President Donald Trump says he wants access to Ukraine’s bonanza of rare earth and critical minerals in exchange for the billions of dollars in military aid Washington has been supplying to Kyiv. It’s an idea previously suggested by Republican senators and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who sought to appeal to Trump’s dealmaker persona as a way of keeping alive Washington’s support of Kyiv. “We’re looking to do a deal with Ukraine where they’re going to secure what we’re giving them with their rare earth and other things,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday. “I want security of the rare earth, and they’re willing to do it.”
As well as being a global breadbasket — Ukraine is a huge supplier of wheat and other agricultural commodities — the country also has a rich seam of rare earth and critical minerals. Elements such as lithium, gallium and neodymium are crucial in producing a vast range of technologies that include electric vehicle batteries, solar panels and cutting-edge military hardware. As such, the U.S. and China among others have increasingly coveted them.
Trump’s comments Monday came as Ukraine and its European neighbors anxiously awaited details of his plan to end the war in Ukraine that Russia launched with its full-scale invasion three years ago. Though the president has offered few details of how peace might be achieved, his overriding complaint has been that European nations have not contributed as much as the $175 billion in assistance that makes America Ukraine’s biggest donor. He also reiterated his long-held desire Monday that “we’re going to stop that ridiculous war.”
That impulse has prompted nervousness among Kyiv’s supporters that Trump may try to force a ceasefire favorable to Russian President Vladimir Putin. With Russia making steady battlefield gains, Putin has shown no appetite for a truce without significant territorial gains and a promise Ukraine will never join NATO.
Zelenskyy has said in the past that he sees the war as one between Russia and the West, not just Ukraine, and as such has implored Western countries to provide more weaponry. The Ukrainian president has also made positive comments about working with Trump — some analysts say that he has little choice — and now there appears to be some agreement on the subject of rare earth minerals.
China dominates the global market for rare earth metals, securing rights to mine some 60% and produce up to 90% of the world’s supply, according to the Oxford Institute of Energy Studies. That’s partly due its vast “Belt and Road” infrastructure project through which it has developed ties to resource-rich countries. But also its willingness to process these environmentally damaging materials on behalf of Western countries, which until recently have been happy to offload this burden.
Ukraine is a key player, too, with upward of 5% of the world’s mineral supply, according to its national Geological Association. Many of those crucial minerals are under the frigid trenches and minefields in eastern Ukraine, however, and at risk of falling into the hands of Putin. Zelenskyy’s office on Monday welcomed Trump’s comments as “part of the Victory Plan that President Zelensky presented to President Trump in the fall,” but warned that “we must ensure the security of Ukraine and these resources so that Russia does not simply seize them physically.”That so-called “victory plan,” proposed by Zelenskyy in October, offered “strategic partners” such as the U.S. “a special agreement” to access deposits of uranium, titanium, lithium, graphite that Ukraine says are worth trillions of dollars.
Trump appearing to adopt this plan shows Zelenskyy’s success in appealing to the president’s dealmaker instinct, according to Orysia Lutsevych, head of the Ukraine Forum at Chatham House, a London-based think tank.m“Zelenskyy knows how Trump likes to make deals, and this plan was to make Ukraine an asset, not a liability,” Lutsevych said. “But we still do not know Trump’s strategy. We know bits of it but he says very little, and we only know what he says.”
When asked about Trump’s comments, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters Tuesday that it was merely “an offer to buy aid” rather than “provide it on a free of charge basis. It is better, of course, not to provide it at all and thereby contribute to the end of the conflict,” Peskov added.
Though many in Europe still fear that Trump may hand Putin a win, Ukrainians themselves appear to trust the American president more than their EU counterparts. A December poll by the New Europe Center, a Ukrainian nongovernmental organization, found more than 44% of respondents said they trusted Trump — higher than most other European countries.
One of those maintaining a positive outlook is Taras Byk, 41, a consultant and civil activist in Kyiv. He told NBC News that the rare-earth proposal would be a “win-win scenario for both Ukraine and the USA. We would like to cooperate as equal partners,” he said, “if this exchange will lead to the retreat of Russia, such an option is much better than war.”
