Donald Trump, our orange-hued narcissist-in-chief, has made a political career out of doing Putin’s bidding as he pretends he’s some sort of strongman. But like all dysfunctional relationships—especially where one party is a former KGB spook and the other’s a spray-tanned sociopath hopped up on grievance and Big Macs—it was bound to cause trouble. With Trump’s strikes on Iran, he broke the first rule of Kremlin club: don’t bomb Putin pals without permission.
Dmitry Medvedev, Putin’s Mini-Me, didn’t mince words: “Trump started a new war,” he said. This was diplomacy, which Trump doesn’t know from his arse, but as evil as the Russians are, they understand. Medvedev shared his Putin-supplied words carefully, as they have meaning. They directly undermine Trump’s campaign pledge he’d “not start any new wars”–it’s meant to rile up the base and some MAGA elites who actually believed it.
Yet, instead of backing down, Trump did what he’s never done before. He threatened Vlad back: “Putin…needs to be careful.” Wow. All of this because Putin had one job for Trump–get him Ukraine–and he spectacularly failed. So Putin figured when he told Trump to leave his ally Iran alone, he’d comply. But Trump didn’t this time, because he’s pissed at Putin, is feeling strong for some reason or is hopped up on goofballs. Folks, there’s a serious chance Putin kick Trump off the island. But how he does it/who he backs…well, that’s some combo of fascinating and terrifying.
