National Review Writer Roasts Trump Over ‘Endless Capacity to Absorb Humiliation’ by Putin
(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
National Review senior writer Noah Rothman roasted President Donald Trump on Tuesday, marveling at his “endless capacity to absorb humiliation” at the hands of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.
Rothman’s indictment of Trump came in a reaction piece to Trump and Putin’s call earlier in the day and was headlined: “Vladimir Putin Rejects Trump’s Cease-Fire.”
While Trump described his conversation with Putin as “very good and productive,” Rothman saw things differently:
Those in the Trump administration who are invested in deals over and above what those deals are meant to achieve are unlikely to admit that Vladimir Putin rejected the terms for a 30-day cease-fire in Ukraine. Of course, Putin didn’t say “no” outright — at least, not according to either the Kremlin’s or the White House’s read-outs of the two-hour conversation between Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart. But what Moscow was willing to agree to is far from the terms into which the administration muscled Kyiv.
Under immense pressure from the administration, and amid battlefield setbacks occasioned by Trump’s withholding of the intelligence needed to use U.S.-provided weapons platforms properly, Kyiv agreed last week to a cessation of all combat operations across the entire Ukrainian theater — dropping its desire to see a halt only to air, drone, and maritime combat operations. By contrast, Putin agreed only to a mutual halt to naval operations and to air attacks on civilian infrastructure, such as energy installations.
“So, what would Ukraine get out of the deal?” asked Rothman rhetorically before answering, “Not a lot.”
“The White House never misses an opportunity to retail the Russian version of events, no matter how fantastical, despite the lack of anything resembling reciprocity from the Kremlin,” he continued. “Indeed, even after Putin made a theatrical show of regarding Trump with the contempt he would show a subordinate, there is as yet no indication that the limit to the president’s patience with Russia has been reached.”
“It’s reasonable to wonder at this point if such a limit exists. The president is conspicuously sensitive to slights from allies, but he seems to have an endless capacity to absorb humiliation as long as it’s being meted out by our adversaries,” concluded Rothman. “At the present rate, the damage Trump is doing to his reputation as a figure to be feared by America’s adversaries may be irreversible. Still, if the president can reclaim some of the dignity America has lost in this process, he should. There’s no reason the president must continue this farce.”
