What does President Donald Trump hope to get from meeting with his long-time crush, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, on Friday about a supposed peace negotiation to end Russia’s war on Ukraine?
When asked by Fox News aboard Air Force One, Trump offered up this semi-coherent fairytale about the state of the U.S.
“I think we’re going to do very well. Our country is doing very well. We’re setting records economically like we never have before, including the stock markets are all at a record high. We’re taking in trillions and trillions of dollars with tariffs. We’re going for a meeting with President Putin in Alaska. And I think it’s going to work out very well,” he said. “And if it doesn’t, I’m gonna head back home real fast.”
Trump’s tariffs have begun to show real economic consequences in the U.S., leading to a recent spike in wholesale prices. Despite his claims, “trillions” have not been collected. But consumers aren’t seeing much more than what amounts to a tax hike.
At the same time, Trump fired the Bureau of Labor Statistics head after the release of an alarm-ringing jobs report, and hired a right-wing hack to apparently cook the books. It reveals just how desperate he is to remain in his make-believe world of economic success.
Trump, who desperately wants a Nobel Peace Prize, appears to believe that his pretend view of the economy, his ill-advised tariff policies, and his inability to engage with hard truths will somehow solve geopolitical challenges, such as ending Russian’s invasion of Ukraine.