Trump, Witkoff and Kushner seem to want to enlarge their fortunes in cooperation with Russia at the expense of Ukraine. Putin’s financial advisor Kirill Dmitiriev has apparently invented an idea of $12 trillion in US-Russia cooperation, while Russia is merely a $2 trillion economy. Only senile Trump can be dumb or mad enough to take such nonsense seriously, but none of his aides dare to say that the emperor is naked – and mentally deficient. This is both stupidity and attempted larceny.
Ultimately, Trump wants to get the Nobel Peace Prize, which he will of course never get since everything he does runs contrary to democracy, freedom and peace.
It’d be cathartic, but Trump’s pettiness is boundless. I don’t see an upside to turning the US away from the table at this time, but I can imagine a few different ways a flustered trump would retaliate, ranging from a string of sloppy tweets to going mask-off and dropping all support for Ukraine and explicitly and directly supporting Russia instead. The US is not a stable player, and every day it’s a little bit less so. There could potentially be more to lose than their support, so all I’m saying is this needs to be dealt with tactfully. I know it’s torture but this might be one of those “let him come to the table and pretend he’s doing something to keep him dumb and happy” situations.
Also, that’s a great demonstration to the entire world that the US is not to be trusted and is unreliable partner. So in the future, its role is to return to the peripheral local power it was. And for the dependent on the US to rethink their place.