Trump Demands Putin End War In 50 Days, Or Else He'll Probably Forget About The Whole Thing
Were not sure whats funnier: Donald Trump finally realizing, a decade after everyone else did, that Vladimir Putin is jerking him around; Trump pathetically whining about Putin jerking him around; Trump giving Putin a deadline to end the war in Ukraine or else; or Trump announcing that the or else is slapping huge tariffs on Russia. Who takes Trumps tariff threats seriously anymore? The man changes his mind on tariff deadlines and rates more frequently than he changes his Depends. (We are guessing.) Just ask literally any other country on the planet that the great dealmaker has threatened with tariffs in the last six months.
Our dimwitted big boy made the announcement on Monday morning during an Oval Office meeting/press spray/venting session. Seated next to Secretary-General of NATO Mark Rutte, and surrounded by all the gold he has added to the Oval Office so that it resembles nothing so much as the home of an incredibly insecure warlord, Trump announced that Putin better bring the war to a close in 50 days, or suffer the wrath of having 100 percent tariffs slapped on whatever the hell it is we import from Russia. Oil? Pickled herring? Hockey players? Cyrillic lettering?
The economist Justin Wolfers took to Bluesky to explain that actually we import almost nothing from Russia already thanks to the crippling sanctions we leveled on them for various past misdeeds, including the Ukraine invasion. A 100% tariff on almost nothing will do almost nothing, Wolfers said. Well assume hes correct, math was our weakest subject in school.
Here is Trump making the announcement. In 40 seconds, he manages to complain about how much money the US has spent on the war ($350 billion according to him, much less than that according to reality), declaim any responsibility at all by calling it Bidens war, whine about how disappointed he is that Putin hasnt yet made a deal to stop the fighting, and try to sound magnanimous, as if hes doing everyone a favor by working to bring the war to an end.
Masterful pissing and moaning, sir.
Why Putin would find this threatening is beyond us, not that Trump asked our opinion. But there is a reason the acronym TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out) has become ubiquitous in describing him. First widespread tariffs were going into effect on April 2. Then Trump postponed that for 90 days so he would have time to negotiate 90 deals. Then the 90 days was up and nothing happened. Then out of the blue last week he sent embarrassingly written letters to 22 countries announcing new tariffs, including 35 percent on Canada because the Canadians dont hate us enough already, and 50 percent on Brazil unless it stops prosecuting its former president for corruption. These new tariffs all go into effect on August 1.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/trump-demands-putin-end-war-in-50

Omnipresent
(7,000 posts)Much like two weeksfor a health care plan.