This is what treachery looks like. Donald Trump openly siding with Putin while attacking allies. Treason-adjacent behavior. Trump doesn't care about peace. His motives are to stave off potentially disastrous Republican losses in the midterm elections and avoid facing a Democratic-controlled Congress that might actually offer real opposition and investigate him and his associates. I suspect his other motives are pecuniary. His administration's negotiations with Russia have already included a proposed multibillion-dollar Lukoil deal involving investors with business ties to his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and Steve Witkoff's family. There have also been discussions of broader commercial cooperation with Russia. At no point in these remarks does Trump mention wanting to constrain Putin or prevent further deaths in Ukraine, choosing instead to attack Zelenskyy. Historians will remember Trump as one of the three worst presidents in U.S. history, possibly vying for last place with James Buchanan, whose inaction during the secession crisis helped pave the way for the Civil War.