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Putin Rolls Trump in Ceasefire Talks
March 19, 2025
By Connie Willis
The big news today was Trump and Putin’s call, which was supposed to result in a ceasefire and a Nobel Peace Prize for Trump:
--Trump called Putin and Putin kept him waiting for over an hour. He was holding a meeting with oligarchs and when his advisor said, "Won’t you be late talking to Trump?" he (and the oligarchs) just laughed.
--After the phone call, the US and Russia said different things about the ceasefire. The US said they’d agreed to an infrastructure ceasefire and a maritime ceasefire (both of which would be enormous advantages to Russia. That’s where they’re hurting most.) Russia said the key condition was the complete end of military aid by the US to Ukraine.
--Garry Kasparov: "Russia’s weakest point is Ukraine attacking it s oil and gas factories, so of course Putin wants Trump’s help stopping it. Nothing on Russia murdering Ukrainian civilians. The Black Sea is another area Ukraine was kicking Russia’s ass, so one more item on Putin’s wish list. And restoring US relations with a war criminal dictator who offers the US nothing."
--Trump focused on the fact that there would be "enormous economic deals" between the US and Russia and hockey games between Russia and the US.
--Ron Filipkowski: "So we get hockey games and "enormous economic deals" with Russia for selling out Ukraine. Art of the Deal."
--Karoline Leavitt said there’s a power plant on the border between Russia and Ukraine up for discussion. (No, there’s not.)
--Trump said the quiet part out loud and admitted that the argument with Zelenskyy in the Oval Office was part of a strategy to pressure Ukraine into a peace deal.
--Trump announced the US would take over the ownership of Ukraine’s power plants.
--One hour after the ceasefire Russia bombed a power station in Ukraine. They also bombed Kyiv.
--There’s also a rumor that Putin is the one who told Trump to shut down the Voice of America, which he did.
--Not a word was said about those thousands of Ukrainians who’d been surrounded by the Russians and were about to be massacred. (Because they never existed.)
--Michael MacKay: "Putin so completely humiliated his puppet during the phone call that Trump didn’t come out to face reporters afterward. The White House issued a statement," and Russia immediately bombed Ukraine’s infrastructure to show it had no intention of obeying the ceasefire."
--The conservative’s National Review’s Jim Geraghty: "America’s negotiations with a former KGB officer are being handled by a President who is extremely naive and gullible...Putin played Trump like a fiddle, offering him platitudes and the mirage of a small concession, which Trump rushed to announce to the world as a great diplomatic breakthrough. Now Trump looks like a sucker, a man easily fooled by promises."
--Rick Wilson: "Oh, look, the world’s greatest negotiator, Mr. Art of the Deal, got rolled like a cheap rug. Again."
--Last night Rachel Maddow talked about how unpopular Trump’s position vis a vis Putin is (only 2% of Americans sympathize with Russia) and said, "For all the unpopular and failing things about this young Presidency, there’s one thing about this Presidency that is just unprecedented in how radically out of step it is with the American people. There’s such a difference between what Trump wants and what the American people want...that I actually think it is not sustainable in small-d democratic terms."
--Zelenskyy rejected the ceasefire.
In Trump defying/trying to weasel out of obeying the judge’s orders in the deportation case news:
--Trump’s lawyers are trying to argue they were flying over international waters, so they weren’t under America’s and the judge’s jurisdiction. However, if they were flying over the Gulf of America (which Trump claims he owns all of) they were in American territory. So he has now changed his argument to "We would have run out of gas if we’d turned back."
--Bill Kristol: "It did not have to dispatch the planes in the middle of a hearing. In custody, the men posed no threat. The administration’s claim of urgency is a fabrication...what we are witnessing is a setup. The goal is to brush off a court order and get away with it."
--Trump is also trying to get fentanyl declared a WMD so he can declare war against it and deport anybody he wants to.
--Aaron Rupar: "We’re patently NOT under invasion by a hybrid criminal state. But Trump needs it to be "true" as a precondition to invoke Revolutionary War-era emergency power to justify summary deportations."
--Michael Luttig on Trump’s demand that the judge be impeached: "I know personally that the federal judiciary is shaken by these recent attacks by the President of the United States, but I also know that they are unshaken in their resolve to honor their oath to the Constitution. It’s the President who has wanted this war ever since his first time in office. Well, he’s going to get what he wanted."
--Musk chimed in against the judge: "This is a judicial coup. We either have a President or we have rule by 677 bavel-wielding dictators. We need 60 senators to impeach the judges and restore rule of the people."
--Note: It’s 67, actually, to make the 2/3 needed for impeachment. Gordita Brett: "Nice math, space engineer genius."
