Donald Trump’s bad day
Vladimir Putin and some of Trump’s rivals had a better one
Our raging narcissist-in-chief had a bad day, Friday (August 15).
Coming out of his meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska, there is no deal on a ceasefire in Ukraine,[1] but it also doesn’t sound like Donald Trump will impose the sanctions on Russia he had threatened.[2] Jamie Dettmer argues that Putin triumphs—in ways I tend to dismiss—by Trump’s honoring him.[3] More substantively, Trump, while coming away with little if anything of substance,[4] is dropping his earlier demand for a ceasefire prior to negotiations: “Putin has repeatedly rejected calls for a ceasefire, insisting on lengthy negotiations for a final peace deal that Ukraine and its European allies say are just a cover for taking more territory,”[5] an assessment consistent with Putin’s earlier ‘negotiations.’
This, along with the still-raging genocide in Gaza, will do little to answer Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize with one of Trump’s own.
Meanwhile, a federal judge has reasserted Washington’s control over its own white supremacist gang following Donald Trump’s attempt to assert direct control[6] as he claimed without evidence that crime was rising in the capital and he sought to address homelessness.[7] As Judge Ana C. Reyes directed, “the Justice Department issued a rewritten version of [Attorney General Pam] Bondi’s order that named the [Drug Enforcement Administration] chief, Terry Cole, as Bondi’s designee to the [District of Columbia] police, without giving him control of the department.”[8]
All of this was supposed to divert attention from the drama over the Jeffrey Epstein files[9] and, well, a few other things.[10] Usually, you want to distract people with wins. Trump is trying to distract them with yet more losses. I’m not sure that works.
At some point, reality bites and it’s little wonder that Trump looked tired after the meeting.
[1] Michael Birnbaum et al., “Trump, Putin break off summit with no Ukraine deal as talks end early,” Washington Post, August 15, 2025, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/08/15/trump-putin-alaska-ukraine-zelensky/; Eli Stokols, “Trump: ‘No deal’ after Putin meeting but the U.S. president will call Zelenskyy,” Politico, August 15, 2025, https://www.politico.com/news/2025/08/15/trump-putin-alaska-ukraine-00512589
[2] Eli Stokols, “Trump: ‘No deal’ after Putin meeting but the U.S. president will call Zelenskyy,” Politico, August 15, 2025, https://www.politico.com/news/2025/08/15/trump-putin-alaska-ukraine-00512589
[3] Jamie Dettmer, “Putin’s Alaska triumph,” Politico, August 16, 2025, https://www.politico.eu/article/putins-alaska-triumph/
[4] Kelly Rissman, “‘Putin clearly won’: Pundits say meeting was ‘bad for Americans’ after Trump’s ‘no deal’ Alaska summit,” Independent, August 15, 2025, https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-putin-summit-result-no-deal-ukraine-b2808774.html
[5] David L. Stern, “Trump splits with allies, drops ceasefire demand for Ukraine war,” Washington Post, August 16, 2025, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/08/16/ukraine-washington-zelensky-russia-trump/
[6] Meagan Flynn et al., “Judge: D.C. police chief remains in command, but Trump can likely demand help on immigration,” Washington Post, August 15, 2025, https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/08/14/bondi-police-chief-dc-cole/
[7] Michael Birnbaum and Perry Stein, “Trump orders federal takeover of D.C. police, deploys National Guard,” Washington Post, August 11, 2025, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/08/11/trump-national-guard-dc-crime-crackdown/
[8] Meagan Flynn et al., “Judge: D.C. police chief remains in command, but Trump can likely demand help on immigration,” Washington Post, August 15, 2025, https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/08/14/bondi-police-chief-dc-cole/
[9] David Benfell, “Will ‘The Big Beautiful Bill’ crack Donald Trump’s white Christian nationalist monolith?” Not Housebroken, August 6, 2025, https://www.disunitedstates.org/p/will-the-big-beautiful-bill-crack
[10] David Benfell, “A cornered, wounded animal,” Not Housebroken, August 16, 2025, https://www.disunitedstates.org/p/a-cornered-wounded-animal