Summary

Donald Trump lashed out at media reports claiming Russian President Vladimir Putin kept his envoy, Steve Witkoff, waiting for over eight hours in a “power play.”

Sky News reported the delay, but Trump denied it on Truth Social, calling the story fake and the media “sick degenerates.” He insisted there was “no wait whatsoever” and that discussions were productive.

Trump also faced criticism for repeating Putin’s claims about Ukrainian troops being surrounded.

Witkoff left Moscow without securing a ceasefire agreement.

  • @gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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    402 days ago

    This makes me pretty sure that Putin kept Witkoff waiting for over 8 hours. Putin is notorious for using this as a power tactic, and generally speaking, I find that most things orangeboi denies are true.

    • @kautau@lemmy.world
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      62 days ago

      Of course, the FSB was extremely frustrated at the media while posting on Trump’s truth social account

  • @1984@lemmy.today
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    862 days ago

    I still cant believe this person is the US president. If I had to explain this to aliens, I guess I would say something along the lines of “the media is controlled and voting is therefore also controlled”. Also humans in USA are overworked, stressed, overweight, tired, have almost no vacations or public health care. It all contributes to not being able to think properly.

    • Many of those things you mentioned are why people didn’t vote as well… We do not get any time off to vote, and many states don’t allow mail-in ballots.

      • @1984@lemmy.today
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        22 days ago

        Its such a strange country… In Sweden, they put the election on a weekend so people can go vote.

    • @NotLemming@lemm.ee
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      72 days ago

      I’d say that oligarchs had overrun america gradually, sneakily taking all the wealth and power, controlling the media so that the people didn’t fight them off, until hostile foreign oligarchs eventually took advantage of the situation and infiltrated everywhere there was power, even the political system of america.

      Drunk on greed, the american oligarchs had been promised that the foreign oligarchs only wanted to rob the people too and it would be mutually beneficial, but by the time anyone realised their true intentions, it was too late.

    • @CheeseToastie@lazysoci.al
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      -132 days ago

      It just bewilders me and I’m fairly conservative. He’s so awful. I understand why people voted for him over the dem candidates cos they were awful. But genuinely loving him??? Can’t fathom it

      • qprimed
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        182 days ago

        I’ll bite…

        I understand why people voted for him over the dem candidates cos they were awful.

        expand on this?

        • @CheeseToastie@lazysoci.al
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          122 days ago

          Biden was weak and lacked charisma, a lot of people don’t like that. Kamala wasn’t inspiring and swapping her in just before election was unstable. Plus lets be honest, a chunk of people wouldnt vote for a black woman. I didn’t speak to many people that could name any of their policies.

          Trump is aggressive and a bully to me, but seems strong to others. He had clear messages and gave some effective soundbites.

          I think Trump is one of the worst things to happen to the world this century, but I understand the reasons people are drawn to him over the dem candidates.

          • @Auli@lemmy.ca
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            21 day ago

            Could you honestly talk to most people who would know Trump’s policies.

            • @CheeseToastie@lazysoci.al
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              11 day ago

              No, most people just aren’t IME. I have met people that could name some though, which is more than they could for the dems

          • qprimed
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            152 days ago

            reasonable critique. I would, however, say that his messages were entirely obfuscated, e.g. when placed into firm context by project 2025 he did the whole “I barely know him” BS - but, like any snake oil salesman, encouraged people to assume what they wanted to assume.

            without going into the terrible history of politics, hegemony and empire in the us, harris and walz were pretty run of the mill centrist players - i.e. more of the same.

            trump captured the undereducated/underinformed/otherist/accelerationist/populist rage and deftly parried those voters (and the the rest of us) into the gaping wolf maw.

            I am decidedly not a conservative and thanks for the expanded explanation. much appreciated.

            • @CheeseToastie@lazysoci.al
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              72 days ago

              You’re welcome. He really is a snake oil salesman, and he’s fucking good at it. I’m pretty certain he’s a psychopath and academic research I’ve read says corporate ones destroy and move on. They’re often horrible bullies to staff and I’ve no doubt working for him is toxic.

