First Trump said that the Gaza-ISIS needs to release *all* hostages until Saturday noon or else "hell will brake lose". Then the Gaza-ISIS agreed to free the three hostages already scheduled for release in the "ceasefire agreements" and walked away from its threat to no longer abide by it.

(By the way, there are journalists who think that the images of the emaciated freed hostages which Israel compared to those of the survivors of the concentration camps made the Gaza-ISIS think twice about the PR impact. Nonsense. The similiartity to the camp survivors is deliberate and intentional, to show Israel and the Jews what the Gaza-ISIS has in mind for them. It rather was the stark contrast to the jubilant well-fed Palestinian criminals freed in exchange that made the Gaza-ISIS think twice because it makes Israel look too good and too humane. Which is what the terrorists cannot accept.)

First Trump announced that the U.S. will remould Gaza into a "Riviera" of the Middle East (after expelling the Gazans to various Middle East nations). Jordan then said to take in 2.000 Gazan children and Egypt announced it is working on a plan to reconstruct Gaza without expulsion of its inhabitants.

First Trump told Zelensky he wants Ukraine's rare earth deposits in exchange for military aid past and future and told the European NATO members to raise their defense budgets to 5% GDP. Then he came up with the direct communication with Putin, suggesting a) to meet him in person in Saudi Arabia, b) that Ukraine cannot join NATO and that c) it will have to face serious territorial losses in exchange for peace. Everybody cries: This is the end of NATO and a backstabbing of Ukraine. Well, yes.

Trump always makes bombastic claims, demands, and announcements in order to unrattle the other parties of a bargaining negotiation.

If he wanted to throw Ukraine into the bin, he wouldn't have asked for the rare earth resources (which in part lie in the Donbass trerritories).

What he did was forcing the European NATO states to prepare for a military conflict with Russia while taking the U.S. off the theatre.

What he gave – not offered, but gave – to Putin was what Vlad Vexler – in his otherwise misguided analysis in his video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrWgHuCOMZ8 – aptly called "procedural concessions". But Vexler underestimates the importance and the impact of these "procedural concessions". In particular the telephone call initated by Trump, the suggestion to meet in person in Saudia Arabia but also in Moscow and Washington, they all provided Putin with "face". Not "face saving", but the "face" that is the publicly staged acknowledgement of space, strength, gravitas, respect, and "honour" so common between Mafia bosses. Trump came to Putin, and he acknowledged his "face", thereby reinstating it in the public global sphere. A weakling (!) like Putin is drooling for such pats.

But what Trump also did was to prepare the stage for a grandiose walkback, a slamming of doors, and the full support of Europe and Ukraine against Putin and Russia, should Putin not concede. All while getting the U.S. out of Europe (with or without leaving NATO) and forcing Europeans to buy his military equipment and Ukraine to hand over its material resources.

Obviously, everything can fall apart. But look and observe how Trump works and how he's playing his cards. The war against Russia isn't over yet, Ukraine is not defeated yet, and Europe may still come to its senses that it needs to support Ukraine even more and prepare for a war with Russia in a few years.

But until anybody can explain what Trump may get in return for handing over all the positions that Putin essentially asked for in December 2021 – including a withdrawal of U.S. forces behind the lines of the early 1990s prior to NATO enlargement – these manoeuvres look more like being aimed at the Europeans than substantial concessions to Russia. Again: Why should Trump (of all transactionists) offer Putin all these diamonds for free? What's in it for him? Until anybody can explain *that*, we have no useful explanation of what the Trump administration is now staging with regard to Ukraine. Things are way too much in flux to already call this the end of NATO, the demise of Ukraine, or Russia's victory.

#Ukraine #Russia #Trump #Putin
#talkingtomyselflettingyoulisten