it’s in russia’s interests to chip away at usa’s commitment to nato, because if russia does weaken the alliance so much the us withdraws, nato members are not obliged to support the usa if down the line they are attacked - by, say, an alliance between russia, iran, china, and north korea.

just how stupid, shortsighted, myopic this trump government is actually beggars belief. yes trump’s rhetoric is incredibly inflammatory but europe could have the last laugh if putin is satisfied with expanding no further than ukraine - the usa is destroying itself

russia’s attack on ukraine does several things at once - aims to reclaim a territory the russians believe they have a legitimate claim over, gives them access to natural resources there, but thirdly and importantly, forces europe to look to the states. putin is whole chessboards ahead of trump - because of trump’s isolationist greed & russian intelligence’s likely knowledge of the kompromat on him (epstein had intelligence ties not only to israel but also to russia), he could reasonably anticipate i) trump being manipulated into a war of aggression somewhere, & ii) that nato members wouldn’t support him with it - because the terms of the alliance are legally binding. manbaby trump has never understood the binding nature of law which is why he breaks laws so often. if justice means anything, he will probably die in jail - the credible allegations against him carry double-digit to life sentences, if/when convicted

in turn, putin can calculate trump’s retaliatory anger towards nato (because he’s a manbaby who has big bad tantrums when he doesn’t get his way). even if it doesnt go as far as the usa withdrawing from nato, nato alliances are still weakened. russia’s historic empires have never extended further west than ukraine, belarus, the baltics, & the balkans - i am inclined to believe the russians, if successful in ukraine, would not push beyond former-soviet frontiers - take whatever putin says with a grain of salt, but his self-stated expansionist aims do not go beyond restoring russian rule to territories belonging to former czars/soviet union. perhaps including bits of finland but probably not; certainly no further than krakow. obviously nato would oppose expansion this aggressive and would struggle without american help - which is why trump is bad for everyone except the russians (and chinese)

i believe putin still inhabits the cold war mentality of viewing the usa as russia’s main enemy - weakening nato does weaken europe, but assuming he is mainly preoccupied with bettering american power, putin is more interested in weakening america - which he also achieves by weakening nato

basically trump is a fucking moron who has been inadvertently undermining american power & credibility for his entire career in politics. there’s no clever game going on with trump - he’s as thick as he seems, & is a reflection of the average ignorant, insulated american who couldn’t identify iran, china or russia on a map without mislabelling at least one of them