[guest post by Dana]

I wanted to draw your attention to a couple of thoughtful videos about those who have their eyes wide open, and are willing to see and acknowledge what is before them, and those who have their eyes tightly closed, not wanting to see or admit what is before them. Please watch both videos before commenting.

In the first video, Claude Malhuret, a member of the French Senate, accurately describes President Trump and where things stand with regard to the war in Ukraine :

French senator perfectly describes the Trump situation. pic.twitter.com/d7sO1t9mmK

— Richard Woodruff 🇺🇦 (@frontlinekit) March 5, 2025

In the second video, Sen. Jeff Merkley exposes the danger of a willfully blind devotion to Trump:

Trump's allies are asked a simple question: "What else could a Russian asset actually possibly do that Trump hasn't yet done?" pic.twitter.com/LPYw7FbxSi

— Richard Woodruff 🇺🇦 (@frontlinekit) March 5, 2025

Meanwhile, planes loaded with military aid en route to Ukraine have been forced to turn back, due to Trump’s latest order to pause military aid to Ukraine.

According to the White House:

The White House has said that military aid has been suspended because the United States wants to ensure that this aid contributes to resolving the conflict.

“The President has made it clear that he is focused on peace. We need our partners to be committed to this goal. We are pausing and reviewing our assistance to ensure that it contributes to solving the problem,” they said in a statement.

The report explains that:

. . .all US military equipment not currently in Ukraine has been halted, including weapons that are in transit by planes and ships or waiting at transit zones in Poland.

It is increasingly clear that the decisions President Trump is making about the war in Ukraine consistently work against Ukraine while impeding their ability to defeat Russia. For example, I’ve never once heard Trump say that, for the war to end, Putin just needs to pull out of Ukraine and return the occupied territories. But Russia, thus far, has not been penalized or slowed in any way by Trump. And now, by halting all US shipments of military aid to Ukraine, the White House knowingly gives Putin an advantage.

The French senator in the first video, nails it with his observations about the President of the United States. It can be difficult to accept the truth because who would have ever thought that a modern American “Republican” president would dance to the tune of Vladimir Putin. Yet here we are.

I’m going quote from a smart piece by Garry Kasparov at The Atlantic:

Trump’s deference to the Russian autocrat has become full-blown imitation. . .

We may never know why Trump is so perversely loyal to Putin. We don’t know exactly why Musk went all in for Trump and Russia or what his deep conflicts of interest in the U.S. and China portend. But the urgency of their actions I do understand, and it’s a dire warning.

These are not the acts of people who expect to lose power any time soon, or ever. They are racing to the point where they will not be able to afford to lose control of the mechanisms they are ripping up and remaking in their image. What such people will do when they believe that mounting a coup is the lesser risk to their fortunes and power cannot be predicted.

There may be a Pulitzer Prize awaiting the person who discovers the answer to the question “Why?” But stopping Putinization—the looting by cronies, the centralization of authority, the moving of decisions into unaccountable private hands—is the vital matter of the moment. Trump admiring Putin is far less dangerous than Trump becoming him.

—Dana