Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Grotesque, greedy, gullible, graceless, gaslighting, gormless, god-forsaken grifter - Trump thread #147

1000 replies

Spandauer · 15/08/2025 23:11

Desperately seeking that Peace Prize.
May have to settle for the Hero of the Russian Federation award. Bigly sad.

Previous thread:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5372669-still-dancing-the-tariff-tango-vlad-and-bibi-still-playing-him-like-a-fiddle-and-epsteins-list-must-be-written-in-invisible-ink-trump-thread-146

Still dancing the Tariff Tango, Vlad and Bibi still playing him like a fiddle and Epstein's list must be written in invisible ink - Trump thread #146 | Mumsnet

Awa' a bile yer heid, ya greet orange jobbie. (Virtual Placard for his upcoming visit to Scotland - others welcome) Previous thread: [[https://www.m...

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5372669-still-dancing-the-tariff-tango-vlad-and-bibi-still-playing-him-like-a-fiddle-and-epsteins-list-must-be-written-in-invisible-ink-trump-thread-146

OP posts:
Thread gallery
140
DuncinToffee · 16/08/2025 22:33

There is a Coalition of the Willing meeting tomorrow

PerkingFaintly · 16/08/2025 22:39
Brew
Serpentstooth · 16/08/2025 22:49

Poor Zelensky. I fear his goose is cooked and that he will be unaccompanied and bullied as before. Trump has presumably picked up some arm-twisting points from arch-bully Putin and is going to try for a Gaza style land grab."Look what's happened to Gaza. Do you want to be responsible for that happening in Kiev? If you don't agree to Russian demands it will be Your Fault. Thousands dead because you won't concede'. Or something like that. All good wishes go with him and fingers crossed.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

Spandauer · 16/08/2025 22:53

Igotjelly · 16/08/2025 22:30

Sky news suggesting that they may well join him.

Ah, thanks! I kept looking but couldn't find any 'normal' news sources talking about it.

If the reports of the arguments are true then they should definitely provide back up!

They should all talk in French or German (or any language Trump doesn't speak) between themselves in front of him.

OP posts:
TokyoSushi · 16/08/2025 22:56

I was trying to post a picture but the app won’t do it, Melania has written a very odd open letter to Vlad…

DuncinToffee · 16/08/2025 23:09

I saw it, her signature mimics Donnie's.

EmeraldShamrock000 · 16/08/2025 23:55

Europe have to support Zelensky.
Crazy that Trump can decide what to do with another country's land, chop it up.
I suppose without America, Ukraine wouldn't have a chance.
Interesting that Melania wrote Putin a letter.

llizzie · 17/08/2025 00:40

DuncinToffee · 16/08/2025 21:48

Trump told European leaders he believed a rapid peace deal could be negotiated if Mr. Zelensky agreed to give up the rest of the Donbas region to Russia, even those areas not occupied by Russian troops, according to two senior European officials briefed on the call.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/08/16/world/trump-putin-meeting-alaska?smid=nytcore-android-share

Ukraine will never give up territory - never. Ukraine is a sovereign country, with defined boundaries. It is not part of Russia, despite what Putin says. If it were anywhere, as in the Balkan, conflicts, once someone invades another's territory others take it as a sign to do the same.

To cede territory to an invader is a mistake - a very dangerous one. How would the UN help anyone in a free for all?

Putin knew what he was doing when he invaded that part of the Donbas with the richest minerals. He invaded to get the mineral rights. He is laying Ukraine to waste, a no man's land. Putin's army has not only killed Ukraine military and civilians, he has taken captive Ukraine children, tens of thousands of them, and forcing them to become Russian citizens. They will never return to the Donbas except as Russian mine workers on starvation wages, reminiscent of the days of Stalin post WW2. That time it was coal mining: this time something more lucrative.

Another reason why Ukraine will never give Russia the opportunity to stay.

llizzie · 17/08/2025 01:00

Serpentstooth · 16/08/2025 22:49

Poor Zelensky. I fear his goose is cooked and that he will be unaccompanied and bullied as before. Trump has presumably picked up some arm-twisting points from arch-bully Putin and is going to try for a Gaza style land grab."Look what's happened to Gaza. Do you want to be responsible for that happening in Kiev? If you don't agree to Russian demands it will be Your Fault. Thousands dead because you won't concede'. Or something like that. All good wishes go with him and fingers crossed.

No. You are so very wrong. I am horrified that anyone would say such a thing. That is defeatist talk. Not only that, but it is very dangerous talk. Such talk incites the wrong people to act wrongly. Putin already took over control of Belarus peacefully, earlier this year. The Belarusians may not realise it yet, but they have been taken over. Putin told them they have the same rights of passage as Russians. Aren't they lucky!!!