Comment: This NBC article is pretty damned complete. Zelenskiy proposed the deal. Trump finds it compelling. And the Kremlin is deeply worried that the deal will come to fruition.
I’m thinking that Trump will insist that the EU purchase LNG from the US rather than from Russia and continue upping their defense spending and support of Ukraine as part of the deal. This would be a good deal for Trump and Ukraine. It would have initial costs for the EU, but would eventually be best for them and the Atlantic alliance (or at least the European alliance). Putin and Russia would be the immediate loser, but with the war over, the sanctions would fall away for the most part and Putin could start investing in bettering the lot of Russians and rebuilding his armed forces.
TTG
There is at least one estimate to claim Ukraine has $26 trillion in critical mineral deposits: https://www.dentons.com/en/insights/articles/2024/august/20/ukraine-critical-minerals
There are already two joint US-Ukraine critical mineral mining syndicates operating in Ukraine. Velta LLC, a joint Ukrainian-US venture is mining and processing titanium. The Ukrainian-US BGV Group has obtained licenses to mine major deposits of graphite, zirconium, beryllium and rare-earth elements.
Aussies and Turks have also invested heavily for a piece of the pie.
China wants in also, but I don’t believe Kyiv will let them in. Or maybe they will if Trump gets suckered in by Putin’s con game? I don’t think that will happen either. What say you all?
It’s the same reason Trump is interested in Iceland.
Off topic but I wonder how a convicted killer speaks so casually about Trump’s motivations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE7UwSc_Z6s&list=WL&index=1
According to Orysia Lutsevych…they left off the OBE and Deputy Director Russia and Eurasia Program; Head of the Ukraine Forum. Chatham House
FFS people. Who funds that place?
5% of world’s supply… how much was in Afghanistan? Everyone’s alzheimer’s kicking is? Forget that excuse to stay there? But oh that crap still in the ground that is great for batteries for the Trump e.v. mandate? Oh he just ended Biden’s. Whatever. There’s $$$$ that needs to flow. Back to “access ” (not access Hollywood, that place went woke) to that stuff needed for the green new $ deal.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-trump-rare-minerals-russia-war-b2692067.html
Oh lookie there. Just gotta kick Russia’s ass out of those places full of Russians. FFS, but I repeat myself.
Take a good look at the, oh look, USAID fraud.
Did I say USAID fraud? No, DOGE sure did. Better not ask who got kickbacks and just how color revolutions were funded. Not in sacred ally Vindman’s homeland, or whatever. Both need our money more than North Carolina or East Palestine or East St. .Louis. or Baltimore or LA.
Anyone at doge know how much Chatham House gets from us? It looks like a big % of BBC money is USAID. I’m guessing it ain’t zero. With allies like these….
No, DOGE sure did
must be exciting for Musk’s youngster team to work there. I wouldn’t mind watching them do their jobs. 😉
What’s your and Eric’s take on the US taking over Gaza and developing it into a Riviera of the Middle East? I wonder? Slices for Ivanka and Jared and his other kids?
Leander,
The Gaza deal = art of the deal. My take is that Trump will allow the Saudis and/or Gulfies to step in. They are very good at building modern model cities and would love another resort/party town, this one on the Med instead of the Persian Gulf, big new market. What’s not to like? Bonus is sticking it to Iran. In exchange, whichever state(s) takes up the project must also take on the “Palestinians”; find them somewhere appropriate to live and do and that country. If they act like barbarians, as they are won’t to do, instead of building new lives, well the Saudis/Gulfies know how to deal with them – and it would be Arab on Arab terrorism control. So that takes the Jews out of the equation. I think most Gaza “Palestinians” will be happy enough if given sufficient handouts in their new location, away from Hamas and Iranian influence.
Only ones disappointed will be the propagandized social justice warriors, but they have short attention spans. Also, with USAID $ cut to scurrilous Marxist CIA outlets like the BBC and Politico, they can be re-propagandized by MAGA media to take up some other cause that either keeps them out of the grown-ups’ hair or might even be useful to making America great again in some way.
