Where Donald Trump is concerned: probably never.

Because he continues to be outmaneuvered at every turn, on every subject. And he keeps coming back for more.

This time the subject is nuclear arms control. The last five-year extension of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) between Russia and the United States is due to expire on February 5, 2026. Looking ahead, Putin announced at a Russian Security Council meeting on September 22nd that Russia is “prepared to continue observing the … central quantitative restrictions” of the Treaty, provided the U.S. “acts in a similar spirit.” [Xiaodon Liang, Armscontrol.org, October 2025.]

Putin added that “a complete renunciation of New START’s legacy would, from many points, be a grave and short-sighted mistake [with] adverse implications for the objectives of the [nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty].” Following the proposed extension, he said that Russia would make “a careful assessment of the situation [and] a definite decision on whether to uphold these voluntary self-limitations.” [Id.]

And, while he did not mention whether U.S. agreement was required in order for Russia possibly to adopt a unilateral freeze, he did say that the measure would not be viable if the United States were to take “steps that would undermine or disrupt the existing balance of deterrence.” [Id.]

Despite the veiled threat implicit in Putin’s remarks, at a news conference on the same day, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said only that the proposal sounded “pretty good.” [Id.]

While still not responding to Putin’s proposal, Trump — following a sideline meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the United Nations in New York on September 23rd — issued his surprising social media post stating that he now believed Ukraine could win back its entire territory and restore its pre-2014 borders, and that the U.S. “will continue to supply weapons to NATO to do what they want with them.” [Id.]

On September 24th, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also met on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly meeting and “compared their positions on the entire bilateral agenda.” [Id.]

Last week, Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said that the Kremlin was still waiting for Trump to respond to Putin’s offer.

But there was no response from Trump himself until Sunday, October 5th, when a TASS (Russian News Agency) reporter queried him about it. His non-committal answer was that “ … it sounds like a good idea to me.” [Id.]

Perhaps he was late for a golf game, or busy ordering troops onto the streets of more U.S. cities, or scrolling through his enemies list for the name of his next revenge victim. But he probably should have been paying attention to the real business of the White House, because Putin was focused on the issue of whether the U.S. might be considering supplying Ukraine with long-range Tomahawk missiles.

In a video released on Sunday on Russian state television, Putin said:

“This [supplying Tomahawk missiles] will lead to the destruction of our relations, or at least the positive trends that have emerged in these relations.” [Andrea Shalal, Reuters, October 5, 2025.]

Once again, Putin has Trump in check. He made the first offer to extend the New START Treaty for another year; he waited patiently for two weeks to receive a reply; and, hearing nothing, he pounced on Trump’s sudden reversal of position on U.S. support of Ukraine — a reversal, not for the first time, based on his most recent conversation, which in this case happened to be with Zelensky.

Because that’s how he does business, and that’s how he formulates U.S. policy: not by careful consideration of facts and recommendations from experienced advisers, but by what his gut instincts tell him.

And that’s no way to run a country.

So once again he has painted himself into a corner, where he has to figure out how to keep his word to Zelensky without giving Putin grounds to back off, yet again, on ceasefire talks . . . and now also on nuclear nonproliferation.

That is, if he’s not too busy trying to keep the Epstein files buried.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
10/7/25