You have to spread the map out and look further afield to what is taking place.

Last year Putin announced conscription, and thousands of Russians of military age fled to Georgia. Now Georgia is not a NATO country, but it does enjoy some of the benefits. It is not a member of the EU. However, just as Russians settled down in the Donbas and gave Putin the excuse to ''protect the interests of Russian people there'', so have Russians settled in Georgia as immigrants, and they too will become an excuse for Putin to invade when it suits him.

It might suit him sooner or later, because he wants to control a bit more of the world shipping in the Black Sea. He has already invaded most of the Black Sea coast of Ukraine, and is obviously making a claim to Odesa, the vital link for Ukraine's grain exports, especially vital to Africa. Putin and Erdogan will not make a move without the other one knowing, so international shipping through to the Mediterranean Sea could be compromised.

That shipping can no longer go through the Suez Canal, because Iran is funding not just Hamas and Hezbollah, but the Houthis down in Yemen, who are targeting international shipping in the Red Sea. Now goods have to go round Cape Horn, increasing prices. South Africa, with all it's gang warfare, tried to intimidate that route by accusing Israel, but they have no sense.

Why does Putin want Ukraine? He wants the mineral rights. He will lay Ukraine to waste - a no mans land, like the area between the Berlin wall and the people of East Germany.

'Great oaks from little acorns grow', but they cannot be allowed to grow anywhere.

llizzie · 17/08/2025 01:07

prettybird · 16/08/2025 14:39

Dh mentioned this morning that there is speculation that the whole purpose of this trip was nothing to do with the “formal” meetings - which delivered nothing of substance - and everything to do with the 9 minute 1 on 1 journey in The Beast to get to the meeting venue after having met on the red carpet Hmm

It is a charade. What has ''stop bombing Ukraine' to do with any sort of 'deal' between Trump and Putin.

It has, however, given Trump a view of Putin which cannot be seen on telephone calls, however frequent, and videoed.

I think the signs are that Trump is beginning to view Putin with contempt. I like to think the difference in sizes of the red carpets was more than enough to point in that direction.

The BBC news showed an interview with a Moscow professor who insisted that Ukraine is Russian, and Putin himself has said as much, that there is no Ukraine, that it is all Russian soil, and if Europe puts boots on the ground he will regard that as an invasion into Russia. He says he will invade any country who tries. He cannot do that. He has to prove that Ukraine is not a sovereign nation, democratically elected and with defined borders. He cannot do that either.

There is no impasse, because Trump and Putin cannot decide what to do with a sovereign nation without their presence.

llizzie · 17/08/2025 01:11

SerendipityJane · 16/08/2025 14:43

I'm trying not to go insane over it, but given how "the news" works these days, by algorithm clickbait, I do wonder if some of the "huh ?" events we sometimes see are actually a crude (or not so crude) attempt to stack the deck ?

Remember how when it became necessary to pretend Boris was nowhere near the Brexit Bus, his never-before-mentioned "hobby" was .... building model buses.

So I wonder what the past 24 hours might have achieved to the algorithms that feed the MAGA beast ? Apart from the obvious crowding out of Epstein news ?

It doesn't help much to listen to so many conflicting views of what one thinks against the other.

Only studying the history of the USSR back to Stalin can you really try to understand why Putin wants to get back the USSR now. Stalin is his idol. The fact that Stalin died in fear of his life in his bedroom with that many locks on the door it is hard to believe the man was a leader once. Putin is half way there anyway. The fact that he was holding out his arm to shake hands with Trump shows he has medical problems of the neurological kind. It is a giveaway.

Only the Ukrainians can say what is best for Ukraine, and at the moment they are speaking through their President Zelenskyy.

llizzie · 17/08/2025 01:13

Pedallleur · 16/08/2025 15:39

Surely the great Bigly deal maker wasn't outsmarted by the former KGB officer who has gone from ordinary to President of Russia somehow and possibly acquired any wealth/property/power by means of which Bigly Donald can only dream/hope of. Not that he would dare. I have no doubt Putin would/could pull the trigger. Trump would want someone else to do it

I think America has confiscated enough wealth of the Russian oligarchs to rebuild Ukraine after the war. Most likely he will spend it turning Crimea into another Dubai playground, but it won't be Russian then.

llizzie · 17/08/2025 01:18

Igotjelly · 16/08/2025 11:29

I’m not sure how to read yesterday. The lack of a deal of any type makes me think that Trump wouldn’t roll over and give Putin an economic deal. For all of his many many orange tinted flaws I would have expected an economic agreement of some type even without a ceasefire. I wonder if he actually stuck fairly firm to the 5 principles from the Europeans.

