Bomb Moscow and Beijing “to the ground”? Swear words and empty threats
It’s been roughly half a year since Donald Trump returned to the White House, and from day one, stopping the war in Ukraine was on the agenda. Before taking office, Trump claimed he would “end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours.” To almost everyone, that sounded utterly unrealistic—but maybe not to him. Trump is convinced that solutions not only exist, but that he is usually the one to conceive and implement them. When he realizes things aren’t going according to plan, he hastily changes course to avoid appearing anything less than omnipotent.
Regarding Ukraine, one could compile a thick report detailing everything he tried—especially the stances he took and rapidly changed. He, unsurprisingly, abandoned the 24-hour peace plan after the first 24 hours. Then he turned on Zelensky, trying to pressure him into accepting some vision of peace that likely neither Kyiv nor Moscow would have agreed to. Zelensky simply shrugged and wisely waited for the Trump storm to pass.
The peak came during that clash in the White House. This time, Trump was bolstered by a tight circle of like-minded people and forcefully reiterated what he stuck to throughout the campaign—that America won’t continue funding the war and that it needs to end urgently. Soon after, he devised something new: taking Ukrainian resources in exchange for continued U.S. military support. So much for the desire to end the war. Naturally, Kyiv agreed to whatever Trump demanded.
It’s hard to say how many more U-turns followed. Just a few days ago came (yet again) news that America was halting further military aid to Ukraine. Interestingly, even some veteran geopolitical analysts jumped on that claim, declaring this “finally a complete American betrayal of Ukraine”—as if they don’t know who they’re dealing with. Predictably, a few days later Trump pulled another 180, now announcing not only continued support for arming Ukraine but with unprecedented, full-force intensity.
Those “American betrayal” analyses became outdated within 48 hours. So now what? Say Trump is committed to supporting Ukraine? Wouldn’t that be just another wasted headline for what’s likely to be Trump’s next short-lived foreign policy stunt?
Some say Trump’s goal is to remain unreadable. He’s certainly succeeded in that—but what good does it do? Does it bring him political points or real achievements? Hardly. More likely, it cultivates a global “who’s afraid of Trump?” stance—even after last month’s unjustified aggression against Iran. In fact, that aggression showed that Trump can’t be trusted at all and that he’s simply not a serious statesman for any sort of negotiation. He’s shown that his word means nothing. Why should it mean any more just because it’s written down?
Trump seems unaware that bragging about how he “fooled” Iran only makes him look irrelevant. Let’s recall: he offered negotiations to Iran, then allowed an Israeli attack while saying he’d take two weeks to “think about” whether the U.S. should get involved. Not long after, well before the deadline, he suddenly launched an intense bombing campaign on Iran’s nuclear facilities. What did he achieve, besides exposing himself to the world as a puppet of the Zionist AIPAC lobby? Iran not only won’t trust him again, but this move likely convinced many skeptical voices in Iran’s leadership that “the bomb” might indeed be necessary.
The Iranian operation—and Iran itself—exposed Trump as a geopolitical amateur. If he really launched aggression based on Netanyahu’s claims that “Iran is just about to build a bomb,” then he literally knows nothing about Middle Eastern conflicts. Of course, Netanyahu has been repeating for literal decades (!) that “Iran is a few months away from a bomb,” “a few weeks away from a bomb.”
Trump most embarrassed himself in front of his base—especially the more intelligent faction, which unlike him, knows a lot more about U.S. wars (and despises them, as they are wars of aggression, not defense), as well as about Israel’s toxic influence on U.S. foreign policy. In the end, he even did Israel a disservice, because AIPAC (the powerful Israeli lobby in America) had been a taboo subject—until now. That has changed significantly in recent weeks.
Who still believes Trump? In just half a year, he managed to melt himself down. And these tariffs he keeps waving around—then withdrawing, raising, lowering… No one is afraid of Trump anymore. They fear his unpredictability, but with that, the MAGA president is only damaging his own country more, since the rest of the world is increasingly considering alternatives (like BRICS).
Back to Ukraine. Trump has just launched a new episode. Suddenly, he wants to appear “tough” on Russia because “Putin doesn’t listen to him.” But why would he? Even Zelensky, over whom Trump has infinitely more leverage, doesn’t listen to him either.
Yesterday brought more juicy revelations. At closed-door events with donors during 2024, Donald Trump reportedly said he once threatened Russian President Vladimir Putin that he would “bomb Moscow to the ground” if Russia attacked Ukraine. According to an audio recording obtained by CNN (it wouldn’t be surprising if Trump leaked it himself!), Trump claimed he told Putin: “If you go into Ukraine, I’ll bomb Moscow. I have no choice.” He added that Putin “didn’t believe him—but maybe 10% did.”
Trump spoke in a similar tone about Chinese President Xi Jinping, supposedly telling him the U.S. would bomb Beijing if China invaded Taiwan. “He thought I was crazy,” Trump said, but concluded that “we never had any problems.”
These statements are part of recordings from a series of donor dinners in New York and Florida, later published in a book by authors Josh Dawsey, Tyler Pager, and Isaac Arnsdorf. At these events—now backed by audio evidence—Trump definitely presented his raw, unfiltered version to wealthy donors.
But is anyone still afraid of him now? No. His cheap attempt to employ the “madman theory” (a geopolitical strategy where a leader tries to appear irrational and dangerous to intimidate others) is amateurish and somewhat ridiculous. Bomb Moscow and Beijing? These aren’t Iraq, Syria, or Libya—countries that can’t strike back. If he even tried, he might as well say goodbye to New York, Washington…
Russia’s reaction to Trump’s latest “outburst” was also interesting. They responded calmly.
“Despite recent harsh statements by U.S. President Donald Trump, Russia remains calm and open to continued dialogue with Washington,” said Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.
Let’s recall that Trump, in his comments yesterday and today, also attacked Putin. He criticized him for an alleged lack of will to resolve the conflict in Ukraine, saying their talks were “polite, but without any real results.” Moscow, for its part, emphasized its continued commitment to a diplomatic solution—but insisted it must be legally binding and address the root causes of the conflict.
Peskov stated that the Kremlin takes Trump’s comments “quite calmly” and noted that the U.S. president is known for his “rough style of expression.” However, he emphasized that Trump’s admission that resolving the Ukraine conflict is “harder than he thought” is more important—something Moscow has been saying since the war began. He expressed hope that Trump and his team would still work toward a diplomatic resolution to the crisis.
What exactly did Trump say? In a statement on his social network, he wrote: “A lot of people are dying and that should stop. Putin’s selling us all kinds of crap—you want the truth? He’s always very polite, but it turns out it means nothing.”
Yes, that does sound like Putin in his element, making Trump look naïve and uninformed while calmly sticking to his own agenda. It seems Trump is only now realizing this. But what did he think would happen? That Russia would agree to peace on Kyiv’s terms—when Kyiv is losing the war?
Clearly, Trump doesn’t understand that no one—neither Kyiv nor Moscow—is falling for his threats. Because they’re empty. And it seems his ideas aren’t much better. In six months, the only thing he’s managed to accomplish is reducing himself to a deep mediocrity and shattering the illusion that America could ever be anything more than “business as usual.”
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