The whole thing is bizarre. Excerpts from the NYT updates:
He was just asked if he was willing to give up on joining NATO by a correspondent from Lindell TV, operated by the election-denying, Trump-supporting pillow salesman Mike Lindell.
Trump’s optimism that Putin now wants to end the war sounded much like what he said before their August meeting in Anchorage. Then, as now, he offered no rationale for why he thought an agreement was within reach.
As is often the case these days, Trump talked about how he felt he deserved a Nobel Peace Prize but how the honor felt frustratingly just out of reach. And then he added, improbably: “I don’t care about all that stuff. I just care about saving lives.” [ask the alleged drug mules at the bottom of the Caribbean]
Turning to China, Trump was back in a conciliatory mood after his angry social media posts about Beijing’s halt on the shipment of rare earth minerals. Trump said he still planned to meet President Xi Jinping of China. “I think we will make a deal,” he said. Bessent said he will meet Chinese officials in Malaysia next week to prepare for the presidential meeting.
When asked if he was concerned that Putin’s outreach to Trump was an attempt to buy more time and prolong the war, Trump said, “Yeah I am, but I’ve been played all my life by the best of them, and I came out really well, so it’s possible.”
Zelensky said he was “not happy” with Moscow’s idea of building a tunnel connecting Alaska and Russia through the Bering Strait. Kyiv has been competing with Moscow to curry Trump’s favor with lucrative economic deals.
More WTF moments likely. |