They could not have made a deal without Ukraine being present. I don't profess to know what they talked about, but it could have been curiosity on the part of Trump. After all those phone calls, he wanted to meet him.

I don't think he expected Putin to make any sort of agreement. If he thought highly of him, would he have given himself a yard wide red carpet and Putin six inches?

Trump didn't expect Putin to make any agreement. It is quite possible that Trump wants conflict with Putin to give him an excuse to send his own military into Ukraine to give them some practice, but he cannot say that openly. All he can do is get up Putin's nose enough to have an excuse.

llizzie · 17/08/2025 01:20

Spandauer · 16/08/2025 12:55

Trump took zero questions from the press pool in Alaska, during his return flight on Air Force One, after landing, or upon arrival to the White House.

For someone who loves the sound of his own voice that's a 'tell' I think. He won't like the (even Fox) reporting that it's a win for Putin and a weak look for his orange self. He's probably going to lash out at someone - I hope it isn't Zelenskyy again on Monday. 🙁

How is it a win for Putin?

llizzie · 17/08/2025 01:23

DuncinToffee · 16/08/2025 11:40

https://www.newsweek.com/alaska-russia-trump-resources-2113295?

The Daily Telegraph reported that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is exploring the economic trade-offs the U.S. can make with Russia in order to facilitate a ceasefire and peace agreement

Edited

What reason do they give that either of them can make any sort of agreement without the people of Ukraine? Ukraine is NOT Russian territory, as Putin claims, it is a country, and Putin can make no arrangements on a country where he has no jurisdiction, however much he wants it.

Same with Trump. Imaging two heads of state trying to make a deal together over the UK without consulting the UK?

llizzie · 17/08/2025 01:28

Igotjelly · 16/08/2025 13:38

Do we know if Vance is likely to be back by Monday? I ask because the last shot show was on no small part led by him.

Vance interrupted Trump when President Zelenskyy raised the matter of the invasion by Russia of Crimea in 2014. Trump immediately corrected him and said 'wasn't it 2015?' Seeing his master's lapse of memory, Vance started shouting so that Trump would not put his foot in his big mouth again.

Trump mentioned Crimea in the run up to his election. Someone mentioned it was 10 years since the invasion. That stuck in Trump's brain, and he thought it was still 10 years in 2025, not realising that it was by then 11 years.

Trump has these lapses of memory, and needs company all the time to protect him from himself.

llizzie · 17/08/2025 03:13

Igotjelly · 16/08/2025 22:30

Sky news suggesting that they may well join him.

I think they will.

Serpentstooth · 17/08/2025 07:43

@llizzie, you have misconstrued a prediction of how Trump will treat Zelensky as my approval. Nothing could be further from the truth.

DuncinToffee · 17/08/2025 08:44

Melania's letter

Grotesque, greedy, gullible, graceless, gaslighting, gormless, god-forsaken grifter - Trump thread #147
Pedallleur · 17/08/2025 08:47

llizzie · 17/08/2025 01:13

I think America has confiscated enough wealth of the Russian oligarchs to rebuild Ukraine after the war. Most likely he will spend it turning Crimea into another Dubai playground, but it won't be Russian then.

Probably split the profits between them.

BustingBaoBun · 17/08/2025 09:04

DuncinToffee · 17/08/2025 08:44

Melania's letter

What, in the name of all that is holy, does all that mean?

"Yet in today's world, some children are forced to carry a quiet laughter"

Slovenia, where she was born, is close to Austria and Italy. And not to Ukraine so it can't be any heartfelt reason she is writing this.
I will profess I don't understand it. She is talking about 'the children'. Does she know that Putin has forcibly kidnapped 20,000 children, had them forcibly adopted, and cut their Ukrainian families out of their lives? Russification.

LlttledrummergirI · 17/08/2025 11:05

Word salad. No wonder they have concrete for gardens, communication doesn't seem to be a strong point of the Trumps.

If she was appealing to Putins better nature, she might as well not have wasted her time- he doesn't have one.

Serpentstooth · 17/08/2025 11:14

Should have cc'd it to Netanyahu.

Serpentstooth · 17/08/2025 11:16

They really do have no shame, none at all. Presumably because they also have no self-awareness.

Igotjelly · 17/08/2025 11:24

Metz and Maloni expected to attend the White House meeting with Zelenskyy. To me that’s a wise choice, Trump sees Maloni as a kindred populist spirit (not sure she’d wholeheartedly agree) and Merz has so far shown himself to be content to speak his mind.

Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.

This thread is not accepting new messages.
Swipe left for the next trending thread