President Trump fired back at former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev over his dismissive response to Trump's insistence that Russia take demonstrable and verifiable steps to end its invasion and occupation of Ukraine. On Monday, RedState reported that President Trump had established a new and aggressive deadline for Russia to demonstrate its willingness to bring the war to a negotiated conclusion.
During his meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Trump said he was "very disappointed" in Russian President Vladimir Putin's actions. "I’m going to make a new deadline, of about 10, 10 or 12 days from today," Trump said. "There’s no reason for waiting. It was 50 days. I wanted to be generous, but we just don’t see any progress being made."
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This brought a response from former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev that might have been appropriate if directed at the president of Burkina Faso, but not at President Trump.
Trump's playing the ultimatum game with Russia: 50 days or 10… He should remember 2 things:
1. Russia isn't Israel or even Iran.
2. Each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war. Not between Russia and Ukraine, but with his own country. Don't go down the Sleepy Joe road!
When South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham weighed in on the subject, Medvedev dropped the hammer.
Medvedev seems to be Putin's principal attack dog on the Ukraine War and tries to play bad cop to Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's drink-addled good cop. This is not to say that when Lavrov isn't self-medicating, he can be harsh, because he can. However, he is essentially the stereotypical Russian diplomat the world came to expect during the Cold War. Medvedev has been "former" everything in Russia. He was president from 2008 to 2012. He served as Prime Minister from 2012 to 2020. He has served as Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia since 2020. All of this is important because he has moved from one power position to another without falling from a window. It is impossible to imagine Medvedev taking a very public shot at Trump, including his trademarked threat of war, without coordination with Putin.
President Trump responded in a way that left no doubt that he's finally realized that Putin was stringing him along regarding a truce in Ukraine.
I don’t care what India does with Russia. They can take their dead economies down together, for all I care. We have done very little business with India, their Tariffs are too high, among the highest in the World. Likewise, Russia and the USA do almost no business together. Let’s keep it that way, and tell Medvedev, the failed former President of Russia, who thinks he’s still President, to watch his words. He’s entering very dangerous territory!
This response occurred just hours after Trump imposed significant tariffs on Indian products (I hope H1B visas are considered in this mix) to call out India for assisting Russia in evading energy sanctions and, inexplicably, continuing to support Russia's defense industry by purchasing weapons from it.
Remember, while India is our friend, we have, over the years, done relatively little business with them because their Tariffs are far too high, among the highest in the World, and they have the most strenuous and obnoxious non-monetary Trade Barriers of any Country. Also, they have always bought a vast majority of their military equipment from Russia, and are Russia’s largest buyer of ENERGY, along with China, at a time when everyone wants Russia to STOP THE KILLING IN UKRAINE — ALL THINGS NOT GOOD! INDIA WILL THEREFORE BE PAYING A TARIFF OF 25%, PLUS A PENALTY FOR THE ABOVE, STARTING ON AUGUST FIRST. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER. MAGA!
I suspect the linkage of India's economic ties to the Russian invasion of Ukraine has a lot to do with the sanctions package circulating in Congress to back up Trump's deadline with something other than another deadline, which includes secondary sanctions on buyers of Russian oil and natural gas. While Trump publicly tied punishing tariffs on Brazil to Brazil's slide into communism, Brazil is one of the largest black-market purchasers of Russian oil.
Medvedev was not to be outdone.
About Trump's threats against me in his personal network Truth, which he banned from operating in our country.
If some words of the former Russian president cause such a nervous reaction in the entire, formidable US president, then Russia is right in everything and will continue to go its own way.
And about the "dead economy" of India and Russia and "entering dangerous territory" — well, let him remember his favorite films about the "walking dead," as well as how dangerous a "dead hand" that does not exist in nature can be. ["tears of joy" emoji]
"Dead hand," of course, refers to the Russian system, developed during the Soviet era, for launching nuclear missiles without the order of political or military leadership.
Bullies and idiots often mistake kindness for weakness. I think Putin is about to discover that Trump had a legitimate passion to end Russia's war on Ukraine, and he was willing to force Ukraine into a disadvantageous peace treaty to accomplish that goal. He is also about to discover that Trump doesn't like to be treated with the contempt and disrespect that Putin and his lackeys have heaped upon him. Putin sending out Medvedev to threaten the U.S. with a nuclear attack is probably not going to get the response he is counting on.
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