‘What a clever boy you are, Donald!’

It looks like the man-child in the White House finally 'got’ Putin. This is a chance that we pro-Ukrainians cannot pass up. Of course, there's a risk that Trump will be back in love next week....

BY MICHAEL ANDERSEN

I told you so.

I know that you’re not supposed to say that kind of thing in 2025, but it sort of fits with the theme, so I am. Because I did.

Last night, the U.S. President lambasted the Russian dictator for being “absolutely CRAZY! He is needlessly killing a lot of people,” Trump stated, warning that if Putin continues intensifying his war in Ukraine, “it will lead to the downfall of Russia!”

Trump’s reaction did not surprise me, because it had been coming for about a month.

Three weeks ago, I wrote a piece suggesting that Trump was getting tired of Putin’s constantly humiliating him, and that maybe the U.S. administration was catching up to the rest of us when it comes to understanding the Russian dictator?

Lesson 1: Donald J. Trump is a man-child.

I have all sorts of fancy degrees and almost 30+ years of experience in observing and writing about international politics. So, I would have liked to be able to say that my prediction was a result of superior skills as an IR analyst. But I would be lying. Because, like everybody else, I have been scratching my head trying to understand the thought processes – if that’s not too big a word – inside the head of Donald J. Trump.

And then, May 7, it hit me: Donald J. Trump is a child. We should analyze him and relate to him as we would a child. Forget about fancy theories from fancy books written by fancy professors of International Relations.

(Phew, I hate experts anyway 😉 Like that Dr Fauci dude, for example, OMG).

I have a lot of experience with children. For example – I was myself a child (as Trump no doubt would put it). Also, not only have I brought up three children of my own (they have all turned out to be reasonably good adults), but I also – before becoming a cynical scribbler of politics – worked at practically all levels of child care and –education: from kindergarten teacher, across primary and secondary school teacher to being a university professor, i.e. I know ‘kids’.

And Donald J. Trump is a child. A child and a bully. Think: 8-year-old bully. And probably not great at school.

If you watch, listen to and read Donald J. Trump with those glasses on, his - frankly speaking - ridiculous, silly, ill-informed, illogical and aggressive outbursts all of a sudden become intelligible, almost making sense. Still unacceptable, still not clever, still tremendously embarrassing for the U.S., sure - but you can see where he comes from, you can (almost) follow the train of thought of this 8-year-old bully.

Try it, go on the boy’s social media and read. Now it makes some sense.

Just one in a hundred examples - Trump’s tirade last week against Bruce Springsteen: primitive, self-obsessed, childish (language and ‘content’), the only real ‘logic’ seems to be ‘Bruce doesn’t like me, so I don’t like him even more.’

‘Bruce says bad things about me, so I am going to say even worser things about him’ - ending in bullying and silly threats.

Lesson 2: Spoiled Manhattan brat bully is über-bullied by a KGB dude.

Ah, one important thing; we need to add ‘spoiled.’ Donald J. Trump is a horribly spoiled brat and that is the cornerstone of his not ‘getting’ Vladimir Putin – till today.

This is what I wrote three weeks ago:

“It is by now blatantly obvious that the Donald was either lying or ignorant when he kept promising to have the war finished in 24 hours – because ‘Putin respects me.’

Unsurprisingly, it turns out that the brutal, corrupt KGB dude who grew up on the mean, mean streets of Soviet Leningrad does not have much respect for the orange, morbidly obese, narcissist, spoiled brat from Manhattan.

Who on earth could have seen that coming?

That’s where we have been for the 15 weeks that Trump has been in power: the U.S. President promising and pretending, the Russian dictator bombing and murdering, the Ukrainians dying. The world watching.”

In other words, the bully has met his ugly match; He has been über-bullied by a bigger, more aggressive beast. And Trump’s post on social media last night finally denouncing the Kremlin dictator demonstrates that the truth is sinking in.

Let’s remind ourselves that until three-four weeks ago, the U.S. President had shown himself quite willing to excuse Putin’s bombing of market squares, hospitals and playgrounds as “mistakes”.

But at the end of April, Trump, Rubio and Vance started talking about that the U.S. could walk away if there was no progress towards a ceasefire deal.

“We will tell them: you are foolish, you are are fools, you are horrible people and we will just take a pass,” said Trump in his own unique style.

