Just when I think I’ve surely seen or heard it all, I am once more proven wrong.

It happened again yesterday, when I read this follow-up to the Trump-Putin love-fest in Alaska:

“During the flight to Alaska, Trump said he also spoke with Belarusian leader Aleksandr Lukashenko, who is a close ally of Russia, and frequent interlocutor for Putin.” [RFE/RL, August 16, 2025.]

Lukashenko — once labeled “Europe’s last dictator” — is an unabashed tyrant, cut from the same cloth as his mentor, Vladimir Putin. His arrests of dissidents, journalists, and any others who may represent a threat to his totalitarian regime are well-documented; his assaults on civil and human rights mirror those of Putin. And, while not actively participating in Russia’s war against Ukraine, he has buttressed it by providing shelter to Putin’s troops and weaponry, as well as open access to a 1,000-km. stretch of border with northern Ukraine.

But Donald Trump — while en route to a meeting with Putin allegedly designed to clear a path toward ending Russia’s war against Ukraine — took time to call Lukashenko. The purpose of the call: ostensibly to thank the dictator for the release in June — two months ago — of 16 prisoners, and to urge the release of 1,300 more. [Id.]

He also wrote that he planned to meet with Lukashenko at an unspecified time “in the future.” [Id.]

But why? And why now? On his way to welcome a wanted war criminal onto U.S. soil, he’s simultaneously preparing to offer political rehabilitation to yet another international pariah.

The only words that come to my mind at this moment are — and please excuse the language — WHAT THE FUCK??!!!

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
8/17/25