The return of the ugly American?

As Vladimir Putin "sets the stage for large-scale offensive operations this summer," reengineers the Russian economy for producing military hardware only, bombards Ukraine with "exploding drones" and is planning "to attack with swarms of more than 500 long-range strike drones on a regular basis," behold this latest abridged collection of Trump's pronounced cluelessness, self-contradictions and erroneous certainties as he stumbles around in a much smarter, fellow authoritarian's bailiwick:

• "Trump says 'both leaders' will be at Russia-Ukraine peace talks in Istanbul."

• "Zelensky ready to meet Putin in Turkey."

• "Russia ready to begin peace talks with Ukraine, said a Russian official."

• "Putin won’t attend peace talks in Turkey."

• "Talks in Istanbul end."

• "Trump told reporters he trusts Russian President Vladimir Putin."

• "I think something's going to happen," Trump said.

• "Russia and Ukraine will immediately start negotiations toward a Ceasefire and, more importantly, an END to the War," Trump said.

• Trump announced that "the tone and spirit of [his call to Putin] were excellent."

• "I think there’s a chance of getting something done," Trump said.

• "Nothing's going to happen until Putin and I get together," Trump said.

• "The conditions for [an END to the War] will be negotiated between [Russia and Ukraine], as it can only be," said Trump.

• Putin only "wants to negotiate a possible end to the bloodbath," not a mere ceasefire agreement, Trump said.

• "New clips from Putin documentary suggest Russia dismissed Ukraine peace talks, ceasefire weeks ago."

Now that we're updated on Trump's most recent dives into world-class ineptitude, let's recall his self-professed genius at dealmaking before the Istanbul talks even began. While asking Russia for nothing in return, Trump breezily ruled out NATO membership for Ukraine, gave a thumbs-up to Crimea's illegal annexation by its occupying Putinite barbarians, and for eight even bloodier days deprived Ukraine's military of invaluable, life-saving U.S. intelligence.

Given Trump's indefatigability in always doing the wrong thing, he now says he'll sanction Russia no further and, as a reward for Putin's invading, brutalizing and relentlessly bombing Ukraine's women, children and elderly, he welcomes the prospect of Russia doing some "largescale TRADE with the United States." Meanwhile, Trump is still withholding from murderously victimized Ukraine more than $3 billion of military equipment duly authorized by Congress.

Such is the contemptible face of contemporary America on the world stage — and for billions of audience onlookers, it's the unforgettable, unforgivable face of one. For now. Most of the globe harbors no resentment or ill will toward Americans at large (though by rights they'd be proper in doing so toward at least 77,302,580 of us). After all, millions more Americans than those who voted to keep His Bloated Windbaggery down in a Florida swamp can't stomach him either.

One might wonder with perhaps sizable justification, however, what feelings the global majority had, let's say, for Italians in 1922, versus how the world felt about everyday Italians after Mussolini had ceaselessly barked and bullied his way into the fascistically enlarged 1930s. In another decade-experienced, non-Italian minds, had the loathsome Il Duce also become the face of Europe's national "boot" — its every square inch and human soul? I don't know, can't say, but the possibility nonetheless strikes me as a probable one.

The Atlantic's Anne Applebaum writes from her recently close encounter that Ukrainians are not in the least surprised by Putin's freshly threatening behavior; that by now is an old story. But, she continues,

What they do find surprising is the American president’s tolerance for what looks to them like open mockery. President Donald Trump says he wants a peace negotiation. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky prepared for a peace negotiation. The Russian president turned it into a farce, and will likely proceed with the farce, stringing out Trump for as long as possible and agreeing to more phone calls and meetings in order to avoid new sanctions, distract attention from Russia’s ongoing war crimes, and make the U.S. appear weak.

About Applebaum's final point, I'd counter that war criminal Putin's burlesque of Hitlerian game theory and his manifest toying with Trump are distinctly unneeded phenomena to make the U.S. appear weak. That's been tasked domestically to one man, and he's doing a bang-up job. Thus in this hostile world, U.S. weakness is already more than just the appearance of such. And that, in this post, diverts my concern to another kind of national weakness. The longer that Trump is the forbidding, grotesque face of this country in his chest-beating Mussolini way, will each of us appear to the world's others as the authentic ugly American?

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I'll be asking again someday, but this shall be my last ask, for now. Please read.