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But our European allies were aghast last week at Trump’s response to the swarm of around 20 drones that Russia sent across Polish borders, prompting NATO to scramble fighter jets to shoot them down. While Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, told his Parliament the episode was “the closest we have been to open conflict since World War II,” all that Trump could muster was a post on his Truth Social platform: “What’s with Russia violating Poland’s airspace with drones? Here we go!”

A day later, though, he made clear he was going nowhere. “It could have been a mistake,” he said of the drone penetration.

I love Trump’s turn of phrase: “What’s with Russia violating Poland’s airspace with drones?” Our president sounds like a teenage blogger commenting on some movie star who did something embarrassing in public — not the leader of the free world. If Putin had any sense of humor he would post on Truth Social: “Donald, what’s with that Department of War thing?”

Every day that goes by Trump seems to add another condition or another timeline for when he will impose meaningful economic sanctions on Russia, as Putin steps up his attacks on Ukraine. Trump’s latest formulation posted over the weekend is that all nations in Europe, most of whom have already sharply cut back their imports of Russian oil, would need to stop buying oil from Moscow entirely. In addition, all NATO nations need to impose tariffs of 50 percent to 100 percent on China. A serious president would not be posting such demands on social media. He and his staff would be working the phones.

Have you noticed the blank stare on Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s face whenever he is at Trump’s side? It seems like the look of a man struggling to mask his bewilderment.

Here is Rubio on the Russian drone incursion into Poland: “No doubt about it: the drones were intentionally launched. The question is whether the drones were targeted to go into Poland specifically,” Rubio told reporters. He added, “if the evidence leads us there, then obviously that’ll be a highly escalatory move,” but, “there are a number of other possibilities as well.” Without mentioning Rubio by name, Radoslaw Sikorski, Poland’s foreign minister, referring to the drones Russia sent into Poland, wryly observed at the Yalta conference, “We don’t believe in 20 mistakes at the same time.”


Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/16/opinion/trump-putin-russia-ukraine.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare