How Can The World Stand By While Trump Sucks Up To Putin?

[Nolieinforme]

OK, so this probably isn't an AIBU, but I'm speechless that Trump is behaving like a bully and seems to be getting away with it.

He just lies. "Zelensky is a dictator" "Ukraine started the war" "Putin has done nothing wrong" etc, etc. I can hardly believe what's been said on the news today.

Why are the rest of the world letting this happen? If America want's to align themselves with Russia, then we should be returning the Chagos Islands without the huge sum of money promised, closing all the US airbases in the UK, closing the US embassy, and expelling their diplomats, etc, etc.

Trump is a madman and what is going to happen if no-one stands up to him? If this was anyone else they just wouldn't get away with it.

It’s scary. The lunatics are in charge and we are all in the firing lines.

at a guess the worlds intertwined with each other and isolation policies are not suitable for todays political environment

The rest of the World can step in if they like as the US withdraws support....... .but they won't because they haven't got the stomach to face down Putin. Europeans for example have spent decades sponging off the US taxpayer for their defence. Should have seen this coming eventually (and definitely after Trumps first term) and prepared for it rather than spaffing all their taxpayers money on welfare. To increase UK defence spending to 5% GDP will cost another £80 billion per year. Every year. For ever. Who's in?

I think Putin is manipulating Trump and Trump is too blind to see it .

I posted this on another thread

Unfortunately this post kind of nails it. We have spent years funding a society which is hugely state dependent. More sick and disabled than the any where else in the western world. We’ve ran defence spending into the ground because the hope is someone else will do it. Not enough money and too many on the sick. We’ve fucked our selves to be blunt.

It's all about Trump's 'America First'.

What's best for America. Full stop.

Being at war with Putin is not what's best for America - so Trump will do or say whatever it takes for it not to be the case.

Not enough money and too many on the sick. We’ve fucked our selves to be blunt.

No we are fucked because we never recovered from the 08 crash, no
investment in anything particularly the young, allowed assets to inflate, Brexit, Covid & the fact we have an ageing population

We obviously need to increase defence spending but who is going to vote for more taxes?

This. It’s like asking why nobody stands up to Tyson Fury in a bar - there is nobody with the strength or power to reasonably take him on and make him back down.

Trump has been elected on a promise of putting America first and not liberally spending their ‘tax dollars’ policing the world and acting as a very expensive military deterrent for others. He has (I think quite reasonably) made the point that we have been happily defunding our own military safe in the knowledge they’ll properly fund theirs and we can hide behind them.

The UK has no standing any more. We have no proper allies - the USA has ghosted us, we are no longer in the EU, and our Empire is in the dustbin of history. We are still a member of NATO, but we have little influence over the major players anymore.

Add to that that we spend more on disability benefits alone than our entire military budget, our failing economy and high unemployment, and what weight do we have to throw around?

Get away with what though? He’s made some comments which have been condemned. The international community has never reacted to comments as far as I know, he has always spouted a lot of crap (admittedly these comments do seem more dangerous than the norm). Pretty sure if he invades another sovereign country he/they US will be sanctioned just like Putin. No one is going to go to war with them whatever he does or says because it is not a winnable war for obvious reasons. Same as for Putin. We can’t do anything other than see what happens.

When Putin invaded Ukraine, Trump called him a genius.
And Trump had repeatedly indicated he wouldn’t continue funding the war in Ukraine years ago. He seems this as a European issue, not a US one.

So the American electorate voted for this.
and to be honest, Europe should have been paying more for its own defence.

Trump has overturned 80 years of US policy in one month.
But embracing Putin is on another level….

We can’t do anything to stop him.

He’s the most powerful man in the world, with the richest man in the world at his right hand.

He’s the biggest bully in the playground and he’s decided to team up with the other bullies.

We have no teacher to run to and ‘make him stop’ - it’s a survival of the fittest, Lord of the Flies scenario, and it isn’t going to be pretty.

We do have far too many on the sick - for all the reasons you’ve stated and we’ve taxed growth out of service. So what’s coming next? 5bn of welfare cuts to plough into defence. Should’ve seen it coming tbh.

I think he's calling Zelensky a dictator because Zelensky has cancelled elections, which is the type of things dictators tend to do.

Several polls-not all- are showing that his popularity has fallen, so a cynical person might not marvel at the fact that the elections are cancelled.

I used to think this, but actually I think they just recognise a kindred spirit in each other. They are amoral men who will do anything to advance their own power, wealth and interests. They’ve realised that they have more to gain by cooperating to bully smaller countries and use them as bargaining chips.

Countries don't hold elections in wartime. That's just a standard.

I don't see the problem with America putting America first. They've given hundreds of billions to Ukraine.

Zelensky needs to go. He's diabolical.

More sick and disabled than the any where else in the western world.

I doubt that's true. The difference is that we all contribute to pay out of our taxes for the sick and disabled, so that they get better, Unlike in countries where the sick and disabled can't afford medical care.

One thing that I think is new is the number of apparently "pro-Trump" posters that appeared on here in recent weeks.
And suddenly our local FB page seems to have lots of pro-Trump/Putin posts from anonymous people, as does one of the FB interest groups I'm in

It does look like a concerted effort to change opinion via social media.

Ukraine is under martial law. How do you organise a national poll in a war zone?

Not this again

should Zelensky act against his country's constitution.

And if he did that, how would
Elections be held?

Agreed.
I have seen the tide turn massively on social media in the last month or two. I think this is what propaganda looks like in the 21st century and we have no real defence.

Trumps approach is transactional. So If Ukraine wants financial help, it will sign over its mineral reserves. Totally different to say, Reagan.

We don’t though that’s the problem. We have a majority of net takers. Not enough people pay enough tax.