Trump “rebuked” Putin? Bullshit.
So Trump said he’s “not happy” with Vladimir Putin. Imagine that. Following Moscow’s largest aerial attack yet on Ukraine, Trump also said, “What the hell happened to him? He’s killing a lot of people.” He later called Putin “absolutely crazy.”
Speaking to reporters in New Jersey late on Sunday, Trump also said of Putin, “I’ve known him a long time, always gotten along with him, but he’s sending rockets into cities and killing people, and I don’t like it at all.” The American legacy media are referring to this as a rare “rebuke.”
Trump “rebuked” Putin? Bullshit. It’s a faint scold. A barely audible objection. For every criticism of Vladimir Putin that Trump has made to date — and they are rare indeed — he’s made thirty or more savage attacks on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, including to his face.
This time is no exception. “Likewise,” Trump said, hastening to make the obligatory addendum to his “attack” on Putin, “President Zelensky is doing his country no favors by talking the way he does. Everything out of his mouth causes problems, I don’t like it, and it better stop.” Notice this is an actual rebuke that comes with an actual threat, “it better stop.” Notice the absurd lie: “Everything out of his mouth causes problems.” Once again Trump is re-victimising Zelensky and Ukraine.
Putin, the man Trump has “known a long time” and has “always gotten along with” is a murderer, a thief, a liar, a brutal dictator, a psychopath, a hacker into American security systems and elections and, in short, the sworn enemy of the United States. Putin would destroy the US and everyone in it if he could.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on the other hand, is a courageous hero and friend of the United States. He is the leader of a free, democratic nation. More than three years ago, in an unprovoked invasion, Putin attacked Zelenskyy’s country. There is no comparison between the two men except by way of extreme counter-examples.
Zelenskyy is also everything Trump is not, he is young, courageous, charismatic and beloved by the vast majority of his people. Trump is bitterly jealous of Zelenskyy.
In less than a month Trump will enter his 80th year. He is old, broken down, confused, bitter and full of resentment that not everyone in the United States is full of glassy-eyed agreement that he is the greatest president America has ever had. Zelenskyy is too busy for such crap.
The legacy media needs to look at the context before it opens its stupid, collective mouth and puts its stupid, collective foot in it. They need to stop sanewashing Trump and get with reality.
Trump didn’t rebuke Putin. Trump just sent Putin a message that he’s going through the necessary motions to trick the people of the United States into thinking that he’s sort of on Zelenskyy’s side and sort of against Putin, his buddy. But Trump has no intention of doing a goddamn thing to hurt his personal hero, Vladimir Putin.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.