To be fair: Trump, Putin, Zelensky. Villain or hero, all one family
Sometimes life itself paints scenes so bizarre that if a screenwriter painted them for us on a film screen, we would be shaking our heads, unable to tolerate something so unbelievable even on television. Donald Trump's America suggests that standard paths will not be taken. However, it is truly unusual to watch live discussions about the killing of civilians and children in the diction of a cheap reality show.
Donald Trump will celebrate his 80th birthday next year and so in a situation where he does not recognize his guests at a state visit in Washington, he appears very authentic. However, Finnish President Alexander Stubb promptly introduced himself, so Trump praised him, saying he looks "very good, better than last time," so maybe that's why he didn't recognize him.
A Fox News reporter assesses the suit of the Ukrainian president, which suits him well and how it differs from his previous attire. Shortly afterwards, the discussion shifts to sending Ukrainian soldiers to their deaths and the killing of a year and a half old child by Russian armed forces.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz explains to Trump that Ukraine's territory withdrawal would be like the US getting rid of Florida. Trump nods appreciatively to such analogies and praises the meeting as being "very good" again. Even Zelenskyj has understood Trump's specific diplomatic language, where it's necessary to compliment the American president in every other sentence, and so it goes on like a spinning top. Trump is clearly enjoying it, judging by the footage.
It all started with a smile on the face of Vladimir Putin during discussions in Alaska, where his top minister cheerfully arrived wearing a t-shirt with the inscription USSR (it looks like CCCP in Cyrillic). This is how negotiations of top politicians regarding the most serious security crisis in Europe since World War II are conducted today. As Czech Russophiles often repeat, which could lead to World War III.
"The United States has no cards, because they threw them out of hand. If we want to play with them again someday, we will have to get them back: Arm Ukraine, expand sanctions, stop deadly drone swarms, break the Russian economy and win the war. Then there will be peace,"
It wasn't Winston Churchill who said it, but The Atlantic commentator Anne Applebaum.
That's how things would be done in the old, yet not very good, times. Nowadays, politics is done differently and even Trump's even older predecessor, who was truly of a different caliber than the current president, was not willing to slam the table as decisively.
The magic of it all is that there is a Dadaistic picture in front of us that nobody understands and it cannot be ruled out that it will lead to an end to the killing in Ukraine. However, Vladimir Putin did not unleash a bloody war in order to have a good laugh at the new diplomatic format we were watching on Monday.
Putin is also a person living on well-trodden tracks. These tracks lead through Russian spheres of influence, and Putin would imagine it as it was during the times of the Iron Curtain. He is not planning an invasion into the USA, nor France, where a Russian foot has never stepped, but in Prague in 1968, the Russians could dramatically demonstrate their power.
Donald Trump probably ran for the office of president so he could provoke and his humorous-dadaist spectacles in his understanding of diplomacy are probably inherent to him. At the same time, there can be no doubt that he desires genuine peace and an end to the killing in Ukraine. He just has no idea how to achieve this goal.
According to assumptions, it was not resolved even by closely watched meetings, but in the world of dadaist images, where there is no order, things often develop randomly. The times are changing, order and organization are long gone on the international field. Everything can be resolved successfully by a parallel accident, but nothing suggests it and nothing specific emerged from lengthy negotiations.
However, the last two episodes filled with absurd situations had a high viewership and so it offers to continue broadcasting an endless series without content.
