Donald Trump’s bromance with Vladimir Putin is back on, as a top U.S. envoy praises the Kremlin strongman as a “humanitarian” and team MAGA plays around with tipping the war in Russia’s favor.
What do you call a ruthless dictator and former KGB spymaster who invades his neighboring country,
kidnaps children,bombs hospitals with maternity clinics,displacesnearly 10 million people, andkills600,000 soldiers? According to Trump envoy Steve Witkoff, he’s a “humanitarian.” What else?
Witkoff
offered up that high praiseat a meeting with Putin today after Russian authorities released an American teacher who’d been held in the country for four years. Witkoff could’ve simply thanked the dictator and moved on. But that’s not team MAGA’s vibe these days, after two weeks of repeatedlyhanding RussiaW’s in its war with Ukraine.
Maybe there’s something in the air. Maybe Trump just wants more Russian fuel, to help lower U.S. diesel prices before the midterms. Whatever the reason, Washington is increasingly throwing its weight behind Russia, in a series of moves that are causing white-knuckle anxiety in Kyiv.
“You talk so much about my president, President Trump, being a humanitarian,” Witkoff, Trump’s longtime golf buddy,
𝕏told Putin. “You are a humanitarian also, sir, and I salute that.”
Witkoff’s trip to St. Petersburg was part of a larger mission, of course: Convince Putin to end the war that Trump pledged to stop on his first day in office. After a three-hour meeting, Putin
agreed “in principle”to restart peace talks with the U.S. and Ukraine, a Kremlin adviser said. That statement means nothing. Negotiations between the countries have repeatedly failed, and there’s no sign Putin willback down,now that the tide appears to be shifting in Russia’s favor.
Vice President JD Vance said Witkoff was perfectly right to butter up Putin: “I agree with Steve Witkoff saying something nice to a person who just released an American hostage,” he
𝕏told reporters. Vance may also, of course, be grateful that Russia plans to send itsfirst tanker carrying dieselto the U.S. this week.
**Witkoff’s faux pas was, in the end, just talk. **The satellite scandal is serious business.
Ukraine also accused the U.S. of putting limits on the Starshield military satellite system last week, leaving the Ukraine more susceptible to missile attacks. The system, which President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed
remains limitedas of today, happens to belong to Trump’sotherbestie, Elon Musk.
Trump denied having anything to do with the system being down. “I don’t know if there’s anybody because it wasn’t me, and it wasn’t Elon, as I understand,” Trump told reporters.
Reporters are still scrambling to figure out exactly what happened. But a pair of reports
suggest thiswas adeliberate move, not a glitch. And it came from either inside the White House, or from Musk himself. TheWall Street Journaleven reported that Musk talked about it on the phone with Trump.
Meanwhile, the two sides are shifting blame. The broligarch
𝕏claimed thatStarshield systems are operated by the government, so any limitations would have been ordered by Trump’s team. Secretary of State Marco Rubio directly contradicted Musk today, in an apparent attempt to shirk off any responsibility for the mess.
“The president has nothing to do with the decisions that are made by Starlink and Starshield and by Mr. Musk,” Rubio
𝕏told reporters, appearing very flustered. “That’s a private company. The president doesn’t run that company and can’t direct that company to do anything.
**Don’t expect the Starshield drama to end anytime soon. **“I’d like to see investigations as to how this happened and why,” Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), one of the most powerful Democrats on foreign policy, told *What A Day. *If Dems win the House or Senate, he’ll be in a position to do something about that.
** Billionaire banker Julio Herrera Velutini **was facing legal troubles with the U.S. government when a company within his family’s business empire hired Trump ally Alina Habba, who was serving as U.S. attorney in New Jersey, to be general counsel at one of his companies — guaranteeing that she would rake in at least $50 million over four years, the
** Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu planned new** strikes against Iran earlier this month, but Trump opposed fresh attacks before the midterms, the
** Federal agents are knocking on immigrants’ doors **in several states and asking if they’re registered to vote, or have voted previously, CBS News reports. It’s part of Trump’s effort to root noncitizen voting (which is basically nonexistent). In reality, his administration seems to simply want to intimidate people before the midterms. This piece deserves a read.
** Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign for Ohio governor admitted **that it was behind the disturbing attack ad against his opponent Amy Acton. The ad features Acton’s estranged mother describing her daughter as a “liar” who “needs help.” The mother didn’t specify what her daughter supposedly lied about. But Acton and her brother were removed from their mother’s home as children, after her second husband was indicted and charged with raping Acton when she was 12 years old. “This desperate, disgusting attack reveals exactly who Vivek Ramaswamy is at his core — a pathetic excuse for a man who is willing to hurt anyone as long as it gets him what he wants,” Acton’s brother wrote in a statement.
** Justice Elena Kagan bashed the Supreme Court’s recent rulings** that gutted the Voting Rights Act and loosened campaign finance laws. “In all these areas, the court has kind of blinded itself to the very deleterious effects of their rulings on how the political system works,” Kagan said during an appearance at Catholic University last night. “It has created a democracy that does not work as well as it should.”
** French President Emmanuel Macron slammed the** “unacceptable and stupid comments from many foreign leaders” amid the protests roiling the country. “Some people have claimed that we’ve been overrun by hordes of migrants and Islamists, which is completely false,” Macron told reporters. Who was he talking about? Blonald Blump?
** The Supreme Court rejected (for now)** the Trump administration’s bid to limit treatment for trangender inmates in federal prison. The court didn’t offer an explanation, but noted that Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas would’ve supported the administration’s policy. Shocker.
** Neil Bush, a life-long Republican and brother** of former President George W. Bush, announced that he voted for Democrat James Talarico over Ken Paxton in the Texas Senate race. It really feels like
** Remember the 2023 right-wing freakout against **Bud Light, after the company featured a transgender actress on a can of beer? A right-wing grifter used the opportunity to peddle an “anti-woke” beer alternative — and many customers still haven’t received their brews. Just check out the Facebook page “
** A 78-year-old Philadelphia woman is being hailed **as a robo-resistance hero, after she blocked a delivery bot from making its journey through the city. Police arrested the woman and charged her with disorderly conduct, but she isn’t fazed. “I think it’s my First Amendment right to publicly demonstrate on a sidewalk to protest against delivery robots,” she told a local outlet. “I know they’re taking the jobs of human delivery workers and so, I have been protesting them whenever I saw them by standing in front of them and preventing them from going forward.”
** South Korean officials finally freed a large gray shark **that had been trapped in a canal for more than a month. Officials used a floating platform to guide the shark, named Bukangi, along the canal and out to sea, in a scene
** An 83-year-old man will run his 50th New York City Marathon** in a row this year, extending his record streak. Think that’s impressive? This guy has completed 115 marathons and more than 200 ultramarathons (any distance longer than 26.2 miles) in his life. “He’s pretty normal otherwise,” his wife said.
** The people have spoken:** Dolly is the name of the Smithsonian National Zoo’s new red panda, after receiving more than 20,000 votes in last week’s competition. “With flaming locks of auburn fur and a cuteness that extends beyond the hours of 9 to 5, this little firecracker officially has a name: Dolly!” the zoo wrote on Instagram.
