The war in the Ukraine is a sideshow for President Donald Trump because he is escalating his preparations for war against Russia on other fronts and concentrating his main forces against China on the ground, Russia in space.  This is Trump’s MEGA – Make the Empire Great Again.

This is also the reason he is signalling his readiness to make battlefield concessions to President Vladimir Putin which the European leaders are reluctant to accept.  Their reason for that is the enormous new cost in US arms which Trump is demanding they start to pay.

“It’s a pretty evil world out there,” Trump announced on May 20.  He was referring to Russian and   Chinese nuclear missile capabilities to strike the US. Reviving President Ronald Reagan’s “evil empire” threat from Moscow, and his “Star Wars” space shield, Trump said he is going one better.

“We will truly be completing the job that President Reagan started 40 years ago, forever ending the missile threat to the American homeland. The success rate is very close to 100 percent, which is incredible when you think of it, you’re shooting bullets out of the air…Now we’re number one in space by a lot. It’s not even close…I think you can rest assured there’ll be nothing like this. Nobody else is capable of building it either.”

Trump is repudiating Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD), the doctrine of strategic deterrence in practical effect between Washington and Moscow for more sixty years.  Trump’s new idea is not MAD; it’s LUNACY – Launch Under Nuclear Ascendance Confidence Yessiree.

Listen to the hour-long video with Nima Alkhorshid and Ray McGovern, aired on Wednesday.   There’s a ten-minute extra bonus on  strategy for US empire warmaking and regime change in the Middle East — with Israel and without it.

In the discussion of what will appear in the Russian term sheet for the next round of negotiations, I quoted Oleg Tsarev, the leading Ukrainian opposition leader now living in Crimea. Here is what he said:  

“The memorandum [includes] Russia’s condition for a ceasefiire.  For those who were too fascinated by the conversation with Trump, let me remind you that the United States continues to supply weapons to Ukraine and supply it with intelligence. American drones are on duty in the sky on the Black Sea every day. Strikes against Crimea are carried out daily on the basis of data obtained from American intelligence. Nothing indicates that something will change tomorrow.”

Tsarev was drawing attention to the increase in US intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) operations in the Black Sea to prepare new Ukrainian missile and drone attacks. This is what the Italian monitor, Itamilradar.com, has reported over the past 24 hours.

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Source:  https://www.itamilradar.com/

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Trump’s escalation for attacks on Crimea and the Russian mainland is new, according to the Italian radar watchdog.

“For the first time in several months, the Global Hawk [drone] has returned to fly over the Black Sea, orbiting over the western part of the basin in international airspace. Indeed, we had not tracked any USAF [United States Air Force] drone missions over the Black Sea since early July 2024, when the Russians claimed to have shot down a Global Hawk (an event that never actually occurred [sic]). While the drone was never downed, something [sic] must have happened, as USAF drone flights over the Black Sea stopped entirely from that point onward. Until today [May 20]. After the return of manned aircraft flights, the return of drones marks a renewed U.S. [Trump] commitment to patrolling the Black Sea — and, above all, the Russian-occupied territories that border it.”

As the USAF was escalating operationally in the Black Sea against Russia, Trump was escalating strategically with his presentation  of the $165 billion Golden Dome system. Here is the transcript of the President’s Oval Office remarks with Secretary of Defense Peter Hegseth, senators representing the constituencies to receive funding for the new system, and General Michael Guetlein, newly appointed head of the project at Space Force. In 2011 Guetlein was employed at SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk.

“In the campaign, I promised the American people that I would build a cutting-edge missile defense shield to protect our homeland from the threat of foreign missile attack, and that’s what we’re doing. Today, I’m pleased to announce that we have officially selected an architecture for the state-of-the-art system that will deploy next generation technologies across the land, sea and space, including space-based sensors and interceptors…”

“And Canada has called us and they want to be a part of it. So, we’ll be talking to them. They want to have protection also. So, as usual, we help Canada, do the best we can. This design for the Golden Dome will integrate with our existing defense capabilities and should be fully operational before the end of my term…So, we’ll have it done in about three years. Once fully constructed, the Golden Dome will be capable of intercepting missiles even if they are launched from other sides of the world and even if they are launched from space, and we will have the best system ever built. As you know, we helped Israel with theirs and it was very successful and now we have technology that’s even far advanced from that, but including hypersonic missiles, ballistic missiles and advanced cruise missiles, all of them will be knocked out of the air…”

“It’s a pretty evil world out there. So, this is something that goes a long way toward the survival of this great country… So we have things that nobody else can have. You see what we’ve done helping Israel with that. You probably wouldn’t have an Israel. They launched probably 500 missiles all together. And I think one half of a missile got through. And that was only falling to the ground as scrap metal. It’s pretty amazing. And this is a — this is a — in terms of technology, far advanced from that system.”

Question: Mr. President, on Russia, are you worried about the reports on a military buildup along the borders towards Finland and Norway?

No, I don’t — I don’t worry about that at all. It’s going to be a very safe. Those are two countries that are going to be very safe…

Question: And then secondly, sir, if I may, Zelenskyy — Volodymyr Zelenskyy is saying today that he’s hoping for you to impose new sanctions on Russia. Are you considering that?

Well, that’s going to be my determination. That’s going to be nobody else’s determination. We’ll see how Russia behaves. We see what’s going to happen.”

There have been immediate Russian replies from Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, and the Deputy Foreign Minister in charge of strategic arms negotiations, Sergei Ryabkov.

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Left: Dmitry Peskov; right: Sergei Ryabkov

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“The course of events requires the resumption of contacts between Russia and the United States on issues of strategic stability in the interests of global security”, Peskov commented after being asked about Trump’s Golden Dome. “Now that the legal framework in this area has been destroyed, the validity period has expired and deliberately, let’s say, a number of documents have ceased to be valid, this base must be recreated both in the interests of our two countries and in the interests of security throughout the planet,” Peskov told reporters when asked about the American Golden Dome.”

Ryabkov has repeated that he doubts there has been enough of a change in Trump Administration policy on strategic weapons limitation.

“‘We have consistently maintained this position: without a clear, documented, and genuine improvement in the deeply anti-Russian policies pursued by Washington over the past years, we will be unable to seriously consider options for resuming discussions on strategic stability, including the prospects for strategic arms control. This position remains unchanged, and we are not backing down. I believe Washington has recognized the clarity of our approach in this regard,’ Ryabkov remarked. He also emphasized that, as Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly asserted, Russia remains open to dialogue. ‘If and when dialogue is initiated, we will formulate our positions, which will, of course, prioritize strengthening our national security,’ he continued. ‘Among other considerations, this includes the necessity of accounting for the nuclear capabilities of the United States’ closest European allies: Britain and France. There are certain developments afoot in those countries as well, and the policymakers and experts responsible for their nuclear arsenals are not idle. We cannot overlook this.’”

To illustrate the Russia-hating, kill-mentality Trump is employing at the top of his National Security Council, listen to Sebastian Gorka, the Anglo-Hungarian whose US nationality is just twelve years old.

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