Exchange from today’s TRIP US, it’s auto generated so excuse typos and odd Loki g names:
KK - “What do you think is behind Donald Trump sounding so angry at Ukraine last night that he's blaming them for the war? What's the switch?
AS - My silence is because what I really think is not in the mainstream. And so what I really think, if I end up saying it on our podcast, people will say, OK, I'm being absurd. OK, so.
But I think there's a hold on him. I don't know why it's like this. McMaster couldn't figure it out.
Mattis couldn't figure it out. Kelly couldn't figure it out.
KK - Did you guys used to speak about this during the last administration when you were there?
AS - Yes. Some somebody last night from the former administration texted me, it's weird the relationship with Putin. It's just weird.
Meaning, if you didn't know any better, right? Let's say, let's give President Trump the benefit of the doubt, you would say, okay, he's obviously the American president. He can't be in the tank for Vladimir Putin.
But then, as you know, from the KGB, they do everything out in the open. Okay, so that's part of their technique, right? And there's Occam's razor.
If we open up the window, you hear a clippity-clop outside. It's a horse, Katty. It's not a zebra.
You can't overthink it. So this guy is repeating Kremlin talking points to the American media. He's bullying his Republican friends.
You know and I know that more than one senator has complained about credible death threats, where the FBI has reported to them, hey, we've got some credible death threats on our hands. And so I don't know. I mean, again, it's so obvious that it's probably not true, but you tell me, have we ever seen the sitting president of the United States go through talking points?
Okay, Alexander Dugan, who is a very famous inside of Russia philosopher, he wrote a piece which I sent to you this morning. Yeah, and he basically said that, you know, Lavrov is running Trump. Lavrov will be briefing Trump on what to do here to establish this new world order, which is a post-Soviet but pro-Russian.
Russia controls the Eastern European theater. I guess that means the reattachment of all of their republics and domination of Poland, I guess. I don't know.
Am I being too aggressive by saying this, Katty? You got to tell me, Eva, because I don't want people to say, oh, you know, he's got Trump derangement. I don't have Trump derangement syndrome.
I have Trump reality syndrome. I'm just telling you what we all saw, what we're all worried about.
The two tells are where he blatantly rewrites history, saying that the Ukrainians started the war. And the second tell is what you mentioned, calling for elections, which is straight out of Vladimir Putin's playbook. That is exactly what Vladimir Putin wants to happen.”
it’s worth listening to the whole episode, as always.
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-rest-is-politics-us/id1743030473?i=1000694612533