The signals coming out of the MAGA White House are slightly conflicting — but despite the noise, the directional movement of this administration is unmistakably clear. The Putin Protection Plan, first initiated under Obama, solidified under Biden, is now being calcified under Trump.

Different flavors…………Same recipe.

We rightfully blame the Trump administration for what it's doing now. They asked for the levers of power, and now that they have them, they're refusing to use them for the right reasons. But to treat Trump’s current position as a recent invention is a critical mistake — one that risks underestimating the gravity of the long game.

President Obama deservedly takes heat for drawing red lines in Syria, then quietly erasing them — a move that gave Vladimir Putin the opening to establish his destabilization operations across the Middle East and Africa, triggering a global refugee crisis. But when was the last time Obama was held accountable for violating the Budapest Memorandum — the security guarantees the U.S. gave Ukraine in exchange for giving up its nuclear arsenal? The United States made a promise. And it betrayed it.

That then-Chancellor Angela Merkel stood shoulder to shoulder in enabling that betrayal should not be overlooked. Germany nearly paid a catastrophic price. Had it not been for the country’s resilience, Merkel’s meticulous but shortsighted money management would have dragged Germany over the edge of the gas dependency abyss when the war began.

So no — neither Obama nor Merkel deserve the comfort of our forgetfulness.

Then came Biden. He made sure Ukraine wouldn’t win — and just as carefully, ensured it wouldn’t lose. He kept Putin in the game and called it "escalation management."

Then came Trump. Putin took his time reading Trump’s hand. Now the Kremlin openly demands that Ukraine surrender and that NATO abandon the Baltics altogether.

Under normal circumstances, one would expect the United States to respond: to draw a line and shove Putin’s demands back across it. But America lost its sense of normality in 2008. It’s not coming back. The deviation has gone full throttle — because the Made-in-America Putin Protection Plan, executed by three administrations in sequence, is finally on the verge of snapping.

So, what does the United States do when its long-term Putin protection policy comes under threat?

It does what any empire does: it scrambles to preserve it.

First, Trump’s Director of National Intelligence publicly warned of nuclear war. The administration started speaking like a Kremlin mouthpiece. Then, yesterday, Trump himself asked the crowd why people hate Russia.

“Russia fought with us in WWII and everybody hates them. And Germany and Japan, they're fine — someday somebody will explain that... Everybody hates Russia and they love Germany and Japan... It's a strange world.”
— Donald Trump

1. Tulsi Gabbard warns of nuclear war.

2. Donald Trump asks Americans not to hate Russia.

= ???

An aggressive phase of the Putin Protection Plan has begun. Aggressive — because things are starting to fray for Moscow, and the American administration is now bending over backwards to pull the trajectory back on course.

There’s a reason I reached all the way back to Obama to explain what’s happening now. The reason is this: I now expect this effort by the Trump administration to escalate.

We are currently in the conditioning phase. The MAGA base — and the world — is being told:

• There’s a risk of nuclear war. (Translation: Don’t poke the bear. Let the bear eat as many humans as it wants.)

• We hate Russia for no reason. (Translation: It’s time to normalize relations. Maybe lift a few sanctions. Maybe restart direct flights. Maybe ease up on secondary sanctions — because at this rate, the Putin economy will collapse.)

But here’s the key: they have the power. They love sensationalist headlines. So why aren’t they just pulling the chaos lever?

Because this particular chaos doesn’t benefit them politically.

Trump knows he owns that hard 34% of the vote. But it’s the other 15% — the marginal swing vote — that worries him. He’s also staring down the midterms. And despite appearances, there is a strong anti-Putin faction within the White House. Not strong enough to flip the policy — but strong enough to slow it.

That faction has now started playing the China rare earths card — an attempt to drag Trump’s trajectory back from Moscow and reroute it toward strategic competition with Beijing.

And it just surfaced publicly.

On June 11th, 2025, while testifying before Congress about the U.S.-Ukraine Reconstruction Conference in Rome, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said:

He wasn’t bluffing.

The United States has already told Ukraine: don’t let China in after the war. The Trump admin don’t just want to eat the cake — they want the whole bakery. And they expect Ukraine to foot the bill.

Rare earths are a long-term problem. China has dropped anchor deep into the global mineral supply chain. Ukraine has slightly tilted the balance back toward the United States. It’s a long road. But for Washington, it’s the only well-lit one left.

Somewhere in Donald Trump’s mind, he thinks he can have it both ways. He believes he can rescue Putin — without erasing Ukraine.

That’s not going to happen. But let him be. He’s only going to make things worse.

Thankfully, Europe is not asleep at the wheel. Nor is it daydreaming that the United States can be rallied out of its 18-year-long Putin Protection Plan.

The G7 is now gearing up to cut the Russian oil price cap from $60 to $45 — a direct economic strike. Canada currently holds the presidency of the G7. And according to Reuters, here’s what just happened:

Four sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that the EU and the UK are ready to lead, backed by other European G7 members — and Canada. Japan’s position remains uncertain. And as usual, the United States is the variable.

"There is a push among European countries to reduce the oil price cap to $45 from $60. There are positive signals from Canada, Britain and possibly the Japanese. We will use the G7 to try to get the U.S. on board," — one of the officials said.

The fork in the road is up ahead. If the United States fumbles this moment, that’s it.

The final nail will be driven into the coffin. And the formal end of the U.S. century will be dated to that day.

Why does this decision matter so much?

Because once the world gets used to doing things without the United States — once they taste the power of execution, once they start standing in the sun instead of the shadow — there’s no going back.

Yes, there will be exceptions. Yes, there will be gestures of deference. But the automatic handover of the mantle — the reflexive deferral to Washington that defined the post–World War II order — will be over.

Here’s one clear example:

In April 2024, former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg proposed a $100 billion fund to support Ukraine’s war effort — a bold plan to create sustained, predictable financing. But Stoltenberg wasn’t just pushing for cash. He also wanted NATO to take control of the Ramstein Group, the U.S.-led format that coordinated military supplies to Kyiv.

The Biden administration worked tirelessly behind the scenes to kill the plan. And it succeeded.

Now tell me: if the Trump administration refuses to support the G7’s effort to drop the Russian oil price cap from $60 to $45, why should anyone listen the next time an American administration tries to put its foot down?

They won’t.

Because there will be precedent.

• A precedent of ignoring the United States.

• A precedent of leaving Washington behind.

Obama started it. Trump is finishing it.

And maybe — just maybe — the world will be better off when the United States finally stops pretending it alone understands national security and accepts that it cannot control all outcomes.

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