Come on Eric, wake up! It simply won’t do. Mass murder is mass murder and ethnic cleansing is ethnic cleansing however prettily Trump tries to dress it up.
Our hands are not clean in the West as it is. The RAF has been assisting in Gaza – how the hell our pilots can look each other in the eye after that I can’t imagine. The Germans increased arms sales. Biden provided everything needed for the genocide plus diplomatic cover. You think the world hasn’t noticed?
If after all that Trump even thinks of going through with that relocation/redevelopment project he wrecks US prestige and influence worldwide. Utterly. There are no excuses possible even for those of us who wish Trump well. You will be living in a pariah state as the Israelis now are.
Trump deserves a lot of rope because he’s an oddball. But that’s too much rope even for him. If common humanity doesn’t tell his people that, surely common sense must?
EO,
Nah, you come on.
The American Indians, The Ausie Aboriginals, the Armenians and dozens – hundreds – of other examples in relatively recent history. Times change. Adapt or perish. As Col Lang used to say, sometimes you eat the bear, sometimes the bear eats you. A smart people recognizes when they are about to be eaten and takes measures to mitigate the situation. Ham string the other members of the hunting party so the bear concentrates on eating them instead of you. Climb a tree. Jump off a bank into a river and float away to safety. Do something reasonable. If you want to stand and fist fight the bear and go down in a blaze of gory “glory”, I will think you to be a crazy idiot.
The Palestinians are crazy idiots and they lost their soul in being such. Murdering the bear females and cubs is about as stupid as stupid can be. And it’s deranged. You can make all the romantic justifications you want. Those don’t change reality. You’re all about let’s you and him fight because rights and freedom!!!. Bravo Mr. No Skin In The Game. You’re the same as the people salivating over endless war in Ukraine.
And you’re a fool of the first order if you think that the Palestinians wouldn’t do the same to the Israelis if they could. In fact, they – the Arabs – tried, but were too screwed up to succeed. So are the Persians. No one important is interest in social justice whiner cause #1,428, 793. That is all part of social forming for child level mentalities.
Your excuse making for the Palestinians is as even more pathetic than your excuse making for the Russians. It is, however, consistent with your message of demoralization for the non-Russian world; which I suspect is the point and mission.
US prestige is already wrecked by Bush & Biden. Trump is just showing US allies that there are good reasons to find alternatives to the US, if you can. It will take time but in 50-70 years you could see the global network of US bases gone.
Just look at the French position in Africa.
scurrilous Marxist CIA outlets like the BBC and Politico
That’s a rather interesting idea, Eric. Considering the BBC, I leave that to the Brits, but Politico has been owned by the Axel Springer SE for quite some time.
You may be interested that its tabloid “Bild”/image was the main media target of the diverse post SDS (Socialist Students League) groups on the left in the 60/70s in Berlin.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axel_Springer_SE#:~:text=1960s%5Bedit,%5B24%5D
But thanks, Eric, all in all a somewhat elegant answer. Slightly evasive concerning an increase of the US footprint in the ME. Maybe? 😉
LeaNder,
“Here Bibi, let me get that chair for you” Get my picture everyone, see how subservient I am to AIPAC and the PM? Good.
Look at all that wonderful beach front, be a shame if ZioNisTs took it after all that genocide. The people want to come back? “We’ll run it” we’ll let them have A Right to return” (next year in JerusaGaza or some such song. Remember? )
Bibi “whah? What was that?”
World press (USAID funded – thanks Barack, Biden and the Borg) Trump’s just in it for the $. (So unlike freedom in Ukraine, Afghanistan, Iraq)
Congress wait, what USAID funding?
UNRWA um, rebuilding? Tunnels, what tunnels?
Hamas Qatar mansions for leadership? What Qatari mansions. And so on.
Thanks for the pager Bibi, nice op. After 2 assassination attempts I think I’ll pass. False flag to get the war with Iran you always wanted? Yeah I still wind up dead. Troops, who said anything about US boots on the ground, or US $?
How are German elections looking LeaNder? Everyone still running away from AfD? Economy still imploding? Still deindustrializing? Thank Ukraine Poland and the UK for blowing up those pipelines.
