During an appearance on NBC’s “Meet The Press” this morning, Vice President JD Vance defended Donald Trump’s ongoing give-and-take “summit meetings” approach to bringing an end to the deadly Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Despite all of his self-congratulatory gloating over his Alaska “summit” meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump ends up with a big nothing burger to show for his efforts.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker in an interview posted today that “Putin is ready [for a meeting] when the agenda is ready for a summit – and this agenda is not ready at all.” Continue reading “Russia: No Meeting Is Planned With Ukraine President”
• The Advocate: The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funded several queer-inclusive shows via PBS and NPR, is shutting down following the Trump administration’s defunding of public media. #sadness
On Monday, Donald Trump declared that the U.S. would be imposing 100% tariffs on countries that do business with Russia within 50 days if Russia didn’t agree to a ceasefire in its war in Ukraine.
In his announcement, Trump added, “We are very unhappy, I am, with Russia.”
Donald Trump announced on his Truth Social that he spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin today for over an hour. According to Trump, Putin declared Russia plans to retaliate against Ukraine for its devastating surprise attack over the weekend.
“It was a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate Peace,” wrote Trump. “President Putin did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields.”
Breaking News: Vladimir Putin plans to retaliate against Ukraine’s surprise attack, President Trump said after speaking to the Russian leader by phone. https://trib.al/L4hdRaU
Mr. Trump did not say in the statement if he sought to discourage Mr. Putin from attacking Ukraine. He rather expressed optimism over the prospect of working with Mr. Putin on another foreign policy priority: deterring Iran’s nuclear capabilities.
The White House did not immediately respond to questions inquiring if Mr. Trump had pushed back against Mr. Putin in the phone call or why his Truth Social post had been temporarily deleted.
The post broke a rare, if temporary, silence by Mr. Trump on complex international affairs. The statement was his first about Kyiv’s drone attack on airfields in Russia, a stunning assault that hit nuclear-capable bombers, revealing a significant vulnerability.
You’ll recall Trump campaigned on a promise that he could end the Russian invasion of Ukraine “in one day” citing his “very, very good relationship” with Putin. And yet, here we are more than four months into Trump’s second administration and it appears there’s no real progress on bringing the conflict to an end.
Even though there is a bipartisan measure in the Senate to impose strong economic sanctions on Russia – led by Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) – Trump has refused the endorse the bill.
Sunday’s drone attacks in Russia reportedly took 18 months to plan and involved smuggling drones inside the country on commercial trucks where they were parked near military airfields. They were then activated remotely and piloted to their targets.
The attack reportedly caused about $7 billion in damage.
Donald Trump, who boasted on the campaign trail he could end the Russia/Ukraine war in one day, is suddenly criticizing Russian President Putin after Russia unleashed one of its largest offensives against Ukraine calling the Russian leader “absolutely CRAZY!” Continue reading “Trump: Putin ‘Has Gone Absolutely CRAZY!’”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the U.S. will walk away from efforts to end the Russian invasion of Ukraine unless there’s meaningful progress in the near future. Remember when Donald Trump promised on the campaign trail he could and would end the war in “24 hours?”Continue reading “U.S. May ‘Move On’ From Russia/Ukraine War Negotiations”
Ukrainian officials have announced they would support a 30-day cease-fire with Russia following more than 8 hours of meetings in Saudi Arabia with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Michael Waltz, U.S. national security adviser. The United States also agreed to immediately lift the pause on intelligence sharing and resume military assistance to Ukraine. Continue reading “Ukraine Open To 30-Day Cease-Fire With Russia”