RANT: Putin's murders in Ukraine are also on you, Donald - your stupid macho games are emboldening him. Today it cost nine children their lives.

Kamala Harris warned that "Putin would eat Trump for lunch" - and indeed, Trump's brinkmanship has only led to more bombs and dead Ukrainians. "24 hours" has so far turned into 74 days. And nothing.

(a message I received from a Ukrainian friend after the latest attacks, April 4, 2025)

BY MICHAEL ANDERSEN

We all saw it.

Donald Trump again and again promised to stop the Russian war on Ukraine: “Within 24 hours of taking office”, “even before I take office”, “I know Putin well, he will listen to me”, “Putin respects me.” As we now know, pure macho BS.

Kamala Harris’ answer - in the television debate in September - was clear: “Putin will eat you for lunch, Donald!” and “If Donald Trump were president, Putin would be sitting in Kyiv right now.”

And indeed, Donald Trump has now been in office for 75 days and we are literally nowhere nearer peace in Ukraine, or even a ceasefire. It is not difficult to apportion blame; On March11, Ukraine agreed to an unconditional ceasefire - while Russia has a) never stopped its bombings and b) spent the past four weeks dragging the U.S. President around by the nose. Innocent people die in Ukraine every single day from Russian missiles, bombs and drones. And you still think that you are cool, Donald, and Putin’s equal in these games.

Recently, I wrote a long - and yes, I make no apologies - angry analysis of how Harris’ words had come true. I ranted: “‘In 24 hours’ and ‘Putin respects me’ turned out to be typical Trump BS. And as a result, more Ukrainians are dying. Two reasons: Putin is a murderous tyrant, and Donald Trump is dumb and uneducated.”

Come to think of it, “dumb and uneducated” was probably too nice.

In desperation, in recent months, the Ukrainian government has been bending over backwards for the U.S. and for Trump. They despise him, of course, but they have no other choice: Painfully illustrated by President Zelensky’s incredible restraint during the Vance/Trump attack on him in the Oval Office. As a result of their fight - on live tv - Trump cut off intelligence sharing and weapons deliveries to Ukraine. When Russia - fully predictably - took advantage of this, Trump’s response was a shoulder shrug and that “Putin is only doing what everybody would do.” The U.S. President said that about aiding and abetting a mass murderer committing genocide in Ukraine - it’s no biggie.

4-5 days later, Trump reopened the military support to Ukraine. But only after, according to TIME magazine, that “as a result of this pause, there are hundreds of dead Ukrainians.” Oh, the fun of playing God, right Donald?

Having watched hundreds of thousands dead and wounded, 10-12 million being forced to flee their homes, the Ukrainian people have placed their hopes in Trump's promises. They have little other option.

“We will find out in the coming weeks whether Russia is serious about a ceasefire,” Marco Rubio said on April 4.

Vladimir Putin's answer arrived promptly. Deadly-promptly. In the form of ballistic missiles.

At exactly the same time as Rubio spoke, Russia bombed a residential neighborhood in Ukraine, including a busy playground: 18 people were killed, among them nine children, 50 people were wounded.

These murders took place in Kryvyi Rih - the hometown of Ukrainian President Zelensky. Basically, Putin wanted to send his counterpart a personal message - and a dictator doesn't care about 18 dead people and 50 wounded.

(Parents sitting with the body of their 15-year-old son killed by Russian missiles, holding his hand.)

Obviously, the main culprit is Vladimir Putin. But the bizarre chest-beating and macho rhetoric of the U.S. president and his personal attacks on the Ukrainian President has, without a shadow of a doubt, emboldened the mass murderer in the Kremlin.

If the U.S. President doesn't come out immediately and condemn this blatant and cynical mass murder, he will be emboldening and empowering the Russian dictator, encouraging him to kill more innocent Ukrainians.

Over to you, Donald. The words you want to use are “stop”, “despicable” and “fcuking mass murderer”.

[This piece has been updated, as the numbers of killed in Kryvyi Rih increased over night.]