You might have noticed that Donald Trump has been out and about telling everyone who will listen that you have to be a strong leader to get Putin to listen and that the reason Putin invaded Ukraine is that Biden is too weak. (In fact, if you listen to the MAGAs, you will note that the only quality worth having is “strength” and “strong” leadership, which – in a sense is true, one can be really strong by being twice as smart and twice as prepared as one’s opponent, maybe they are on to something without knowing it.)

However, Trump’s boasts just haven’t rung with the same sort of, ummm, what’s the word, strength, as we’re used to? Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that if any one thing was established during Trump’s presidency it was that Putin would be doing what he damned well pleased, and Trump would be doing a lot of stuff Putin would have wanted to be done if he just came out and said it, such as throwing NATO into disarray.

It has gotten so bad that John Bolton, Trump’s former National Security Adviser and all-around monster himself, has put a lid on the whole idea with some truth (in this area) by speaking to the Palm Beach Post;

Bolton first mentioned how Trump weakened NATO:

I think all contributed to a precarious status for Ukraine, which would have continued in a second term [for Trump].”

And then it got personal, Bolton weighed in on whether Trump could confront his buddy Putin on a peacekeeping mission:

“He’s not capable of it. This would require thinking through a policy and considering the pluses and minuses, the risks and costs involved. That’s just not what he does.”

Then Bolton found it helpful to remind people that Trump withheld $250 million in aid to Ukraine:

“The urgency of the particular $250 million was that it was appropriated money that under the federal government’s bizarre budget procedures would have expired on Sept. 30, 2019.”

This was back when Trump was still trying to blackmail Zelensky into implicating Biden.

You never can tell with Trump. His relationship with the truth is very tenuous and whether he believes it as a matter of fact, or whether he was using it for his own political purposes, I don’t really know it was,”

Relationship with the truth is very tenuous = “He lies his ass off if he believes it helps him, believes what he needs to believe to assure himself he’s the greatest ever at everything.”

Back to NATO, the entity that is most intimidating Putin right now and most rallying around Zelensky:

“He [Trump] was very negative on the institution. I don’t think Trump was pressing [the defense spending increase] to strengthen NATO, which is what the rest of us who supported him wanted. I think it was because he didn’t feel they would, and that would give him further excuse to withdraw.”

A weakened NATO, the holding back of military aid, demands for probes of the Bidens, drawing Ukraine into the 2020 presidential election arena — Bolton said — testify to “the prism through which Trump viewed Ukraine” in the summer of 2019.

Simply put, Trump isn’t capable of the type of thinking that such an issue requires. Because let’s be honest, the only type of thinking that Trump is capable of, is thinking about himself, and what is best for Trump.