Thanks Fred, highly appreciated.
Everyone still running away from AfD? Economy still imploding? Still deindustrializing? Thank Ukraine Poland and the UK for blowing up those pipelines.
I thought you might enjoy that at least as much as EO or the ones, feeling the future of Europe mainly lies in New Europe up to the diverse despot frontiers anyway.
Thanks for the pager Bibi, nice op. After 2 assassination attempts I think I’ll pass. False flag to get the war with Iran you always wanted? Yeah I still wind up dead. Troops, who said anything about US boots on the ground, or US $?
Not sure if I understand you completely here, but yes, admittedly, a rather impressive operation. Better don’t give your and your CIC’s shared enemies any ideas. Last but not least: Personally, I don’t think he’ll start a war with Iran, either. Maybe Iran offers to shelter Palestinians (both from Gaza and the West Bank) after their last expulsion. For the promise, he and his good friend Bibi will them alone?
LeaNder,
Nobody wants the Palestinians, even their leaders, which is why they skim their share of “aid” and hang out in Qatar, Dubai, London, Zurich and the like. Trump made no promise to Bibi. Given he was reading a script I would say it is a big fu to the Zionists. Instead of Lebensraum and all that offshore gas they get? A functional (other than the people there) city state of Palestine. That’s a big loser for a lot of people not having WTF on their radar this week.
LeaNder – I doubt it was us blowing up those gas pipes. Our specialists in that line are pretty good, you know. We’d have got all four.
Plus, what’s all this about enjoying Germany’s recession. Doesn’t add up. You do know that when Germany sneezes the rest of us in Europe catch a cold?
Germany is the mainstay of the EU. Without German direct and indirect subventions the EU collapses. It becomes a disconsolate puddle of woe, “New Europe” and all.
The UK does some half its trade with the EU, much of it high value added. Any one in England, therefore, who thinks they’re going to “enjoy” a German economic downturn isn’t thinking straight. We have quite enough economic woes of our own without Barbarossa Scholz’s capers adding to them.
TTG! Typepad rejected my first comment below. It said “You’ve already said that.”
Only about a thousand times, I thought to myself, but changed the comment slightly to see if Typepad was in a better mood. It was, so now a near duplicate has appeared. Would it be possible to delete one of them?
EO,
Looks like it’s a Typepad feature to help prevent double comments. Doesn’t work very well, does it? Some comments end up in the trash or spam bin for no apparent reason. For quite a while my comments were going in the spam bin a few years ago. Colonel Lang couldn’t figure it out, either.
Fred: “5% of world’s supply … how much was in Afghanistan? Everyone’s Alzheimer’s kicking in? Forget that excuse to stay there.”
202401: U.S. sells off helium reserves.
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/us-just-sold-helium-stockpile-s-medical-world-worried-rcna134785
202403: Minnesota announces discovery of the most concentrated helium stockpile perhaps in the world.
https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/geology/scientists-just-discovered-a-massive-reservoir-of-helium-beneath-minnesota
Maybe the % will be updated at a later date so our elites can continue insider trading productively.
Lesly,
2024 is perfectly healthy Joe Biden
Neither article having anything to do with Ukraine
Thanks for playing
Fred,
I was thinking of Nancy and some other very rich senators.
Oh, you think I play “the people I vote for are better” game. Can you teach me the rules?
Lesly,
Surely you know that in the rules based order the rules change to keep those in power in power. Most of the time it works
Fred,
My favorite USAID expenditure revealed thus far is for development transvestite opera in Myanmar (I think it was Myanmar – somewhere around there). Yep, that’s why I pay taxes. Just about sums up the entire kooky entrenched US government’s level of seriousness and responsibility.
Good on Trump for seeking to get something out of Ukraine for all the money we spend on that meaningless [to Americans] cause
Keep going Trump and DOGE. Level it all! Then build it back right. The founding fathers are smiling on you from heaven.
