But even as Trump’s appeared highly reluctant to come to the conclusion that Putin is playing him, Republican lawmakers have been doing it for him. They’ll often dress it up in order to avoid alienating Trump, but they’re painting a picture of a US president who’s been had.

“President Trump wants to make sure that he is giving every opportunity for peace to get this war resolved. But Putin is playing him right now,” Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa said Wednesday, before adding: “And I think the president understands that.” Sen. Thom Tillis made similar comments.

  • Ioughttamow@fedia.io
    641·
    3 days ago

    Trump hasn’t been played by Putin, he’s owned by Putin. He’s a dog on a leash

    • BremboTheFourth@piefed.caEnglish
      21·
      3 days ago

      Yeah the only people getting played by Putin are the rest of the conservatives who aren’t getting a paycheck. And, I guess, the rest of us who have to deal with the consequences of their idiocy

      • pivot_root@lemmy.world
        10·
        3 days ago

        I don’t even think Donnie is getting a paycheck.

        With everything revealed about him and his ties with Epstein, he’s almost certainly some kind of creep towards minors. He is also clearly attracted to eastern European women. Add to that that his own daughter made him promise not to date anyone younger than her, and then consider how he’s surprisingly hostile about people not forgetting about the Epstein list, despite being comparatively fine about being called a rapist by his detractors.

        Would not at all be surprised if Putin gave him an evening with an under-aged Russian girl, filmed it, and is blackmailing him.

        • BremboTheFourth@piefed.caEnglish
          61·
          3 days ago

          Oh, he’s getting a paycheck. Of course it’s not direct, I’m sure it comes in many different forms, but just look at, say, the crypto scams he keeps pulling. Have no doubt that one of the keys there is Russian money propping up their value.

          I don’t doubt he’s a pedophile, but at the end of the day, no matter what anyone releases, he can call it fake and 99% of his followers would happily move on. That would have been how it went even before generative AI was a big thing; now it’d be trivial for him to wiggle out of blackmail like that. Not even the current Epstein stuff has moved the needle significantly. And it never will.

          I’m not saying the Russians don’t have a tape like that, but really there’s no way of knowing, and it wouldn’t matter anyway. Don’t forget, this is a guy who could shoot someone on 5th avenue in broad daylight and not lose any support. I don’t think it’s possible to reliably blackmail him. Trump lines up with fascists ideologically anyway, so it’s far easier to simply bribe him, to make him think you’re his friend, rather than trying to threaten him.

          • pivot_root@lemmy.world
            3·
            3 days ago

            You’re probably right.

            I would like to think that the majority of his supporters—the Q-ultists LARPing as investigators, “discovering” the evidence for themselves that king Donald was secretly trying to bust an undercover pedophile ring of elites that drank babies like juice boxes for immortality; the voters for the party about “family values” and “protecting the children”; and the disenfranchised people who bought into his rhetoric about “draining the swamp”—would turn on him with irrefutable proof that he’s a child-fucker…

            But again, you’re probably right. Even without the opportunity to deny the evidence as fake, they would still back him. Fucking shameful, that we’ve come to the point of having 1 in every 4 voting-aged citizen practicing blind faith in a false shepherd and obeying the party when it tells you to not believe the evidence of your eyes and ears.

  • gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world
    18·
    3 days ago

    But Putin is playing him right now,” Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa said Wednesday, before adding: “And I think the president understands that.”

    These stupid fucks are twisted in so many rhetorical knots they’re becoming completely incomprehensible

    • mcv@lemmy.zip
      5·
      2 days ago

      I came here to say this. The only reason Republicans say that Trump has been played by Putin, is because they don’t want to admit they have been played by Trump.

  • atzanteol@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    12·
    3 days ago

    Listen, Art-of-the-deal-Donnie’s just gonna give Putin another 2 weeks and this time Putin will come around.

  • bitwolf@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    5·
    3 days ago

    That’s what I dislike about him most. He’s self serving and gullible. As long as he makes money, or his ego is satisfied, he is easily manipulated.