Michael Snyder's essay (see below), reads like a dispatch from the edge of a geopolitical cliff. His alarm is not just about a single presidential statement but about the sudden, disorienting pivot it seems to represent. For months Donald Trump had cast himself as the candidate of quick peace in Ukraine. Then, in a few sharp sentences on Truth Social and in a press appearance beside Emmanuel Macron, he appeared to reverse course, talking as if Ukraine could "get that land back" and suggesting there will be "no peace with Russia."

Even allowing for Trump's famously improvisational style, that is a striking change of tone. During the campaign he had made "ending the war in 24 hours" a staple applause line. Snyder takes him at his word and hears something darker: that the United States, rather than nudging Kyiv toward negotiations, is now prepared to bankroll a fight to the bitter end. Coming from a president who once courted Putin and derided endless wars, it feels, to Snyder, like a betrayal of both his base and his own rhetoric. And, it is.

Why does it matter? Because rhetoric shapes strategy. When the head of state signals that the war is winnable, that Ukraine can recover every square kilometre, Washington's red lines shift. Money and weapons that were once "stopgaps" become instruments of a longer campaign. Moscow hears the message too, and the incentive to escalate grows. Snyder cites the unnerving words of Sergei Karaganov, a Kremlin-aligned strategist, who calls it a "terrible sin" not to use tactical nuclear weapons if that is what it takes to avoid outright defeat. Russian hawks have been floating this kind of talk for months; it is designed both to frighten the West and to normalise the unthinkable. But when U.S. policy hardens, the bluff is harder to discount.

Critics might argue that Trump's off-the-cuff remarks do not yet constitute a formal shift in policy. He could walk them back tomorrow. Trump has always toggled between isolationist instincts and a desire to project strength. But Snyder is right to see danger in the drift. Wars often widen not through a single dramatic decision but by a series of small rhetorical commitments that leave each side less room to retreat. The more Washington speaks of total Ukrainian victory, the harder it becomes to accept any negotiated settlement. The more Moscow hears that the West will not settle, the more its own hardliners can claim that nuclear threats, or nuclear action, are the only deterrent left.

Twenty-four years after 9/11, Americans are once again hearing the language of open-ended conflict. Snyder warns that this is the kind of slow-motion tragedy you recognise only when it is too late: a sequence of choices, each politically explainable in the moment, that leads toward a confrontation no one truly wants. His essay is a plea for caution, less about any single tactical decision than about the psychology of escalation, and the ease with which a great power can talk itself, and its rivals, into a war from which neither side can safely back away.

https://michaeltsnyder.substack.com/p/the-most-ominous-thing-that-a-president

"There will be no peace with Russia, and we all know what that means. When I initially learned what President Trump had said about the war in Ukraine, I had a very difficult time believing it. When he was running against Kamala Harris, Trump reaffirmed his commitment to end the war in Ukraine over and over again. That was an extremely popular position, because the vast majority of Americans do not want to end up in an apocalyptic conflict with Russia. But now everything has changed. Trump has been receiving really bad advice from his national security team, and based on that advice he has fully embraced the war in Ukraine. In fact, he now appears to believe that Ukraine can actually win the war and take back all of the territory that Russia has conquered.

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I had to verify exactly what Trump said about the war for myself, and so I went directly to his Truth Social account. When I got there, I read the most ominous thing that a president of the United States has said in my entire lifetime…

Ever since I first read this, I have experienced such a mix of emotions.

But at this particular moment, I just feel sad.

I feel like I am watching a great tragedy play out in slow-motion that I am unable to stop.

I have issued very explicit warnings about what will happen if this path is chosen.

Unfortunately, global leaders don't really listen to people like us.

After Trump posted this extremely alarming message on his Truth Social account, he doubled down on his position during a press appearance…

Speaking next to French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday, Trump said: "Russia should have stopped the war."

He added that his once-close rapport with Putin "didn't mean anything unfortunately."

Speaking about his Truth Social post, Trump went on: "Most of you have seen the recent statement I put out.

"I'm glad you got it, but I feel that way.

"Let him get that land back, so we'll see how it works out."

A lot of people out there have been waiting to see which way things would go with Russia.

Now we know.

When Trump arrived at the United Nations headquarters on Tuesday, the escalator stopped working as soon as he got on it…

President Donald Trump turned an awkward arrival at the United Nations headquarters in New York City into a political jab Tuesday during his address to the General Assembly moments after the building's escalator stopped dead just as he and First Lady Melania Trump stepped on it.

The pair posed briefly for cameras as they arrived before stepping onto the escalator that, to the bemusement of onlookers, ground immediately to a halt as they boarded.

After a moment of confusion, Melania quickly strode up the stalled steps, while Trump followed behind, leaving aides and staffers to take the stairs.

Subsequently, when he delivered his speech to the UN General Assembly the teleprompter did not work properly. This is something that he commented on during his speech…

Trump said elsewhere in his speech that, "All I got from the United Nations was an escalator that on the way up stopped right in the middle," he alleged, later adding, "These are the two things that I got from the United Nations: a bad escalator and a bad teleprompter. Thank you very much."

