Trump Reverses Course on Putin

British PM Keir Starmer held the ground when it collapsed on February 28. French President Emmanuel Macron turned it around this time. The tag team delivered. Twice.

It is maddening.

The pace at which Donald Trump and his team keep flipping positions is dizzying. Tariffs are imposed one day, paused the next. Then they jump to 50%, only to fall back to 10%. Foreign student visas are revoked, then the revocations are revoked. One morning, the world hears that Trump’s team wants Ukraine to surrender Crimea; by evening, the White House insists Trump never said any such thing.

I honestly didn’t know what to make of it. But it was the first clear sign in the last 100 hours that something was moving behind the scenes.

Now, we have the full and furious backpedal from Donald Trump. Hours after meeting Zelensky at the Vatican, he posted this on social media:

This is Sleepy Joe Biden’s war, not mine. It was a loser from day one, and should have never happened, and wouldn’t have happened if I were President at the time. I’m just trying to clean up the mess that was left to me by Obama and Biden, and what a mess it is.

With all of that being said, there was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days. It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through 'Banking' or 'Secondary Sanctions'?

Too many people are dying!!

I now want you to look at what Senator Chuck Grassley posted on his social media account yesterday:

"IVE SEEN ENOUGH KILLING OF INNOCENT UKRAINIAN women + children. President Trump pls put the toughest of sanctions on Putin. U ought to c from clear evidence that he is playing America as a patsy."

There are multiple Senate camps within the GOP. No one senator has the gravitas to move the MAGA world. But Chuck Grassley is one of the senior-most senators, and one who has remained fluid enough, almost floating to and fro from all the different camps. His statement, that too on a public forum, meant the Republican lines were starting to break around Team Trump’s push to deliver Crimea to Russia.

It looks like it has worked. But none of this would have happened if not for French President Emmanuel Macron throwing his full weight behind Zelensky by saying that you cannot expect Zelensky to sign the ceasefire proposal when Putin is bombing his country. He did not tweet it. He did not send his ambassador to deliver the message. He said it on live TV. And that hits harder than delivering the same message behind closed doors.

Here’s how it went down:

1. Trump’s team pushes Ukraine to give up Crimea

2. → Zelensky posts the July 2018 U.S. Crimea Declaration without addressing Trump directly

3. → Macron publicly backs Zelensky

4. → Senator Grassley publicly demands Trump sanction Putin

5. → White House denies Trump ever asked Ukraine to surrender Crimea

6. → Trump admits maybe Putin is "just tapping me along" — and hints at sanctions.

That "tapping along" moment matters. It is the first time Donald Trump has publicly conceded that Vladimir Putin might not be dealing with him honestly. Not anger. Not threats. Just a dawning, grudging realization: He is being played.