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At Ukraine talks, Trump was a child among adults. You can't trust him – or Putin. | Opinion

"SPOILED BRAT Always "In the end, it is ALWAYS all about HIM. Of course Zelensky did not start the war:"

Trump, as always, is mistaking manipulation for respect. In the place of logic he has unquenchable narcissism.
Putin, a former KGB agent, has the president's heart and can play him like a fiddle.

Rex Huppke
USA TODAY
Upgraded August 19, 2023

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President Donald Trump is an easily glazed sucker who fancies himself a genius. That fact was clear as day when a hot mic at the White House caught him making a truly infantile claim.

European leaders accompanied Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to an Aug. 18 meeting with Trump to chart a course for peace with Russia days after the U.S. president had his tail handed to him by Russian President Vladimir Putin at a meeting in Alaska.

U.S. President Donald Trump and, to his right, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meet with other European leaders at the White House in Washington, DC, on Aug. 18, 2025.

In what Trump thought was a private conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron, a mic caught him saying of Putin: “I think he wants to make a deal. I think he wants to make a deal for me. Do you understand? As crazy as it sounds.”

Yes, that does sound crazy. Because it is crazy. Trump, as always, is mistaking manipulation for respect. In the place of logic he has unquenchable narcissism. Putin, a former KGB agent, has Trump’s heart (and who knows what else) and can play him like a fiddle.

Trump's ego makes him believe Putin likes him, which is pathetic

If the Russian president wanted to end his war on Ukraine – and I would love it if he did, though he clearly doesn’t – it would have nothing to do with Trump and everything to do with Putin trying to make the world better for Putin.

The man is a violent dictator, a monster. He couldn't care less about Trump, seeing him for exactly what he is: a self-absorbed, opportunistic rube.

Opinion: Trump, Putin rewrite history in Alaska as Republicans stay obediently silent
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2025/08/19/trump-putin-summit-2016-election-hoax/85710776007/

Trump doesn't understand complexity, so he pretends things are easy

Read this staggeringly daft quote from Trump as he was flanked by the heads of several European countries, who all flew to Washington, DC, to help Zelenskyy deal with America’s Putin-admiring toddler in chief:

“I don’t think there’s any issue that’s overly complex. It’s at a point now where people want to do things, I really do believe. I’ve known (Putin) for a long time. I’ve always had a great relationship with him. I think that President Putin wants to find an answer, too.”

Putin was bombing the daylights out of Ukraine hours before this meeting took place. And here’s Trump trying to convince the world that Putin wants peace and making the absurd suggestion that decisions involving Ukrainian security and the nation’s territory are not “overly complex.”

The words “I’ve always had a great relationship with him,” when the “him” refers to Putin, would be comedic if they weren’t spoken with the utmost sincerity by the guy presently in charge of our country.

Opinion: Nobody knows what Trump is talking about anymore and no one seems to care
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2025/08/11/trump-dc-crime-national-guard-putin-us/85614586007/

Trump babbles about mail-in ballots and DC restaurants

Throughout the daylong White House meetings, Trump showed himself to be a child among adults. At one point, seated next to Zelenskyy, Trump ranted about his hatred of mail-in balloting, saying: “When you go to a voting booth, and you do it the right way, and you go to a state that runs it properly, you go in, they even asked me, they asked me for my license plate.”

No they didn’t. Nobody at a polling place has ever asked anyone for their license plate.

He said of Washington, DC, the city he sent the U.S. National Guard into to fight a crime wave he made up: “The restaurants the last two days were busier than they've been in a long time.”

That’s nonsense. DC’s Fox affiliate reported: “DC restaurant dining plunges as Trump's crime crackdown continues.”

Trump sees Ukraine as his path to a Nobel Peace Prize, nothing more

And the president, pathetically thirsty for a Nobel Peace Prize, kept bragging that he has stopped six wars, a self-aggrandizing claim not at all supported by facts.

So what did the world wind up with after the serious Europeans met with the frivolous American bore? A vague assurance that America would play what The New York Times called “an as yet unspecified role in security guarantees” and a nonbinding, nonspecific plan for a meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy and maybe Trump.

Trump wouldn’t commit to demanding a ceasefire before any negotiations with Russia, something Zelenskyy and the European leaders smartly see as essential.

Americans should feel profoundly embarrassed to have Trump in charge

As with Trump’s recent “summit” with Putin in Alaska, the Aug. 18 talks with our allies marked an embarrassing day for America.

And the key problem – for Ukraine, for all of Europe and for the world – is that everybody besides Trump knows Putin can’t be trusted. And everybody, including Putin, knows Trump can’t be trusted.

America needs a sharp leader. It elected a fussy child.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2025/08/19/ukraine-russia-trump-putin-zelenskyy-peace-summit/85710234007/