Let's talk about Trump bending the knee to Putin again.... - Belle of the Ranch

[TexasTowelie]

Well, howdy there Internet people. It's Belle again. So, today we're going to talk about Trump bending the knee to Putin again.

In the latest installment of Trump's chicken and waffles foreign policy Trump has once again caved to Putin, but this time it's a little different. Okay, so as we all know, Trump has been trying to put pressure on Cuba by blocking oil headed to the country. And up until now, he's been pretty hardline on this. But a Russian tanker just arrived with about 730,000 barrels of oil. When Trump was asked about the tanker, he said, “I told them, if a country wants to send some oil into Cuba right now, I have no problem whether it's Russia or not.”

Then added, "It doesn't help him. He loses one boatload of oil. That's all it is. If he wants to do that, and if other countries want to do it, it doesn't bother me much. It's not going to have an impact. Cuba's finished. They have a bad regime. They have very bad and corrupt leadership and whether or not they get a boat of oil, it's not going to matter.”

After that, he said, "I'd prefer letting it in, whether it's Russia or anybody else, because the people need heat and cooling and all of the other things.” Cuba doesn't need heat, but they do need cooling and all of the other things.

It's amazing how he doesn't actually address the fact that he's the person causing the shortage, but he's right that the one tanker isn't going to do much. The oil shipment could be enough to produce about 180,000 barrels of diesel. Sadly, that's only enough to give Cuba about 9 or 10 days of their demand.

So, here's the thing. Trump's embargo is hitting the average person. He's hurting normal people. Most sanctions and embargos end up working that way. Him letting the oil go through to Cuba is good actually. Not something you hear here very often, right? In fact, he should drop the whole thing and try to come up with some kind of consistent foreign policy that doesn't constantly weaken the US position around the world while throwing civilians into the line of fire.

And just like anything with Trump's contradictory chicken and waffles foreign policy, it's all connected. The perception, real or not, is that Putin is breaking Trump's blockade, which isn't great foreign policy-wise.

Trump's history of consistently making foreign policy moves that wind up benefiting Putin makes it look even worse. But beyond that and the thing that is making Trump look weaker than any other president in recent memory is that the perception is that Trump caved to Putin right after news broke that Russia is helping Iran target US forces in the Middle East.

Again, he should let the oil through, but the consequences of his consistently bad foreign policy created a situation where when he finally makes a good play, it actually weakens the US.

Anyway, it's just a thought. Y'all have a good day.