Elisabeth Bumiller: Yesterday’s Negotiations Between Trump and Putin Show How Much ‘Putin Is Still Playing Him’

EXCERPT:

BUMILLER: "Well, but I just want to say what struck me watching Trump yesterday was just how much Putin is still playing him. I mean, Trump went into these negotiations — this phone call demanding an immediate ceasefire. He didn’t get it. And he — what he got was what Putin’s position was, to just continuing negotiations with Ukraine and cast that as a victory somehow. So I — you know, it’s once again Trump trying to win the next five minutes. He is a very, very long way from an immediate ceasefire and an immediate end to the war that he predicted would happen on day one. And I think Democrats have a rough time here, too, because they have been big supporters of Zelenskyy from day one. But, again, the war is not that popular in the United States anymore and it’s — there’s no — it’s really at a stalemate. And so they — it’s hard for them to support Zelenskyy right now given that this has dragged on so, so long, and there is really a weariness, I think, about it. But again, we are — Trump has moved away from that disastrous Oval Office encounter with Zelenskyy that looked sot errible for our allies and so terrible for — you know, it was a disaster when the Europeans looked at it."