[POST] All for show, all for naught

A performative summit for a performative war

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We had hopes but we knew they were optimistic — at best. Ukraine can’t end this war without strong US backing, which Trump will never underwrite. As for Putin, he has no desire to end the conflict because it’s the only thing standing between him and The End. The great Alaska 2025 summit just put a cherry on top on that imagined sundae, confirming the consistent stream of evidence that Putin prefers having the war continue.

A performative summit alright, but one that matches the trajectory of the show: from the Russians’ side, this was all about getting pictures of Trump and Putin as “equals.” The subsequent ventriloquist magic was just icing on the cake.

I honestly have no idea what Trump, his golfing buddy, and Rubio were thinking. The whole thing gave off an amateur hour vibe wherein Putin simply pulled a few Jedi mind tricks and within minutes of getting up close with Trump had him mouthing exactly what Moscow wanted him to say — and so unabashedly as to make me wince at Donald’s pathetic weakness on display. He may think himself Nixon but he’s a number of steps below Carter.

Trump gets into the limo muttering ceasefire, ceasefire, ceasefire and then minutes later gets out mumbling comprehensive peace deal, comprehensive peace deal, comprehensive peace deal. It’s like Putin found the switch on Trump and merely flipped it.

More egregiously, Trump concludes the summit by emphasizing his solidarity with Putin over the 2016 “Russia hoax” and showers him and Russia with compliments, retreating — almost like a chastened child — to the notion that Zelensky somehow started this war and so Zelensky must end it.

That embarrassing show proved 2016 was a “hoax” alright, because Trump finally put his foot down and read off the Russian teleprompter — like he was told.

I almost feel sorry for Trump, it was that bad. Short of putting him on a leash, I can’t imagine Putin demonstrating more dominance over our president, who seems to think our nuclear stockpile makes us superpower #1 while Russia’s makes it superpower #2.

Again, his thinking is almost childlike.

I mean … and this has long been the sad judgment of many of us critics of Trump … who needs to collude when one side is so easily manipulated? It’s like saying I collude with my mini-poodle when I throw the ball and she chases it down happily. Seriously, the whole thing is more Pavlovian than anything else.

But, this is Trump. Get him a stage and a show and that’s all he needs to … you know … magically de-nuclearize the Korean Peninsula (remember that one?) or end a war in 24 hours (or succumb to the alpha male within the first two minutes, as he himself predicted beforehand: Trump’s prediction about Zelensky-less Ukraine summit with Putin in Alaska: ‘I’ll know in the first two minutes’).

Again, the sheer submission is stunning: telling your bully he’s got two whole minutes to scare you into running away, so … take that, buddy!

Putin’s ultimate make-Trump-my-bitch accomplishment? The Donald came into this summit seemingly wielding some leverage with his threats of secondary sanctions on Russia oil exports. Now? Trump says he has no such plans for China.

If I’m Modi, I most definitely take my tariff lumps from Trump and look hard for ways to counterbalance through closer ties with China and Russia and anybody else standing up to Trump. Any kowtowing to Trump will just make Modi appear the fool, which he cannot abide.

If I’m Khamenei, I get myself that nuke ASAP. Netanyahu is in charge of that war, with Trump just doing as he’s told, so why not even things up with Israel on strategic terms, because the old ways are not working anymore.

If I’m Xi, then the 2027 invasion of Taiwan is most definitely on-schedule. I mean, what would Trump do about it anyway, trapped as he is in imagined counter-insurgency ops throughout DC and other Dem-run hellholes? Toss in the border war and the war on drug cartels and Trump is already fighting on three fronts. America cannot possibly take on another war on the far side of the planet, anymore than he could end the conflict in Ukraine.

24 hours of only I can achieve this demolished by two minutes of figurative bitch-slapping by Putin.

So, where is Trump going to direct all the self-loathing that comes with such a public humiliation?

He’s going to take it out on Zelensky.

He’ll take it out on Europe.

He’ll take it out on migrants and the Dems.

He’ll take all that pain and pay it forward, like any victim of sustained abuse.

Again, the notion that Putin needs Trump’s active collusion to get what he wants … that’s the real joke here.

Really! You say. All this concern from one summit?

This war has devolved into a performative stalemate. It continues only because it must. There is no longer any point to it. It has become Putin’s identity and it has become Zelensky’s identity.

Frankly, for the world’s militaries, Ukraine is a stunningly valuable proving ground about future drone-fueled, AI-directed warfare.

Trump, meanwhile, has staked his national security identity on migrants and drug lords, so, for as long as he remains in power, the signal to other superpowers is clear and steady: Do whatever the hell you want in your spheres of influence because Trump will always chicken out.

Why? Because Trump is as happy as a clam with his own performative domestic war on migrants and various left-wing lunatics. The kid has his toy and he’s going to wear it out, leaving the big bad world to the bullies who … frankly … scare him into submission whenever they see fit.

This is what happens when you elect a bully of Trump’s fragile ego: he — and by extension America — just are too easy a target for the world’s true bullies.

Again, this is likely to go down in history as the most humiliating US-Russian summit ever, vastly under-performing even JFK in Vienna with Khrushschev in 1961.

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