Summary
Donald Trump dodged questions about whether U.S. foreign policy aligns with Russia, deflecting with a rambling response that avoided addressing concerns about his stance on Ukraine.
He again claimed that he could quickly end the war and blamed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for suggesting peace remains distant.
Meanwhile, his administration is reportedly preparing to lift sanctions on Russian individuals and entities.
Critics argue Trump’s position emboldens Russia while undermining Ukraine, raising fears about U.S. commitment to countering Russian aggression.
I appreciate all of the ideas and I do think they’re solid. How does anyone reach the US citizens who don’t pay attention to the news or who don’t think this is a big deal. It’s probably a pretty significant overlap between Fox Propaganda viewers / Soft Republican and/or Swing voters / and the generally disengaged. I don’t think these people are necessarily listening to Ukrainian or Gaza voices or consuming long-form/thoughtful journalism. I do think it’s happening slowly. The town halls are a good start.
I don’t want to see people go through pain. And I don’t want the propagandists to try to blame international countries for the sadism that the US government is inflicting on their own people. How do you get through to people? It’s so weird to see how fractured it is.
It’s so ridiculous. There are enough resources globally for everyone. There are just too many billionaires gobbling everything up.
The “person who doesn’t pay attention to news” isn’t monolithic or intransigent. People get caught up in waves of enthusiasm and disappointment year to year. The 2020 turnout high water mark was driven in large part by the degree to which material conditions were dire and access to the ballot was made unusually easy (via universal mail-in voting). Participation surged during the mini-recession and quarantine in no small part because so many people had tons of free time to burn on activism.
Conservative media fixation on the border, on transgender athletics, and on mask defiance all galvanized support for their candidates by engaging with people in a way they could actively respond. You could literally pick up a gun and drive down to South Texas and join a militia. You could go to your local middle school soccer game with a bunch of Moms For Liberty and start clocking 13-year-old athletes. You could show up at a grocery store and start screaming at clerks when they asked you to put on a mask, then film it and post to TikTok or Reddit or wherever, to prove how Based you were.
This inflated support for Trump’s MAGA contingent, both in the primaries and the general, relative to his middling 2016 performance. Biden only one by outpacing him with a liberal response. And when that response collapsed in 2024 (in no small part thanks to Biden and Harris kicking the legs out of it by pandering exclusively to neocon swing voters), Trump was able to claim the first Republican majority-vote win in twenty years.
Luigi Mangione Noises
I want to see a re-balancing of the scales and a serious effort at social justice. I don’t want to see Donald Trump walk away from a conviction in federal court with no penalty because judges and prosecutors are too terrified of reprisal. I don’t want to see people who spent the last five years warmongering to walk away unsinged and free to play these sick games again.
Operating as a stenographier for a notorious liar and bullshit artist is not the way forward.
Not even if you can put “Haha! We owned him!” in the headlines.