As is often the case, Trump’s post on Truth Social was a mixture of the superficially reasonable (it is less than ideal that several NATO members, including, prominently, Turkey and Hungary, continue to buy Russian oil), the preposterous (making Washington’s policy toward Russia conditional on Ankara’s and Budapest’s), and an absurd non sequitur (demanding that NATO act as a unified trade bloc vis-à-vis China). Its purpose, however, was not to move the needle on policy in any meaningful sense. Rather, it is to create an illusion of action, while buying more time for Trump to delay confronting Russia.
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