Give Trump Several Nobel Prizes So That He Can Be Less Weird
His version of "peace" could kill Ukraine
The Atlantic’s Anne Applebaum has published a troubling account of something that was already pretty clear: Trump has basically taken Russia’s side in the Russia/Ukraine war. He’s withholding weapons that Ukraine needs, and he’s loosening the sanctions on Russia. Faced with the closest thing we’re ever going to get to a moral and strategic no-brainer in international relations, Trump is treating “should a country be allowed to just take over another country?” as an unsolvable Confucian riddle. It’s like watching a man struggle to figure out the word jumble on the side of a Happy Meal — the answer is “burger”, you idiot — except the consequences here could be dire.
Why is Trump doing this? I don’t like this topic, because I end up sounding like a conspiracy-addled lunatic; I can typically only talk about Trump and Russia for five minutes before the listener starts to suspect that everything I’m saying is laid out in an elaborate cork-board-with-yarn setup in my basement. But I think that a lot of pieces fall into place if you assume that Russia has something on Trump. There doesn’t have to be fancy spy bullshit; there need not be a shadowy group called The Caspian Syndicate or a mind control chip hidden Trump’s hair. I’m picturing something as simple as “Trump likes money and Russia gives him money.” My belief is that Trump is a greedy doofus with no moral compass, and you have to admit: Every one of his actions and statements in the past 50 years points in that direction.
But there’s also a less-sinister-if-more-stupid explanation for Trump’s Russia policy: He’s trying to win a Nobel Peace Prize. And he thinks that he’ll get one if he ends the war in Ukraine. This is, of course, a ridiculous, petty motivation, which is why I find it plausible — the only rival for Trump’s mendacity is his idiocy.
Consider the evidence…