Once again, White House special envoy Steve Witkoff — this time accompanied by Donald Trump’s wunderkind son-in-law Jared Kushner — came away from a five-hour meeting in Moscow with Vladimir Putin on December 2nd telling his boss, and the world, that he believed the Russian leader “would like to end the war [in Ukraine].” [Jaroslav Lukiv, BBC, December 4, 2025.]

For once, Trump was publicly more cautious, saying that he believed the talks in the Kremlin had been “reasonably good,” but that it was too soon to forecast an outcome because “it does take two to tango.” [Id.]

We know that Putin was given the revised peace proposal and four additional documents at the meeting, but we have not been told what those other documents were, and no details of the discussions have been offered from either side. Presumably, Trump does know what was in the documents; and that is worrisome, given his attempts to negotiate one-on-one with Putin while leaving the parties with the most at stake — Ukraine and the rest of Europe — in the dark.

Witkoff’s expressed optimism indicates one of two things: either the real estate developer with no prior diplomatic experience or training is truly colossally ignorant, or he seriously believes he can continue indefinitely pretending to know what he’s doing and the rest of the world will never catch on.

But how can we not have figured it out by now, when, after each meeting with Putin, “negotiations” end up back at square one, the Kremlin’s demands remain unaltered, and Ukraine continues to suffer Russia’s relentless attacks?

And does Trump himself really think the leaders of the pro-Ukraine coalition — experienced politicians and diplomats from the EU, NATO, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Finland, and others — are going to continue relying on him to decide their future security?

If they couldn’t figure it out for themselves, all they’d have to do is consider Putin’s words following last Tuesday’s meeting:

“Either we liberate these territories by force, or Ukrainian troops will leave these territories.” [Id.]

Translation: Back off, or we will destroy you.

In truth, Putin is fooling no one but Trump and his band of merry men. In a conference call among European leaders on the day before the meeting in Moscow, French President Emmanuel Macron is reported to have said:

“There is a possibility that the US will betray Ukraine on the issue of territory without clarity on security guarantees.” [Id.]

And German Chancellor Friedrich Merz was quoted as saying that Ukraine’s President Zelensky must be “extremely careful in the coming days. They are playing games, both with you and with us.” [Id.]

Finnish President Alexander Stubb also chimed in with this warning: “We mustn’t leave Ukraine and Volodymyr [Zelensky] alone with these guys.” [Id.]

So, no . . . we the people — and especially the leaders of the free world — are not clueless. But if the Trump team thinks we are, then they are even more stupid than we could have imagined. So I’ll spell it out for them in words of one syllable:

The jig is up.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
12/5/25