Thomas Friedman: Putin Controls Trump and America's Allies in Shock

SadaNews - In his weekly article in the New York Times, writer Thomas Friedman highlighted the dilemma that worries European allies regarding U.S. President Donald Trump's continued portrayal as hesitant and incapable of confronting the escalation of his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in Ukraine, despite events placing the ball entirely in his court.

He noted that during his visit last week to Kyiv to attend the "European Yalta Strategy" conference, he sensed a deep European concern hidden behind public niceties.

He added that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, along with ministers from NATO countries, clearly showed gratitude to Trump in an attempt to dissuade him from withdrawing support for Ukraine.

However, the dominant question behind closed doors was - as Friedman states - "why does Trump insist on denying the Russian threats while Putin continues to test the West's patience?".

Regarding the recent incident of a swarm of about 20 Russian drones infiltrating Polish territory, Friedman compared the statements of Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and the U.S. President.

While Tusk described the incident as "the closest to open confrontation since World War II", Trump only responded with a passing comment on his social media platform "Truth Social", as if he were a "hobbyist blogger" discussing a scandal committed by a movie star in public, before later downplaying its severity by saying it might just have been a "mistake".

Friedman believes that Trump makes the situation worse by setting a new condition or timeline each day for imposing real economic sanctions on Russia while Putin escalates his attacks on Ukraine.

The article pointed out that Trump recently demanded that Europe completely cease importing Russian oil and impose massive tariffs on China, conditions the writer describes as unserious, adding that any "serious" president would not make such demands on social media but through intensive diplomatic work.

In contrast, Ukrainians resorted to directly targeting Russian oil refineries, with their president Zelensky describing those strikes as "sanctions", in the absence of any decisive U.S. action, according to the New York Times article.

However, Friedman rejects conspiracy theories that claim Trump is a "agent" of Putin, but he clarifies that his behavior differs from any approach taken by a U.S. president since World War II.

The writer believes that Trump does not see NATO as a historical alliance to protect democracy, but views international relations as a "Monopoly" game.

He goes on to say that the president classifies countries based on commercial interests or personal investment opportunities, or how willing their leaders are to flatter his ego.

This explains - according to the writer - his leniency towards Putin, who is good at flattering him and offers him economic opportunities.

Friedman also mentions the absence of a real policy-making process in Trump's administration, "there is no review of the president's statements published on social media by experts from the department or the CIA, nor are there indications that they are presented to congressional foreign affairs committees".

Even Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared - in the writer's opinion - incapable of explaining events with a clear strategic vision, while Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski sarcastically responded at the Yalta conference that it is impossible for "20 mistakes" to happen simultaneously, referring to the breach of Russian drones into his country's airspace.

In Friedman's view, Trump revealed what he harbors towards Ukraine when he wrote on the "Truth Social" platform that "this is not Trump's war, it is (former U.S. President Joe) Biden and Zelensky's war".

Commenting on this post, Friedman noted that Trump ignores who ignited that war, which is Putin.

He said addressing Trump: "Sorry Mr. President, but this is your war now. Because you alone are able to provide Ukraine with military resources to send a message to Putin that time is not on his side, and he has to accept a deal".

The settlement that Friedman refers to and describes as "painful" is for Russia to retain some of the territories it occupied in eastern Ukraine in exchange for strict Western guarantees for Ukraine's security and its accession to the European Union.

At the end of his article, Friedman praised Congressman Don Bacon from Nebraska, saying he is the only Republican who responded to Trump's attempt to evade responsibility with a tweet posted on his account on the X platform (formerly Twitter).

Bacon stated: "Mr. President, Putin is the invader. And now this war is under your watch, and you will be held accountable in history books in the coming decades for your actions or negligence".

Source: New York Times