PUTIN WINS AGAIN

What evidently happened is that Putin talked him into some kind of bilateral reset.

and that Trump is taking the bait.

And the writing has been on the wall for a long time.

Putin has been, time and again, been trying to convince Trump that, look, there are so great deals that our two countries can make if it weren't for this nasty war.

And recently, Putin has even been trying to convince Trump that even while the war is ongoing, so not even waiting for a peace deal or even a ceasefire, but actually to kiss and make up economically while the war is still going on and while Russia is killing men, women, and children in Ukraine.

So this is what we see.

I think a very important factor is Trump's genuine admiration for dictators.

We've seen this so many times in the way he talks about Kim Jong-un from North Korea, Putin, Xi Jinping.

These are all very smart people in Trump's eyes, and they do the best for their countries, and so on.

I mean, this is what he says about them, whereas Democrats like Zelensky or Trump Trump's European allies, he rarely says something really positive about them and criticizes them a lot.

This admiration is a big factor.

And the other one is the personal interest in business deals.

You could call it corruption or whatever.

But the fact that Trump and his entourage and his family clan get big fat business deals for their own personal benefit is a huge factor here.

What is Europe's message or what has it been to Trump?

Is that we feel and express our solidarity with Zelensky and the Ukrainian people.

We think that they defend far more than Ukraine and not only Europe, but the free world in general.

And that Europeans are stepping up to the plate By toughening up sanctions, another sanctions package has been adopted.

And this is not just some paper, but it's actually making it harder for third countries to deliver components for Russia's missile program and drone program, especially in the information technology sector.

That's one thing.

And the other thing is to deliver, to step up production, of air defense weapons, weapon systems, and also to deliver more to Ukraine as far as possible at all.

And so these are the two things that European leaders decided this week.

Do you sense a shift in Zelensky towards how he's dealing with Trump since these two announcements or deals really Trump has announced?

Early on in the diesel deal crisis, Zelensky would repeatedly first react emotionally, critical of Trump, and then in a more measured way, emphasizing how he's grateful for U.S. cooperation and delivery of satellite data and intelligence and so on.

And he did that twice.