What started out as a 'wink and a nod' reciprocity agreement between Putin and Trump to help Trump get elected and thus become a partner to grease the skids for Putin to conquer Ukraine enroute to an invasion of Eastern Europe has run smack-dab into Trump's insatiable ego which has made it nigh impossible for either side to give an inch.

Meanwhile, daylight is burning.

Anybody care to guess who is going to be the first to start the blame-game?

LAMP @ #2

"Or has his mental acumen deteriorated so much that he seems to have forgotten the oaths he has taken?"

LOL ~ Oaths are just a tool of the trade to Trump, much like every other lie he tells whenever he opens his mouth.

He just went through the motions. Obviously, the words meant nothing to him, considering how Trump, with the help of the U.S. Supreme Court, has twisted the Constitution beyond recognition as often as they could squeek it past the public.

Now that Xi has effectively told Trump to go pound sand on the import tax, Trump has painted himself into a corner. Or, as Xi has put it so eloquently, No more microchips for you, sucker!.

And who believes that Xi made a trip to Russia just to watch a parade?

CORIOLANUS

I can't disagree with that. I watched his budget hearing and he seemed clueless. antsy, defensive, evasive, argumentative, insulted and stupidly unaware that he had a responsibility to fulfill by a date certain.

Or maybe he got a phone call from Trump to stall the completion of the national budget while Trump was still trying to rake in enough evidence to cover the $4.5 - $6.0 Trillion tax deductions for his wealthy supporters.

Tariffs
Gov't land sales
Cuts to social services
Cuts to Medicaid
Firing federal employees
Merging/dismanteling governments agencies
Cuts to state budgets
Or anything else Trump can think of to lay the burden of his tax cuts for the wealthy on the shoulders of the taxpayers and consumers.

Right now, Roberts and the U.S Supreme Court is no more than a convenient tool to Donald Trump.

Roberts may try but it's too late for him to back away from the fact that he's been a co-conspirator in Trump's master plan to incrementally demolish democracy in America.

Why Roberts sold out, one can only speculate. It's a mystery to me what he and the other conservatives on the court stand to gain.

It's not a effup, DOC

Doncha know?

Dictators don't need no stinkin' bureau of investigation!

It's a little late in the game for Robers to try to back away from being a sycophantic co-conspirator in King Trump's plan.

Doesn't Roberts know that Sean Hannity (another FOX News presenter) has been waiting patiently in the wings for his turn at the top of Trump's uninhibited wave of demolition across the country.

The executive branch is suing John Roberts, the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court?

A shot across the bow?

LOL ~ It took then 45 days to get right back where they started ~ LOL

I suspect the EU deciding to stick with England had something to do with another one of Trump's infamous lost caused.

DANNI

"Better question; why to the richest people among us need massive tax cuts? Bigger yachts? Private jets? "

Because in a world where excessive greed and money is synonymous with power (Trump's world) too much is never enough.

Plus, if Trump doesn't pull off the tax cuts he promised, they won't be so willing to throw good money after bad in the future. They'll drop him like a rock and throw their support behind someone who isn't such a loser.

They might do it anyway considering how badly his import taxes have hurt their ability to operate profitably.

Sell off public lands?

He's getting desperate. Looks like the import tax scheme (without Chine) isn't going to rake in the $4.5 trillion he needs to keep his promise to all those wealthy campaign supporters.

It wouldn't surprise me either if China is well aware that Trump is against the wall and they have him pinned down.

"Trump demands investigation into negative polls."

What a strange coincidence.

Negative polls are demanding an investigation into Trump.

Go figure ~~ LOL

Cadet Bone Spurs has been an unconvicted, irresponsible, free ranging, slipper-as-an-eel felon his whole life. He gets off on the misery of others. He hides behind chaos. He lies as easy as he breaths. He's a lazy insecure brat who fancies himself a genius. He scalps, scams and destroys everything he touches.

Now he trying to scalp, scam and destroy democracy ~~ for himself but also for the benefit of Russia.

Mr. Putin once claimed, "I finally got a man in the White House."

DIBBLDA

That, and always remember that old adage, the fish rots from the head down.

Escaping humans?

I'm wondering how she escaped the dingo's ravenous appetite for easy prey.

Admitted??

Is North Korea talking about the cannon fodder they already sent . . or is this new cannon fodder that we're just now learning about?

I seem to remember that North Korea recalled what was left of their original deployment because . . . well, because of high losses as a result of North Korean troops being used by Russia as front line cannon fodder.

Whoda thunk it?

Never give a Republican a leg up, regardless of how low on the ladder the position. If he isn't corrupt when you vote for him it doesn't take long for him to figure out where the big money comes from that he needs to climb higher up the ladder.

When you vote you're signing a covenant, an agreement, with the person you want to win.

Some idiots, like the one in this story, just never read the fine print.

There were reams of it (single spaced) in Trump's background that said he wasn't banging on all cylinders. That said he was a bad businessman. That said he was a narcissistic grifter. That said he was a pathological liar and a con artist.

No sympathy for the victim in this story.

Trump was sold "as is" with all his non-working parts in need of expensive repairs.

No backsies!

Now that Trump has puffed himself up enough to think he can start giving orders to Mr. Putin (STOP! BOMBING KYIV) I have a feeling Trump himself is in for a big smackdown . . . Russian style.

In case Mr. Putin decides that Trump is more trouble than he's worth, I wonder who Mr. Putin would prefer for their malleability. . . . J.D. Vance or Mike Johnson?

Trump is making the same mistake he made in his first administration. He failed to work on Putin's agenda (to restore the old U.S.S.R.) so miserably that he set Mr. Putin's agenda back four years, at least.

I was surprised that Mr. Putin gave him another chance.

Now, once again, Trump is turning out to be a very poor sock puppet.

So, if Mr. Putin runs true to nature, he may decide to handle Trump the same way he handled Mr. Prigozhin, (Wagner Group) another former ally and close confident who got too big for his britches.

Wouldn't that be a hoot?

DESPERATION BREEDS DESPOTS!

LAMP

Trump is losing so many of his cases at all judicial levels.

I'm going to sit tight until Trump orders the DOJ to arrest (the traitorous) Chief Justice Roberts for not being more help (greasing the skids) to him on his fast track to a dictatorship.

ITCHY #4

Well, actually they do . . unless their edict is overturned by a higher court.

It's called a system of checks and balances in the Constitution to prevent a tyrannical or wanna-be dictator from running amok with power grabs.

Of course, there's more to it than just that, but for your sake, we keep it on an elementary level.