Columbia, not Myanmar, apparently. Also, maybe? Not USAID but State? DEI related, no doubt, thus polemically helpful???
https://twitchy.com/brettt/2025/02/05/fact-check-transgender-opera-in-colombia-didnt-receive-a-dime-from-usaid-n2407906
I am sure Ukraine has a good bargaining chip and will do good with the simpleminded Trump. Who now want to take over Gaza, after all the Palestinians leave. I am sure the Palestinians are about as excited about this as are the Greenlanders, or the Panamanians. I still think that even Trump realizes that if he loses Ukraine, that will be his legacy and that would make him one of the biggest losers of all time. But of course, we are talking about Trump, so who knows? As he has already shown, regarding tariffs, he talks loudly and carries a small stick.
Lars,
“[Trump] Who now want to take over Gaza, after all the Palestinians leave”
That’s called ethnic cleansing, because the Palestinians don’t want to and won’t leave their land. The only way that could happen is if Trump continues Biden’s policy of unconditioned support of the genocide in Gaza.
Per General Mark Hertling:
“Disbanding the FBI’s counter-terrorism division while simultaneously volunteering to level Gaza doesn’t seem to be a coordinated action.”
Gaza is already leveled and Hamas pretty well wiped out. The survivors will be relocated to some Arab country. Such is life. It is up to the Gazans to either make something of their new lives, or to fail, again. The Saudis/Gulfies will build a nice resort town in Gaza, not the US.
Eric –
Which Arab country has agreed to host them? As far as I know both the Saudis and the UAE have rejected the plan and are still commited to a Palestinian State to include Gaza.
https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/mideast-power-saudi-arabia-rejects-trump-proposal-to-take-over-gaza-5fe9bc30
But no matter where you send them there will still be terrorists among them. NutsandYahoo just released 90 Hamas. According to the ceasefire deal he’s supposed to release hundreds more.
Lars wrote:
“I still think that even Trump realizes that if he loses Ukraine,
that will be his legacy and that would make him one of the biggest losers of all time.”
I utterly fail to understand the obsession of some about Ukraine.
Who gives a **** about who controls Ukraine?
Please tell me, Lars, why you think who controls Ukraine is important.
Thank you.
Keith Harbaugh,
It’s the biggest war in Europe since WWII.
Zelensky’s already sold off some Ukrainian assets to the West. That’s going to be a problem for the Ukrainians in remnant Ukraine when it comes to reconstruction after the war. They’re going to discover that to a degree Zelensky has literally been selling off the ground beneath their feet. In any case the NBC article puts things very oddly. “Though many in Europe still fear that Trump may hand Putin a win …” betrays a misunderstanding of the military and political state of play in Ukraine.
Trump’s pretty well out of the game as far as Ukraine is concerned. What happens there now is down to what the Russians decide to do. It’s therefore not in Trump’s power to “hand Putin a win” or indeed to deny him one, any more that it was in Biden’s.
NBC’s still indulging in the misleading PR that has been such a feature of Western information warfare in this conflict. The Democrat media now wishes to claim that Trump lost Ukraine, ignoring the fact that Biden did and was never going to do otherwise.
Trump’s best bet is to acknowledge that the Ukrainian debacle is down to Biden, which it largely is, and to make that clear to his electorate. His worst policy would be to take over Biden’s war and make it his own. Unless Trump is prepared to threaten nuclear was – and I don’t believe he is any more than was Biden – the forces and equipment at NATO’s disposal are entirely inadequate for the job of taking on the RF in that theatre. We were dishonest ever to lead the Ukrainians to believe otherwise.
That’s something Rubio has already made clear. He gets quite a lot wrong here – whoever, for instance, told him this war was ever a stalemate? – but he homes in on that central point.
“We think what Putin did was terrible: invading a country, the atrocities he’s committed. He did horrible things. But what – the dishonesty that has existed is that we somehow led people to believe that Ukraine would be able not just to defeat Russia but destroy them, push them all the way back to what the world looked like in 2012 or 2014, before the Russians took Crimea and the like. And then the result, what they’ve been asking for the last year and a half, is to fund a stalemate, a protracted stalemate, in which human suffering continues. Meanwhile Ukraine is being set back 100 years; their energy grid is being wiped out. I mean, someone’s going to have to pay for all this reconstruction after the fact. And how many Ukrainians have left Ukraine, living in other countries now? They may never return. I mean, that’s their future, and it’s in danger in that regard.”
https://www.state.gov/secretary-marco-rubio-with-megyn-kelly-of-the-megyn-kelly-show/
That’s a direct admission that we’ve been dishonest to the Ukrainians and have caused them much suffering as a result of that dishonesty. Talk of Ukrainian mineral and agricultural wealth, some of which has already been sold off and much of which is in the Donbass in any case, is therefore entirely beside the point.
