADY had “I’d rather be Russian than Democrat”.

          There is absolutely nothing that will cause him to lose supporters but proof that he wasn’t actually elected would at least move the needle for the rest of the population.

          • jj4211@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            2 months ago

            Even then there would be a collective ‘oh that sucks, but without a clean election we can’t know how it would have gone so we will just wait for the next election and be more careful’.

          • Auli@lemmy.ca
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            4
            ·
            2 months ago

            I don’t even think that would do anything but cause people to cry about it online.

        • kata1yst@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          2 months ago

          I think you underestimate the bubble many of these people have built for themselves to insulate themselves from inconvenient truths.

      • LittleBorat3@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        2 months ago

        You can say everything is a deep fake at this point so pictures won’t even do. We are so fucked, brave new world.

      • phutatorius@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        2 months ago

        Or maybe it’s something else, like Putin pretending to get into a snit and saying “No iron fist in a rubber glove for you, Donnie, you’re not my friend anymore.”

        Leverage points don’t all have to be coercive. Maybe there’s kompromat, maybe there’s been some weird kind of transference and Trump’s in love with his handler. Maybe he’s an aspiring dictator so he sucks up to other dictators. Or he’s so feeble-minded that he’s easily swayed by anyone who knows how to push his buttons.

      • phutatorius@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        15
        ·
        2 months ago

        Or maybe he told Trump he wouldn’t be his friend unless Trump sold out Ukraine.

        There’s a reasonable chance that Trump sucks up to Putin not because of kompromat, but because he admires Putin and wants to be his pal.

      • Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        2 months ago

        Considering Trump is clearly doing everything he possibly can to allow the release of the Epstein files, I would wager Putin has lots of evidence of him molesting and raping kids.

  • OccamsTeapot@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    70
    ·
    2 months ago

    Trump just seems to repeat the thoughts of the last person he spoke to that actually got through to him somehow. Why Putin seems to be so good at doing that is anyone’s guess.

    In any case, this will continue until he meets some European leaders again. I think the person who flipped him last time seems to have been King Charles?

    But this all just shows it doesn’t even matter. As Orwell said:

    “The enemy is the gramophone mind, whether or not one agrees with the record that is being played at the moment.”

    He is too dumb to do anything else. The record will be changed and changed back again and again.

    • jj4211@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      2 months ago

      Why Putin seems to be so good at doing that is anyone’s guess.

      It’s probably not all that hard. We’ve seen him waffle back and forth on this one so it seems like just about anybody with the patience and will to be a sycophant can butter him up and convince him of anything.

    • altkey (he\him)@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      2 months ago

      Trump just seems to repeat the thoughts of the last person he spoke to that actually got through to him somehow.

      He also recently failed at bringing peace to Gaza, at least he loudly reacted at that.

    • CallMeButtLove@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      2 months ago

      Why Putin seems to be so good at doing that is anyone’s guess.

      Because he’s been Trump’s boss for years.

  • fox2263@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    11
    ·
    2 months ago

    Crazy to think it was only a hot minute ago he was swinging the other way.

    Fucker is influenced so easily.

    But I also think time is on a loop, this was his potion before his previous position in the flip-flop of positions.

    • Dr. Moose@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      2 months ago

      it was only a hot minute ago he was swinging the other way.

      people need to stop listening to trump and look at what he’s doing instead.

  • Getitupinyerstuffin'@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    arrow-down
    18
    ·
    2 months ago

    Putin revealed his winning hand to Trump, and it probably involved a lot more killing, and waste, like war does. (Trump is big on trying to stop so much killing…) So he turns up the pressure on Zelensky to take concessions and cooperate to put an end to this war, going as far as even yelling at him. Seems reasonable given the stakes.

    I imagine that is closest to reality.

  • crystalmerchant@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    68
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    2 months ago

    When the fuck will you people understand that this clown does not have any sort of cohesive tie-together strategy. He just says whatever he feels like, for a variety of reasons – maybe the last person in the room was a good guy today, maybe Fox News rolled old clips of a protest, maybe Orange Guy saw an AI meme of Zelensky doing whatever, who knows.

    So saying “Turn of Trump” and legitimizing his actions and words as if they are thoughtful and strategic is ABSOLUTELY BANANAS

    • Formfiller@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 months ago

      I mean his strategy is doing what his daddy Putin wants and acting like an imbecile all the time

    • LittleBorat3@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      2 months ago

      Does he even remember stuff, is he steered by the political geniuses around him? Maybe he forgot he diddled kids.

      Who knows…

  • Buffalox@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    31
    ·
    2 months ago

    It’s almost surreal how Trump who doesn’t give a shit about people, is beating the “stop the killing” drum here?
    We all know he doesn’t give a shit about the killing, but apparently he can’t express his real reason to want to end this war?

    • NABDad@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      28
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 months ago

      His real reason in this case is because his boss, Putin, wants him to get Ukraine to surrender.

    • evenglow@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      2 months ago

      Running low on weapons is not a good time to also run low on rare earth metals needed to make those weapons.

    • ramble81@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      2 months ago

      He is extremely irritated that he didn’t win the Nobel Peace Prize and is trying to strong arm an accomplishment.

  • SeeMarkFly@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    80
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    2 months ago

    If you have the facts on your side, hammer the facts.

    If you have the law on your side, hammer the law.

    If you have neither the facts nor the law, hammer the table.

    • Puddinghelmet@lemmy.worldOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      30
      ·
      edit-2
      2 months ago

      Just make sure you’re the last one that has called or talked with trump… He just follows the last opinion he heard SMH coward

      • phutatorius@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        2 months ago

        His addled, decaying mind can barely remember one conversation, so what else could we realistically expect?

  • xxce2AAb@feddit.dk
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    17
    ·
    2 months ago

    “I realize the concept might be foreign to you, but I’m beholden to the will of the electorate I represent. You know, like a President.”

  • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    13
    ·
    2 months ago

    Based on sources, the newspaper reports that Trump warned that Russian President Putin will “destroy” Ukraine if the country does not cooperate.

    Hey hey hey, don’t shoot the messenger now! Trump is only relaying what his boss told him, it’s not his fault!

      • Puddinghelmet@lemmy.worldOP
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        2 months ago

        The woman who just got the Nobel peace prize thanked Trump personally and has close ties to him so I’m not so sure lol maybe he’ll even get a price the world is already upside down anyway smh lmao