Zelenskyy can insult the President to his face in the Oval Office, and all Trump does is keep inviting him back. Relying on false intel about Russian casualties, the Russian economy, and the Russian polity, Trump keeps trying self-defeating, self-sabotaging escalatory tactics with Russia, playing Russian roulette but mistaking it for American poker.

Trump threatens 500% sanctions on Russian-oil purchasing nations today, threatens long-range missiles into Moscow that Russia could think are nuclear-armed, and sends arms to Ukraine laundered through NATO. All this does is enrage the Russian populace and get us closer to triggering a world war between two nuclear powers. As a Russian once advised me: “we’d rather eat dirt than surrender.” Russian history proves it, whether in dealing with the Mongols, Napoleon or the Nazis. Just revisit the history of how the people of St. Petersburg held out during what they called The Great War.

At the same time, Russia holds escalatory dominance in Ukraine, and see the war as existential for their self-defense and survival. While Russia could be a critical ally in rare earth access (to balance leverage against China in the trade war), keeping energy costs down for an inflation-scarred American economy, open up the Arctic for economic enterprise in a resource rich region, utilize their mediation skills to deescalate Mideastern and other global conflicts, pursue meaningful nuclear nonproliferation and weapons de-escalation, and ally two culturally kindred, Christian conservative, gun-and-truck, anti-woke nations against the globalist empire, all is sacrificed in the delusional belief that the weaker party is Russia and Trump just needs to find the magical leverage to induce their full surrender. He just needs to blow up rapproachmont, send Russia into the welcoming embrace of the Big Panda out of necessity, and risk World War 3.

-- Robert Barnes