'Bad Things Happened': Trump Still Doesn't Understand the Ukraine War

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

67% : And based on the sliding timeline, Trump and his advisers must know this.
59% : I didn't make this up -- just take a look at Russian state propaganda, or official government policy.
52% : Trump made many pre-election promises setting expectations for how his second term would unfold.
51% : Nevertheless, it's clear what outcome Trump would prefer: a clean extraction of America from the conflict, with the appearance of maximum efficiency.
47% : Moreover, negotiations in which Ukrainian or European leaders are not present are unacceptable; they are from the start tipped in favor of Putin, a war criminal for whom it is a victory in domestic and international politics just to be talking to the American president as an equal.
47% : Trump acknowledged that this war was supposed to be over in "one week," and that "it's not making him [Putin] look very good."
42% : Predictably hawkish on Iran, suddenly friendly with Xi, belligerent when it comes to allies Mexico and Canada and Denmark -- Trump doesn't have anything near a predictable worldview.
42% : Putin's only hope is Western weakness, especially lifelines from Trump -- like meetings that exclude Ukraine and Europe.
40% : Trump is correct to focus (as he did in his Davos remarks) on reducing Russia's income from oil, although shutting down its shadow fleet of tankers and ability to export is better than asking OPEC to pretty please help reduce oil prices.
28% : Share The BulwarkAppeasement is not a way to end the conflict, and any public relations victory it would produce for Trump would be fleeting.
21% : The Biden administration never acknowledged this reality, but neither has Trump, at least not yet.
17% : "When I was out" of the presidency, Trump said, "bad things happened, bad things were said, a lot of stupidity all around, and you end up with what you have."
17% : On Tuesday, Trump vaguely threatened Putin with sanctions should Russia not make a deal to end the war.
5% : Putin, for his part, knows how to play the game: On Friday he tried to butter Trump up by saying the 2020 election was stolen and, echoing Trump's Davos remarks, if Trump had been around Russia's all-out invasion of Ukraine in 2022 wouldn't have happened.

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