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Trump Has No Cards | Why would Putin need to make a deal with him?
(www.theatlantic.com)
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this post was submitted on 16 Aug 2025
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politics
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Trump has cards. Fuck up Russia. Make them squeal. Twist their arm, punch them in the nose with a few well placed missiles in Moscow.
Hell, flood the country with free Vodka and then invade Moscow. The US government can and should occupy Russia. We’d win easily. Why do we spend all this time negotiating with despots? It just makes them feel important.
He’s Putins bitch in case you missed the last ten years
I thought it started in the 90'?
Yea, but most people didn't know who or what Trump was back then. God I miss not knowing about him...
Crazy guys have nukes. No bueno.
I laughed so hard I think I pooped my pants a little.
Not sure why you find it funny. You’re not talking about a country of religious zealots like you find in the Middle East. You’re talking about a country full of drunks where half of all deaths for men are attributable to alcoholism. Add in that Ukraine has steadily ground down Russia’s supply of military hardware to the point where Russia is now pretty much a soft target. Russians are riding into battle on e-bikes now because they barely have any tanks left. Of the tanks that do remain, they’re circa 1940s and 50s.
Edit: or, downvote and say nothing because you haven’t got a response.
It's funny because you still seem to be hung up on "my toys are more expensive than yours, therefore I win" mentality.
That logic didn't work for the US in Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan. And it didn't work for Russia in Ukraine.
Underestimating your enemy is my best guess as to where the US goes so wrong when invading "weaker" countries, but I'm no expert.
You somehow missed my entire point. The Russians themselves aren’t a particularly self-motivated bunch. In order to make them fight, the army literally has to threaten to kill them. Behind their front line, they have another line of Russians that will shoot anyone who tries to retreat. Surrender? You’ll also be killed for that. Also, alcoholism is pretty rampant with soldiers frequently being drunk. You can find clips of them drunk driving their military vehicles online, even getting into accidents with each other.
The US army has also proven pretty capable against the Russians in recent battles in Syria — like the battle of Khasham. If the Russians can barely win against the Ukrainians, I think the US would pretty capably put Russia down. Add in all the expensive weaponry and the US could manage.
The US couldn't hold Iraq or Afghanistan. Russia is much larger than either of those.
You also have the other problem of the right wing of the USA being very pro Russia and pro Putin - including the president and many members of congress. MAGA type have been seen wearing shirts that say "better Russian than a Democrat".
It's going to be hard to get all those MAGA army boys who want to taste Putin cock to invade any part of Russia.
You are putting a lot of faith in two megalomaniac narcissistic assholes with an ego bigger than their country not using their big nukey toys if they ever entered a direct conflict.
Nuclear powers don't do direct conflict for a good reason.
Calm down.
That would require Trump not to be a Russian stooge.
And if we're talking about ways to bring Russia to heel, expropriating all EU and US assets held by Russian oligarchs would be a great start. And after that, send in spies to pick off those oligarchs one by one, in obvious but deniable ways. Putin only keeps his job as long as they know he can protect them and keep them rich.
Yeah, Europe and USA could just give Ukraine tons of long range missiles and tell them to do as they please. Giving Moscow a taste of its own medicine could change things real quick. However, the problem is that both USA and Europe are dependent on Russian exports for energy. Europe gets something like 30% of its energy from Russian naturual gas and USA gets most of its fissile uranium from Russia. Until Europe and USA completely shut off Russian energy sources, it's all a dog and pony show
The US and Europe can own Russian natural gas
Exactly, Trump has lots of cards, he just refuses to play them, and is making USA irrelevant with his inaction.