Baker: Maybe Trump Is Waking Up to the Idea That Putin Really Is the Aggressor and the One Who Wants This War to Continue

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
WITT: “Yeah, I have to say, I actually love that picture. It is incredible, that enormous space and just the two of them all alone, right in the middle of it. Pretty extraordinary. And just this morning, Peter, you published a piece on how Trump has played into Putin’s hands. And as you say in his first 100 days, you note how Russia has benefited to the point you were just making, not only from Trump’s direct action and rhetoric regarding the war in Ukraine. Notable today after Trump met with Zelenskyy, he posted about his doubts that Putin even wants to end the war. Can you make any sense of where the potential for peace stands?”

BAKER: “Yeah, it’s very Interesting. Right, to hear him say or to read what he said today about how maybe Putin is tapping me. I think that was the phrase he used. Tapping me was another way of saying playing him, that Putin really isn’t interested in peace, that maybe, in fact, that. He, Trump has to. Be tough on. Putin in terms of imposing new sanctions or so forth. That is a Change, of course, for him to some extent. As bonnie mentioned, he did say the other day, Vladimir, stop with regard to the latest missile strike on Kyiv, and it may be that Trump is waking up to the idea that that. Putin really is. The aggressor here, that Putin is the one who wants this war to continue because Putin is the one who started this war in the first place. Now, that doesn’t mean that Trump has given up on, on on a Russia tilted deal. Again, what’s on the table right now gives. A. Lot of. Of what Russia would want. And what. We made the point. In the article was. There’s a whole lot of. Other things that Trump has done in his first 100 days. That is to Russia’s benefit, whether it’s intended that way or not, getting rid of things like voice of America, radio free Europe, the national endowment for democracy, shutting down. Efforts to. Fight Russian disinformation and kleptocracy and election interference. All of those things are things that Moscow, of course, would have high on his priority list. So it’s. Trying to take measure of where Trump is in this early part of his second term, vis a vis Russia.”