If Donald Trump could, he would fly to Munich to sign away Ukraine to Vladimir Putin, and return to wave the document as “peace in our time”, hoping to claim at least the second Fifa peace prize.
uncertain
he → fly → prize
Whatever the complicated motives of Neville Chamberlain, his well-grounded fear after the carnage of a world war of another apocalypse and his wishful thinking that Hitler would be satiated after carving up Czechoslovakia, Chamberlain had not sent his son-in-law and former golf partner and real estate partner in advance to cut back-end deals with the Nazis to profit for his family and cronies.
asserted
Chamberlain → complicate → family
Though Chamberlain is judged as grievously misguided in history, Winston Churchill eulogized his “perfect sincerity according to his lights” and declared his mistaken gesture as rooted in the “noble and benevolent instincts of the human heart”.
uncertain
Churchill → judge → heart
Putin has proposed a meeting with Trump and Xi Jinping to settle the Ukraine war on Russian terms without the presence of the troublesome Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
asserted
Putin → propose → president
The Wall Street Journal described such a meeting as “unprecedented”.
asserted
Journal → describe → meeting
The Czechs were not present at Munich when their country was delivered to Hitler.
asserted
country → deliver → Hitler
Part of Trump’s urgent reason for selling out Ukraine is to cast blame before the midterm elections for the inflation wrought by his tariffs and Iran war.
asserted
Part → sell → tariffs
Panicked by plunging polls, he has ramped up his rhetoric against Zelenskyy as the alleged source of the crisis that Trump himself has created.
asserted
Trump → panic → that
Portraying Zelenskyy as the villain, Trump projects himself, as usual, as the victim.
asserted
Trump → portray → victim
His perceived political need and irreducible pathological neediness dovetail with his longtime admiration of Putin as the unconstrained strongman he has always wished to be.
asserted
he → perceive → strongman
Since Trump’s first visit to Moscow in 1987, he has dreamed of the bonanza of Russian deals to be lavished on him from Putin.
asserted
he → dream → Putin
Upon his return, he paid for full-page ads in major newspapers calling for the US to stop funding the defense of countries capable of defending themselves and to cease defending the flow of oil through the Gulf.
asserted
US → pay → Gulf
“The world is laughing at America’s politicians as we protect ships we don’t own, carrying oil we don’t need, destined for allies who won’t help,” the ad said.
asserted
ad → laugh → allies
From the start, the ideology has been a token of his greed, decades before he hawked his “America First Collection” of digital tokens.
asserted
he → hawk → tokens
Putin has been the unwavering object of his aspiration, one of the few people he has not betrayed or sought to humiliate, but to whom he bends his knee.
asserted
he → betray → knee
“Together,” tweeted Kirill Dmitriev, Putin’s head of the Russian sovereign wealth fund, over a graphic showing the Russian bear and the American eagle on the same side poised to fight against the British lion and a shattered European Union flag.
asserted
Dmitriev → tweet → lion
He was celebrating on 16 October what he conceived as the new axis against the western allies the same day that Trump waived sanctions against Russia under the Lindsey Graham Act.
asserted
Trump → celebrate → Act
Graham, who died in Washington just hours upon returning from a visit of support to Ukraine, was hailed as Trump’s closest friend in the Congress, which passed the bill overwhelmingly, Democrats and Republicans in rare unity.
asserted
which → die → unity
Graham’s sister, Darline Graham Nordone, whom Trump imposed on the South Carolina governor to be appointed as the martyr’s replacement, was prominently made the marquee sponsor, lending the novice senator a credential.
asserted
Trump → impose → credential
In a Republican primary debate, she said: “National security is not my thing.”
asserted
security → say → debate
When Trump tossed aside the Graham Act without bothering to consult her, she was left to sputter an ineffectual objection, leaving her vulnerable in an unexpectedly close race.
asserted
she → toss → race
Trump vehemently blamed Zelenskyy for supposedly prolonging the war, called him “not a good guy for us to deal with”, and said that the Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian refineries were a “disgrace” and had “better damn well stop”, and that Ukraine needed a “new leader who can make a deal”.
asserted
who → blame → deal
After an hour-and-a-half phone call with Putin on his 74th birthday, so friendly that neither wanted to hang up the phone first, according to Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s aide, Trump announced his sweetheart deal for 300,000 metric tons of diesel from Russia, followed in November by 500,000 and an additional million.
uncertain
Trump → want → 500,000
For this, Trump waived sanctions.
asserted
Trump → waive → sanctions
The stunt gives Putin hard cash to continue operating his war machine, while the diesel will be statistically insignificant to the price in the US market.
asserted
diesel → give → market
The US consumes 300,000 tons within 14 hours.
asserted
US → consume → hours
Zelenskyy called this a “happy birthday gift to Putin”.
asserted
Zelenskyy → call → Putin
The effect of Trump’s transaction could not help struggling American consumers, but is a practical help to sustain Putin’s aggression.
uncertain
effect → help → aggression
Trump’s giveaway was followed by the sudden restriction of Ukrainian access to the Starshield network, managed by Elon Musk for the Pentagon, that is indispensable to Ukraine’s defense.
asserted
that → follow → defense
For a week, in an Abbott and Costello routine of “who’s on first”, Musk blamed the Pentagon, while Trump claimed to be out of the loop.
asserted
Trump → ’ → loop
“It wasn’t me and I don’t think it was Elon,” he said.
asserted
he → think → ?
Ukraine’s frontline communications were immediately degraded.
asserted
communications → degrade → ?
The outage directly preceded barrages of Russian missile strikes that knocked out energy infrastructure and left 600,000 Ukrainians without power.
asserted
that → precede → power
Slowly, after outraged reaction from the Europeans and Congress, connectivity was mostly but not completely restored.
asserted
connectivity → restore → Europeans
Musk, whose businesses are dependent on federal contracts, is the largest donor to the Republican campaigns in the midterm elections, spending $366m so far, exceeding the $276m he spent to elect Trump in 2024.
asserted
he → spend → 2024
The diesel deal was a successful ploy as part of Putin’s larger scheme to leverage Russian energy assets as bait to Trump in order to end US support for Ukraine.
asserted
deal → leverage → Ukraine
In early September, Putin pitched Trump’s self-interested envoys, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, on the vast international assets of Lukoil, Russia’s second-largest oil company, requiring a treasury department waiver, thereby opening the door for a host of shadow agreements.
asserted
Putin → pitch → agreements
The Abu Dhabi royal family and the Qatari Al-Khayyat brothers would hold a large part of the equity, the New York Times reported.
asserted
Times → hold → equity
The Qatari investors are simultaneously partnered with Kushner on his luxury real estate project in Albania, which has provoked a popular uprising called “the Flamingo revolution”.
asserted
which → partner → uprising
Another partner in the Lukoil consortium, Todd Boehly, CEO of Eldridge Industries, a holding company, and co-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Lakers, has donated $2m to Trump’s political action committee, Maga Inc.
The negotiator on the Russian side, Kirill Dmitriev, is the one who enthusiastically tweeted: “Together.”
asserted
who → hold → side
…and 25 more, not listed.
The Aporia
