A Weak US President Looks the Other Way as Buddy Putin Hits US Targets in Ukraine

 

A Weak US President Looks the Other Way as Buddy Putin Hits US Targets in Ukraine

Sometimes you have to wonder. Is the world run by a coterie of autocrats with special relationships to each other? Or subunits where they just “hang out” (virtually anyway), until they have to grapple with conflicting needs? Or do they operate on one more visible level for public consumption, while making “wink-wink” side deals that seriously conflict with what their public expects? You have to be an idiot if you don’t appreciate that Trump admires the mega-rich and ruthless dictators, the latter who dispense with problems Trump struggles with (lawsuits, legislators, judges and harsh media critics) by “removing them” – one way or the other, practices which a mega-unpopular President… who could not win a full and fair national election if his life depended on it (so his only tool seems to be rigging whatever elections still exist to minimize or extinguish) – can only sit back and jealously admire… from a distance.

Trump’s role model, and the darling of the MAGA right – the politician who inspired Project 2025 as the going forward template for his second term – was Hungary’s Viktor Mihály Orbán, who seemed to have perfected corruption, whose opponents were either prosecuted (successfully), imprisoned, bankrupted (with their assets going to Orbán’s cronies) or somehow “disappeared.” But Orbán had so infuriated the Hungarian electorate with a brutal and failed economy, cozying up to his personal buddy, Vladimir Putin, that the Hungarian PM was unable successfully to manipulate the recent parliamentary election. The landslide, that ripped Orbán from office and decimated the ranks of his Fidesz Party into a small minority, seems to have reflected a litany of cruelty, autocracy and seriously failed economic policies that parallel Trump’s much worse missteps in recent policy decisions. Does Trump see his future in Orbán’s severe plunge in power?

I’d say Putin is smiling, but the Russian head of state is facing the once-repressed wrath of the Russian people that is now exploding. Ukraine is hitting targets even a thousand miles away. Moscow itself is not immune from missiles and drones launched from Ukraine. Even as oil prices should have been a massive boon to Putin (and Russia has made more than a few new bucks from the Iran War oil price spike), Ukraine strikes have destroyed Russian oil refineries (pictured above), storage depots and even active oil fields, putting a serious dent in Russia’s petroleum production capacity. Orbán’s demise has also pushed Hungary back towards Europe, eliminated the perpetual Orbán veto of EU support for Ukraine as Hungary looks to reduce oil total oil and gas dependence on Russia.

Russia has recently lost more territory in Ukraine than it has gained. Its supply of draft-fodder soldiers is struggling to restaff his military, sophisticated missile supplies are seriously depleted, and ordinary Russians are facing shortages and very expensive basics. Rumors of Putin’s expressed fear of being assassinated, his living increasingly in underground bunkers, are undermining the former macho swagger of this brutal dictator. Still, there is this invisible connection between Trump and Putin… perhaps a once deep subtext of Trump’s having a place with Western amenities to escape to if he were to become an indicted war criminal. But even as Trump’s support for Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Ukraine has all but vaporized, European ardor supporting Ukraine seems to be returning.

So, what does Putin do? Oddly, his recent military focus against Ukraine appears to be against major US corporate targets operating in Ukraine. Writing for the May 5th New York Times, Constant Méheut, explains: “The Russian drones slammed into the American-owned warehouses one after another… Each announced its arrival with an eerie whine. Then came the blasts, ripping through a vast grain terminal in southern Ukraine and lighting up the night sky.

“Seven drones in three minutes. The target, according to a video of the mid-April attack recorded by a truck driver, was the U.S. farming giant Cargill… ‘This is insane,’ the driver is heard repeating in the video, which was obtained and verified by The New York Times. ‘This is insane.’... The attack was one of the latest in a series of Russian strikes on major American companies since last summer, including facilities tied to Coca-Cola, Boeing, the snacks maker Mondelez and the tobacco giant Philip Morris… The corporations have largely avoided publicizing the strikes, wary of alarming investors and insurers. While Ukraine has disclosed several attacks on American assets, the strikes on Cargill and Coca-Cola have not been previously reported.

“Russia’s motivation for striking U.S. companies is unclear. Some Ukrainian business figures say the attacks are part of a broader campaign targeting all types of assets, regardless of companies’ nationality, aimed at choking off the country’s economy. Others see a more focused goal: to deter U.S. investment just as Kyiv is trying to deepen business ties with a deal-making White House… The companies have quietly raised concerns with U.S. officials about what they see as a deliberate and escalating campaign against American business interests in Ukraine. The White House, despite its pledge to defend U.S. commercial interests abroad, has been muted in its response.

“The Trump administration has not condemned any of the attacks that Ukraine has made public this year. After U.S. diplomats in Kyiv and Ukrainian business figures and officials warned about the attacks, the administration offered a response that amounted to little more than an acknowledgment of the concerns, according to three people familiar with the exchanges, who insisted on anonymity to discuss internal matters.” After all, Putin is one of Trump’s “good old boys.”

You’d think this laissez faire attitude, Trump’s looking the other way as Russia focuses on blasting US targets in Ukraine, would alienate Republicans in Congress facing reelection as Trump’s popularity is almost gone. But Trump’s success at gerrymandering following the Supreme Court’s handing red states a carte blanche to purge major Democratic supporters (like Black voters) from having their votes count. But once “maybe jumpers” in Congress have suddenly realized that Trump’s election moves have been successful and may seriously impact their elect election results. As NBC News (May 12th) observes, some of these skeptics are jumping back towards Trump:

“The key is a change in Louisiana election law that has turned Saturday’s [5/9] contest into a closed primary, meaning only registered Republicans may vote. Before this, Louisiana had long conducted ‘jungle’ primaries, with candidates from all parties appearing on the same ballot and the top two vote-getters advancing to a runoff. The shift will have the effect of narrowing the voting universe to committed Republicans, among whom loyalty to Trump runs deep.” Those redistricting maps are being drawn faster than ever before. And so it seems that no matter what Trump does, unless and until his loyalists are voted out (very much in question), his sycophants are an infection that just might linger.

I’m Peter Dekom, but perhaps looking that this coterie of brutal autocrats and total autocrats wannabes, a club in which Donald Trump appears to be a sold member, just might tell most voters that Donald Trump is most definitely not on their side.