              • The Republican party self selects for idiots that believe their feelings instead of facts, he isn’t even that great a bullshitter, he simply has a captive audience that has spent so long repeating things they know aren’t true that they’re pot committed to believing anything that makes them feel good. Mostly that means they have to pretend everyone else is as criminally minded and self-serving as they are.

  • @conditional_soup@lemm.ee
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    322 days ago

    But Putin does this all the time. Like, all the time. He’s well known for it, even among people that support him. Putin’s all about these sort of bullshit power play games, that’s why he also has that comedically long table he sits at.

  • Paul
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    712 days ago

    Standard projection: they definitely kept the envoys waiting that long

  • MedicsOfAnarchy
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    552 days ago

    Witkoff left Moscow without securing a ceasefire agreement.

    But he was dusting off his knees and wiping his chin, so the meeting was productive.

  • HobbitFoot
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    172 days ago

    Of course he has to say the story is fake. If the story is real, and it is, then it means Trump is very weak in dealing with Putin.

    • @Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
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      162 days ago

      You should have posted the entire quote:

      Trump insisted, “There was no wait whatsoever to accept my unconditional surrender.”

    • frustrated_phagocytosis
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      72 days ago

      I take joy knowing that those around him can never rest easy because he will flip out at whatever perceived slight gets telegraphed to him via talking heads

  • SatansMaggotyCumFart
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    202 days ago

    Putin is masterful how he enrages the right and the left but why is it that the left can see through it and MAGA thinks he’s powerful and idolizes Putin?

    • @Windex007@lemmy.world
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      142 days ago

      The most telling thing about the character of a person is what they dream of when there is a boot on their neck.

      Some dream of becoming powerful enough to rid the world of those who would be a boot on the necks of others.

      Some merely dream of becoming powerful enough to be the boot.

    • DaveyRocket
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      102 days ago

      The thing they all have in common is a lust for power and domination. Bunch of fucking nazis.

    • Tarquinn2049
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      2 days ago

      Yeah, “well, there were other meetings going on which had to end first” and “there was absolutely no wait time at all”…

      I think I can discern what he meant but couldn’t articulate, but if we have to interpret what a more capable person would have said any time the president speaks…

      But since we do have to interpret what he must have meant, my interpretation is that he was trying to say “there was reasonable justification for the wait time, it wasn’t artificially increased as a power-play”. Though a counter argument would be, that is exactly how a power play of artificially increasing wait times is accomplished. Instead of scheduling stuff so that people will be met with at a reasonable time given their circumstances, things are shuffled around to make the person unsure when they are supposed to go in. Enough so that they can’t leave cuz it could be any minute, but long enough that they should feel slighted. 2 hours would be a pretty ridiculous slight. Making someone spend 8 hours in your lobby without leaving is overkill. That means the whole time they kept assuring him it would be soon. At no point did they give him any heads up that he could maybe safely go to lunch or dinner or whatever since it wasn’t gonna be “that” soon.

      For these meetings, it is generally considered a normal level of respect for the meeting to occur within an hour of the plane landing. Especially for someone who should be incredibly busy and scheduled to have other meetings in other countries that same day.

      8 hours is fully, literally, toying with him. 100% showing how little they respect him and who he represents. 3 or 4 hours would have accomplished a complete and utter embarrassment… they wanted to set a record, just for fun.

  • @deadkennedy@lemm.ee
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    92 days ago

    i’m sure lil Steve Witkoff has very strict instructions to not undermine the Trump messaging and if asked today, will tell us he was escorted right in!

  • @ShittyBeatlesFCPres@lemmy.world
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    52 days ago

    I don’t think anyone should trust Trump or the UK media. The truth is probably that it was 6 or 7 hours and the envoy had a fine time earning Queen bee on Spelling Bee and then got arrogant and played Quordle and threw his phone.