I like Trump and I particularly like his mission of reform but I’m going to have to confess to you, TTG, that I sometimes wonder if your new President is quite right in the head. At least Biden’s PR had a certain resonance. The Biden/Blinken claim was that we were fighting this horrendous war, or our proxies were fighting it for us, to keep our freedom and democracy and our rules based international order. Something of a comedown if Trump is now saying we’re only fighting it to keep the lithium.
The only big resource oblast in full Ukrainian control is Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. So maybe Russia will go for Dnipro.
Map of estimated resource mining value
https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fua-pov-economic-resource-map-of-ukraine-showing-the-v0-1o6cradabn6d1.jpeg%3Fauto%3Dwebp%26s%3D1d64f275bab99d72f787023f78032882dfe6b140
There is no such thing as rare earth minerals. Those minerals are everywhere to include the US but for Ukraine, Western Ukraine is the black dirt and is already accounted for by US companies. The eastern side is now Russia. How is Trump going to get something he does not own. He will get nothing from Ukraine of value but a fatter deficit and more corruption. Russia paid a heavy toll but they won the war of attrition as the Pentagon knew from day one would eventually happen and it did.
babelthuap,
That’s true. Canada has all those element we need, but processing them is a dirty process creating lots of toxic waste. Australia has plenty, but sends the ore to Southeast Asia for processing where no one worries about toxic waste. I’m sure we and the EU expects Ukraine to do the processing in country.
Here is a fairly basic article about rare (not rare) earth minerals:
https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/geology/why-are-rare-earth-elements-so-rare
Unfortunately nobody calls out any of our politicians on it who keep making it sound like veins of silver or gold. Very difficult to get this stuff parsed out. Lots of water, chemicals. It’s real nasty yuck work that would make any environmentalist’s break out in a full vaso panic attack.
Babelthuap,
It occurs to me that the US could purchase (or just capture) some island. Send all of the disgraced and fired FBI and CIA guys + criminal illegal aliens there to live out their lives processing the minerals.
Alternatively, send at least the terminated CIA guys to Ukraine to work the mines and processing plants. Either option seems good and fair to me.
Hmm, that is pretty close to the not so old idea of my ancestors. Some kind of work camp, where the evil human forces are concentrated?
Unfortunately, the Trump admin seems to have a long way to get there. N0? At least presently it seems never mind how willingly helpful SCOTUS, Senate, and House would be.
But of course the Right has the right to dream too.
Babelthuap –
Out of 37 ore deposits of critical minerals in Ukraine, only six are in Putin occupied areas. The unoccupied north and center of the country is rich in lithium, tantalum, zirconium, titanium, vanadium, beryllium, scandium, niobium, rubidium, caesium, chromium, nickel, cobalt and graphite.
American, Australian and Turkish companies are not afraid to invest there despite the war. And despite your claiming of corruption. There’s probably more corruption in New Jersey or Louisiana than there is in Ukraine.
The minerals are everywhere, not just in certain pockets. Believe what you want though. If you believe Russia only got a measly 6/30 you believe that. Regardless, a bunch of companies own much of western Ukraine.
One is Dupont. I don’t know the other ones but likely Blackrock as well. Ukraine has been sold at the stockyard and gutted already. Trump isn’t getting any of it.
Babelthuap –
The critical mineral deposits are in clusters. They are not spread everywhere as some claim. A dozen are clustered in Zhitomir Oblast. Four of those are already operational, one is licensed, and the rest are ready for auction. There is another cluster of six deposits in Kirovohrad Oblast and of those three are operational.