--Many of the Venezuelan immigrants deported have not commited any crimes, not even trivial ones, even though Trump claimed they were all criminals. Trump’s lawyers are arguing that that’s because they have only been in the country a short time and that the very fact that they haven’t proves that they are a danger to the country. (No, I am not making this up.)
--ICE field director Robert Cerna: "While it is true that many of the gang members removed under the Alien Enemies Act do not have criminal records in the US, that is because they have only been in the US for a short time. The lack of a criminal record does not indicate that they pose a limited threat...the lack of specific information about each individual action highlights the risk they pose."
--Translation: They are claiming that the lack of evidence is not only not a barrier to prison but a justification for it.
--Felix: "Tomorrow, if this practice is successful, it would be anyone the dictator decides to "disappear": Muslims, Quakers, Unitarians, Hindus, protest organizers, gays, union leaders, activists, journalists, opposition candidates, inconvenient judges or prosecutors or jury members, anyone that the dictator has a personal grudge against, people with assets coveted by powerful fascists, Democrats, "disloyal" Republicans."
In town hall news:
--GOP Rep Mike Flood held a town hall in Nebraska where attendees shouted "Tax the rich!" Flood asked, "So your proposal to solve the debt is to tax the rich?" and the Nebraska crowd cheered wildly. When he said, "I support Elon Musk and DOGE," huge boos erupted from the crowd. And it’s all on video--and all over the internet.
--GOP Kevin Kelly held a tele-town hall. 25,000 people called in. He hung up on many and locked others out.
--GOP Rep Michael Baumgartener held a town hall in eastern Washington. The first question was, what would he do to enforce the law if Trump ignores court orders? IN EASTERN WASHINGTON!
--GOP Rep Andy Biggs is holding a town hall, but only registered Republicans are allowed. They’re checking party registration at the door, and no independents or Dems will be allowed in. (The way things are going, that might not help.)
--GOP Rep Nancy Mace will not be holding any town halls due to "threatening constituents."
--Indivisible held a town hall in Maine to call out Susan Collins. She hasn’t held one in 25 years.
In other news:
--Minnesota State GOP Senate Republican Justin Eichorn introduced a bill last week which would make "Trump Derangement Syndrome" a mental illness which could result in being institutionalized.
--This week he was arrested for soliciting sex with a minor. (It was actually an undercover police officer.)
--Republicans are, interestingly, demanding his immediate resignation. Question: will the bill go anywhere now?
In good news:
--The two astronauts who’d been on the space station for months splashed down safely. (Thank God!) A pod of dolphins welcomed them home.
--The Voice of America and other radio stations are still up and running. Their leaders said they think Trump and Musk’s orders to shut down were illegal and they’re continuing to operate while they take legal action.
--The Antlers Hotel in Colorado Springs canceled a dinner with a "white supremacist group." Steve Bannon was supposed to be the speaker.
--When Trump took over the Kennedy Center, he cancelled a performance by the Marine Band because they were playing with a group of multi-ethnic kids. (The bastard!) Military band leaders couldn’t go ahead and play with the kids because they were under orders, so retired military musicians from all the branches of the service stepped up and arranged a concert. 60 Minutes flew all the kids to Washington, DC, and they filmed the whole performance.
Two corrections:
--The other day I said that Admiral Hirohito had said after Pearl Harbor, "I fear we have awakened a sleeping giant." That was wrong. Hirohito was the emperor. It was Admiral Yamamoto who said it. He had been educated in the States and understood Americans far better than most Japanese.
--I also said that the movie THE QUIET MAN had been filmed in Ong, a name that didn’t strike me as Irish--and isn’t because it was filmed in Cong. We were still there, even though I got the name wrong, and it looked just like it does in the movie.
To update you on the postcard effort:
--People on Daily Kos were reporting that local post offices sold out of pre-stamped postcards and post card stamps.
--I’ve gotten responses from a bunch of you after the ones I listed on Sunday. M sent 10 and 8 of her friends sent 10 each, another friend sent three, another 136, and another sent a bunch of pink slip postcards firing Trump. Thanks, everybody!
Best headline of the day, from the New Republic: "There is No Method to Trump’s Madness. He’s Simply Insane."
Best rumor of the day: Teslas are self-immolating in protest of Musk.
Best comment of the day, from Cynthia Roseberry: "We, as criminal defense lawyers, are forced to deal with some of the lowest people on earth, people who have no sense of right and wrong, people who will lie in court to get what they want, people who do not care who gets hurt in the process. It is our job--our sworn duty--as criminal defense lawyers, to protect our clients from these people."