On the exact day when the peace process with Russia was broken, Trump had to deal with a broken escalator and a broken teleprompter at the United Nations.

Is it possible that this was more than just a coincidence?

There was so much hope when President Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska.

But now it is clear that there will be no peace, and the Russians are not pleased about Trump's shift in tone at all…

The few early reactions trickling out of Moscow on Wednesday demonstrated how deeply Trump's unexpectedly friendly appearance in New York alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly vexed the Kremlin, which just weeks ago was gloating over Russian President Vladimir Putin's warm reception in Alaska.

"Russia is in no way a tiger. Still, Russia is more compared with a bear. There are no paper bears," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said to local radio on Wednesday.

In Alaska, the Russians presented their proposal for ending the war.

You could argue that their proposal was not acceptable, but at least they were willing to talk.

The right thing to do would have been to continue negotiations.

Unfortunately, as Scott Ritter has pointed out, Trump has been getting advice from some very questionable people…

Trump has, from the very onset of his presidency, been ill advised by a coterie of foreign and national security officials who, with very few exceptions, are dyed in the wool Russophobes. From his Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, to his National Security Advisor (initially Mike Waltz and, after his firing in May, Marco Rubio, wearing to hats ala Henry Kissinger), to his Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, to his CIA Director, John Ratcliffe, and on to his Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessant, Trump has surrounded himself with people who have spent their adult lives loathing Russia and its leadership.

To the extent that Trump has access to advisors who might advocate good relations with Russia, he either dismisses their advice (as is the case with Tulsi Gabbard, his Director of National Intelligence), or nullifies their advice by having a Russophobic counter (as is the case with his Russia Special Envoy, Steve Witkoff, whose insights are offset by the anti-Russian positions held by Keith Kellogg.)

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham has also been working very hard to sell Trump on the benefits of the war in Ukraine, and he is absolutely thrilled that Trump's announcement means that we will "continue to sell high end American weapons to NATO for the benefit of Ukraine"…

I would love to know how much money defense contractors have poured into Graham's campaigns over the years.

There is no possible universe in which Lindsey Graham should have ever been elected to anything.

If Trump keeps listening to warmongers like him, we are all going to be in very deep trouble.

Meanwhile, Ukraine continues to take actions that are intended to provoke such an overwhelming response from Russia that NATO will feel compelled to directly intervene in the war.

For example, the Ukrainians just conducted a large scale drone attack on the Russian port city of Novorossiysk…

On Wednesday a major daytime drone attack from Ukraine rocked the Russian Black Sea port city of Novorossiysk, which reportedly involved both aerial and sea drones.

The city center was hit, and explosions were also witnessed in the water very near the city. The Novorossiysk Hotel, located about 2 kilometers from the port, was also struck along with several buildings and cars. At least 20 cars were on fire, either from a direct hit or falling debris.

It appears that docked vessels of Russia's Black Sea Fleet may have been among intended targets, given that earlier in the war Russia had transferred much of its fleet from Sevastopol in Crimea to Novorossiysk.

And we also just witnessed a "massive aerial bombardment on Russia's Belgorod border region"…

Ukraine has launched a massive aerial bombardment on Russia's Belgorod border region, with initial reports suggesting major damage and many casualties. The attack comes following Volodymyr Zelensky's meeting with Donald Trump on the sidelines of the United Nations on Tuesday.

The US President praised Ukraine's army for its courageous resistance and said it was doing a "very effective job". A rocket attack is reported to have hit the Frez plant in Belgorod, which produces milling cutters and special tools. The Telegram channel "Pepel" is reporting that eyewitnesses are saying there were many casualties following the missile strike.

The purpose of such attacks is to get the Russians to do something really stupid.

Because if the Russians do something really stupid, NATO may feel forced to directly enter the war, and that is what the Ukrainians have wanted all along.

The longer this war goes on, the more likely it becomes that this is how things will play out.

The Russians are losing patience, and one prominent voice is even suggesting that it would be a "terrible sin" not to use nuclear weapons…

Vladimir Putin has been warned that he would be committing a "terrible sin" by NOT using nuclear weapons in Europe. The astonishing claims were made by Sergei Karaganov, 73, aka Professor Doomsday, honorary chairman of the Russian Council for Foreign and Defence Policy, who claimed that unleashing tactical atomic weapons is the only way to prevent a larger war between the US and Russia.

He becomes the latest Putin acolyte and Kremlin commentator to advocate for a nuclear escalation to the conflict in Ukraine and the stand-off with Nato. The comments come after an apparent change of stance from US President Donald Trump who has indicated that Ukraine could feasibly retake all of its territory lost to Putin's forces. Karaganov said: "The use of nuclear weapons, in extreme cases, in the most dreadful case, is a terrible sin.

"But not using them and condemning your people and the world to a major war is an even greater sin.

"That is an even more terrible sin."

There are many thinkers inside Russia that are convinced that NATO will back down once the Russians show that they are willing to use a nuclear weapon.

I very much disagree with that assessment, because I believe that it would just cause NATO to respond in kind.

If even a single nuclear weapon is used in this conflict or in the Middle East, peace will be taken from the Earth."