Trump sets up massive shell-game deception to keep Ukrainian war machine going and threaten Russia with an ultimatum

Trump announces deal to 'sell' US weapons to US-dominated NATO, which would then funnel them to Ukraine. It would be a boon for US weapons makers but how does this benefit the American taxpayer?

President Donald Trump threatened Russia on Monday that it will face extreme tariffs if it doesn’t end its war with Ukraine within 50 days, while at the same time announcing plans for “aggressive” new weapons transfers to Kiev via NATO.

Using his familiar language of being “very, very unhappy” with Vladimir Putin, Trump emphasized that his patience had run its course with the Russian leader’s refusal to end his 3.5-year-old war with Ukraine.

“We’re going to be doing very severe tariffs if we don’t have a deal in 50 days, tariffs at about 100 percent,” Trump said during an Oval Office meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.

Trump said these would be “secondary tariffs,” meaning they would target Russia’s remaining trade partners, making them particularly devastating because any country that does trade with Russia would be hit with 100 percent tariffs on its goods coming into the U.S.

On the flip side, this could also devastate the U.S. economy because Russia’s biggest ally and one of its biggest trading partners is China. Imagine if there were 100 percent tariffs on all Chinese goods coming into America. Inflation would soar through the roof.

Trump and NATO chief Rutte also announced a creative financing deal in which the NATO military alliance would buy arms from the United States, including not just Patriot anti-missile batteries but offensive weapons as well, and then send them to Ukraine to help it battle Russia’s invasion.

Trump said, “billions of dollars’ worth of military equipment is going to be purchased from the United States, going to NATO… and that’s going to be quickly distributed to the battlefield (in Ukraine).”

Since the U.S. is by far the biggest component of NATO, accounting for more than 70 percent of its total funding, this is a bit like the U.S. selling weapons to itself and then funneling them to its proxy against Russia.

It’s like a corrupt corporate titan setting up a separate entity, a shell corporation, that washes the money before sending it out to enrich the titan’s family members.

Rutte said Ukraine would get “massive numbers” of weapons under the deal.

Russia has been winning this war, consistently taking territory from the enemy in recent months, which is why Putin doesn’t want to stop fighting. What party to any war in history ever wanted a ceasefire when they were on the brink of victory?

But Trump is trying to intervene in a way that he hopes will pressure Putin to do exactly that.

The risk is that Putin reacts by taking the war directly to NATO, something he definitely doesn’t want to do, but may feel like he has no choice with the alliance continuing to escalate its support for Ukraine.

We elected Trump to end this war because it always had the potential to blow up into World War III. Having failed to do so, Trump thinks he’s figured out a way to change the narrative. Instead of the U.S. funding the war with taxpayer-funded weapons and aid, he’s now saying that he can keep the war going in a way that actually profits the U.S. treasury. Pure smoke and mirrors!

If Trump’s supporters fall for this one, then he’s just hoodwinked them into backing a plan that allows him to pursue what I believe was the goal all along — to keep the war against Russia going while claiming it’s not costing us anything. That’s what the British and U.S. governments wanted all along, in my opinion. They just had to figure out a way to flip the narrative in such a way that conservative America-first patriots could buy into it.

Are you ready to buy in?

I personally don’t believe Trump was ever a genuine America-first patriot who was against the neocons and their perpetual foreign wars. From the full-throated endorsement of neocon Senators like Lindsey Graham, to the bombing of Iran and the threats of militarily taking over Greenland, this is not a “peace president.”

But they needed a slogan that would draw in the patriots and “America first” fit the bill. Let me know in the comments below if you agree or disagree.

What’s the bottom line? The United States neocons win again, figuring out a way to continue a war that very likely will keep escalating to the point of World War III. I know some folks say we’re already in World War III, and to an extent that’s true, but the type of full-on WWIII scenario I’m talking about would include attacks on U.S. soil, likely starting with drone and conventional missile attacks, and ultimately going nuclear.

Trump is playing with fire by treating Putin and Russia the same way he treated the mullahs of Iran — accept my peace deal or I will bomb you harder. The U.S. used Israel to deliver the punch to Iran and it’s using Ukraine to deliver the blow to Russia. But Russia isn’t Iran. You back the bear up into a corner and he’s going to bite. And when he finally does bite, he’s going to bite hard. This won’t end well for the United States of America. Pray for peace while preparing for war.