There are only seven (not six) deposits out of Ukraine’s known 37 reserves in the occupied areas. They seem to be clustered at the border area between southeastern Zaporizhzhia and southwestern Donetsk Oblasts. Only one of those was operational prior to Putin’s February 2022 invasion. Hard to say what is going on there now, but based on Putin theft of Ukrainian grain and coal he’s probably helped himself to the tantalum and other critical minerals from that mine also.
Dupont has a seed facility in Ukraine and probably has leased enough land for testing. I heard Cargill has some grain elevators there. Blackrock is there as an investment consultant to Kyiv’s Ministry of the Economy, why would they be owning Ukrainian land?
Blackrock and BOE also on the hook Ukraine’s war debt. They’re in a bit of a binding cash flow wise.
The ancient Greeks had this saying “Ex Africa semper aliquid novi.” (Out of Africa always comes something new.) Pliny the Elder thought this proverb derived from the popular belief that in a dry climate there had to be a forced congregation of different species at watering holes and sooner or later they fucked. How else could you get a zebra? A horse and a what? A hippopotamus? An elephant and a what? A spotted leopard? A lion and a what? Trump is sort of like Africa. There is always something coming from Trump that is new. Ex Trumpus semper aliquid novi.
Tidewater,
🙂
Good one
Thanks! 🙂
Sometimes it’s just diarrhea.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/10/europe/trump-zelensky-ukraine-russia-analysis-intl/index.html
“Last week, US President Donald Trump officially appointed 80-year-old retired Gen. Keith Kellogg as his envoy to Ukraine and Russia.
Almost Kellogg’s first act was to announce he would discuss their vision for peace in Ukraine with allies at the Munich Security Conference, on February 14-16.
He is then expected, four days later, to visit Kyiv, for his first, long-anticipated trip there, according to Ukrainian state media.
…
Kellogg has also suggested an initial ceasefire might be time for elections in Ukraine, if any truce can take hold.
…
It is hard to not interpret a call for elections as a way to have Zelensky slowly step aside
…
Leading some polls, in any future Ukrainian presidential election, is Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the military chief Zelensky fired last year.”
More from CNN, on the Munich Security Conference:
https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/11/europe/ukraine-russia-trump-zelensky-intl/index.html
“Trump discussed his administration’s effort to end the war in an interview with Fox News that aired Monday,
ahead of a meeting tabled for this week between his vice president, JD Vance, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“They (Ukraine) may make a deal, they may not make a deal.
They may be Russian someday, or they may not be Russian someday,” ”
Well, that makes things perfectly clear 🙂
There have been several developments both in foreign policy and intelligence.
“President Trump Announces Board Members of Presidents’ Intelligence Advisory Board, Chaired by Devin Nunes”
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2025/02/12/president-trump-announces-board-members-of-presidents-intelligence-advisory-board-chaired-by-devin-nunes/
Also of course Tulsi Gabbard has been confirmed as DNI.
In foreign policy Trump has been talking to Putin, Zelenskyy, and the general public.
It sounds like things are moving.
Sundance has reports on this.
“President Trump Delivers Remarks to Press Pool:
Ukraine, Zelenskyy, Putin, Pending Saudi Summit, DOGE and More”
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2025/02/12/president-trump-delivers-remarks-to-press-pool-ukraine-zelenskyy-putin-pending-saudi-summit-doge-and-more/
“President Trump delivered some rather remarkable filler information today surrounding the phone calls between himself, President Putin and President Zelenskyy.
The remarks, which should not be missed, come at the conclusion of the Tulsi Gabbard swearing in ceremony.
[09:45 video, prompted]
…
The entire content of the impromptu press remarks is really something.
I strongly urge everyone to take the time to listen and decide for yourself.”
Sundance remarks on the minor role Zelenskyy seems to be playing.
Keith,
Yes. It’s really amazing what is being accomplished in such a short time. Looks like the bloodshed in Ukraine will end soon. That upsets a lot of righteous people.
The TDS crowd will remain negative, of course, even double down. Ignore them. They ain’t right in the head. They either were either making money off the way things used to be, or they are tools of those who made money of the way things used to be. Or they have their “virtue” construct on the line.