On May 7, Vice-President J.D. Vance, for the first time ever, laid some of the blame for the lack of negotiation progress at Russia’s doorstep. “We think that the Russians are asking for too much”, Vance said.

Asked about Vance’s comments, Trump answered: “It is possible that he is right. He may know something that…. We are getting to a point where some decisions are going to have to be made. I am not happy about it, I am not happy about it.”

Since then, two important things have happened:

One - the two-hour love-in phone call between Trump and Putin one week ago. Trump described the call as “excellent,” “the talks went very well” - despite Putin’s flat-out refusal of the ceasefire that Trump was trying to persuade him to. (Ukraine has already two months ago agreed unconditionally to such a ceasefire.)

Two - since that call, Russia has demonstrably intensified its bombing campaign of Ukraine. The Russians are killing innocent Ukrainians in their beds every night, without fail. In other words, the Russian über bully has not only continued to humiliate Trump, but also exposed his seemingly limitless naïvity.

But on Saturday, Trump’s Envoy to Ukraine, retired general Keith Kellogg tweeted:

And it was only 24 hours later that his boss posted that the Russian leader “has gone absolutely CRAZY!”

What to do now?

We pro-Ukrainians must understand that this could or could not be permanent. If the Kremlin über bully makes some sort of gesture - or, judging from history, even pretending to be making a gesture - we could possibly be back at the Donald-Vladimir love-in.

It is important to remember that Trump’s main preoccupation in no way is Ukraine, or the lives of Ukrainians. Trump’s focus is Trump.

And therefore there is now the possibility - and it is certainly bigger than ever before - that Trump is so frustrated that he will ‘flip’ on the Russian dictator. That the humiliation is too tremendous this time. That Trump’s worry that the buck will stop on his desk overrides his ingrained desire to be liked by the Russian dictator.

Where does that leave us pro-Ukrainians?

I suggest that European leaders, including Ukrainians, of course, launch an immediate and massive campaign of sucking up to the man-child in the Oval Office. Keeping in mind the lesson that the U.S. President is a clueless, self-obsessed child - who, for exactly that reason, is utterly open to manipulation.

A video clip from Sunday shows a U.S. President stating that the Russian leader must have gone “CRAZY”. Note two things: Firstly, Trump’s frustration - repeating several times, even shouting “I am not happy”, “I don’t like it”. The U.S. President even admits to being surprised by Putin’s blatant brutality! And, secondly, as always, Trump’s intense desire to make this about …. him. In a mere 44 seconds, he manages to mention himself no less than 12 times. Lest we forget - this is about Donald.

In Russian, there is an expression ‘imeem to chto imeem’ (‘имеем то, что имеем’) - ‘we have what we have’ or ‘it is what it is’ - meaning we need to accept the reality, the situation even when far from ideal. And act. We pro-Ukrainians should heed this - and use, play on, both Trump’s frustration with Putin and his immense ego. It is low, beneath us and all that, sure - but this is about stopping the killing of Ukrainians. In love and war etc.

So, the best thing we pro-Ukrainians can do is support, talk up, promote Trump’s new-found realism. Share his frustration. Ask him to elaborate. (Older men and small, spoiled boys both love that.) It will downplay the recent severe cracks in NATO, between Trump and the rest. And it will support the Putin-sceptics within the U.S. administration, such as Kellogg and Marco Rubio. Most importantly, talking up Trump and his awesome tremendous-ness and so on will hopefully make him engage with the bills in the U.S. Congress on sanctions and secondary sanctions. As long as he gets his name on them.

😉Remember: 8 years old, bully, not too bright. Me, me, me.

I’ll start us off: ‘What a clever, clever boy you are, Donald!’

P.S.: I realize that some will be dismissive of my man-child analysis and policy prescriptions. Many do not believe that Trump will ever sanction Russia. A sharp analyst such as Phillips P. Obrien is an example of that group. Others look at this under the ‘Krasnov’ angle - such as the equally brilliant Craig Unger. Olga Lautman is also always worth reading on this. They may be right, and I may be wrong. In any case, it seems to me that we are getting quite close to knowing what is really behind Trump’s policies on Putin and Ukraine: Man-child, clueless or ‘Krasnov’ ?

Michael Andersen / 26 May 2025