[Maru]

Originally Posted by Livia

Trump's actions and his threats are alienating allies and putting the future of NATO at risk. The US clearly thinks that's acceptable collateral damage, which is worrying. If the US really is worried enough about Russia to enter the sovereign territory of another allied country and take it by force, you'd think Trump would have been stronger against Putin in Ukraine. But his interaction with Putin bordered on appeasement. Now he's threatening to do exactly what Putin did when he crossed the border of another country. That's what it looks like to me.

Possibly, but I don't think Trump is very good at keeping friends like this longterm. He likes appearing strong and having empathy isn't the way to achieve that in his opinion. He could give two ***** about Ukraine. It could very well be he is afraid of Russia or have links there. All could be true.

As for the US, I think we are falling back to older policies of world building and this is the ideal time, imo, to try. It is his second Presidency so when he is gone, he is gone, and so less investment there without a looming election. Wouldn't be surprised if some people are just burnt out from years of hysterics and are eagerly tuning out. We finally have a period where politics is not the first and last thing discussed so of all the times this could be happening, I think this is where we are most disengaged.

I'd like to know he is advising him but I don't think all this just comes out of thin air and he suddenly decides to start treating sovereign countries as his lego set. A lot of it sounds like it could be part of some defense dept wishlist, ie warhawks.