Trump's Post About His June 4 Call With Putin is Russian Weird.

Photo Credit: giphy.com

Dylan Combellick, who posts about Ukraine on Medium.com, makes an intriguing point about Trump's post on Truth Social about his June 4 phone call with Putin.

Combellick's observation about Trump's post is worth repeating in full below.  He observes that an English speaker does not seem to have written Trump's post.

The use of language and punctuation, at least for the portion of the post dealing with Ukraine, does not reflect a person who is a native speaker of English.  In fact, it reflects the composition of a Russian speaker.

So, who wrote Trump's post?

"Weird Language

So, this post bothered me. I poked fun at it in an earlier article, but thinking further, it kept reminding me of Twitter user TexasPatriot0946362 mentioning “warm water ports.”

For background, “warm-water ports” are things that ONLY Russians talk about—Russians and penguins from Heard Island. Anyone who talks about them is a Russian bot or troll. Almost all American ports are “warm-water ports,” like virtually every European port. No country except Russia has its access to the sea shut off for months during winter.

So when Trump says “docked.” That’s not how Americans talk, right? Docked airplanes? Well, Russia does. In Russian, airplanes are often referred to as судно (sood-nuh), which can, without context, mean either an airplane or a seagoing ship. Only the military uses that word to refer to aircraft. It’s probably a carryover from when we called them airships. The “docked” comes from a Google Translate of the Russian word пришвартованный (or any number of conjugations). I would translate it as “docked” when used without context, as that is the general civilian understanding of the word. Only the Russian military uses that word when referring to airplanes. Read that sentence again. It is not used by civilians when talking about aircraft, ever.

Then, look at the commas. Those aren’t Trump commas. They aren’t English commas. They aren’t even Shatner or Walken commas. Those are where the commas would be placed by a crappy computerized translator that was sourcing material from a language that has a lot of commas, like Russian.

Peace is capitalized. The Russian word мир (meer) has a double meaning: “world” and “peace.” The Russian Meer, or Русский Мир (capitalized), is the Russian vision of peace in which Russia is the king of everything, so there will be no more war, only oppression.

All of that is very weird."

Buymeacoffee

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U.S. Census Bureau Index of Economic Activity Release June 2, 2025--Trade Weights on US Economic Outlook

The US Census Bureau released on June 2 its economic indicators thru April 2025,

The long view is that nothing seems to change much over time, with the exception of the financial crisis in 2008/2009 and the negative effect of COVID in 2020 (with a strong bounce back in 2021/22 at the beginning of President Biden's term).

But looking at the short term, a lot is happening.  The overall index fell nearly 1% (-0.91%)

But the real story is why it fell.  Generally, economic activity was weak.  For instance, Advanced Wholesale Inventories, Advanced Retail Inventories, and Construction Spending were 0.0%, -0.1%, and -0.4% from March to April, respectively.

But Advanced International Trade: Goods fell a whopping -46.0%, while Advanced New Orders: Durable Goods (not shown on chart) fell -6.3%. 

With economic activity weak overall, clearly, the decline in trade-related economic activities will have a pronounced effect going forward.  Look for economic activity in later months to fall even more.

For a closer look at the numbers, go to,

https://www.census.gov/economic-indicators/

IMF: Global Debt is Higher and Rising Faster in 80% [59 countries] of Global Economy

 

Chart Credit: IMF.org

"Global public debt is very high and rising. According to the WEO reference projection in 2025, it will rise above 95 percent of GDP. It is higher and growing faster than pre‑pandemic. It will be approaching 100 percent of GDP by the end of the decade, surpassing the pandemic peak, but global numbers hide a wide diversity across countries. In the figure, every bubble represents a country. The larger the bubble, the larger the country's GDP. The figure shows debt levels on the vertical axis and debt growth on the horizontal axis compared to pre‑pandemic. The higher the bubble in the figure, the more debt has increased compared to 2019."

IMF Report on Global Debt

Press Briefing

Clarity on Support for Ukraine

 

photos: X.com @CaolanRob

Last night (May 24), Russia launched against several cities in Ukraine, including Kyiv, 14 ballistic missiles and 250 Shahed drones.  Ukraine shot down 6 missiles and 245 drones. The remaining missiles and drones did extensive damage and caused numerous injuries.  President Zelenskyy posted that "Rescue and emergency operations are ongoing at the sites of strikes and debris impacts — wherever they are needed. There were many fires and explosions in the city overnight. Once again, residential buildings..."

Where we stand in Russia's Invasion of Ukraine

 

Shankar Narayan, who frequently writes about Russia's invasion of Ukraine, has an insightful article at Medium.com on the meaning of Monday's call between Trump and Putin.

Narayan writes, "Putin likely walked into that call with a clear plan: smile, nod, and say a firm no.  If Ukraine won't surrender, then he's not handing Trump anything to brag about on social media.  And it looks like he executed that strategy to perfection."

As a consequence, "Trump didn't announce a ceasefire after the call.  Instead, he announced that the United States would step back from mediation entirely--and watch the war from the sidelines."

In other words, despite Trump's bluster about his good relationship with Putin and being able to end the war in 24 hours, he failed yet again.  Ukraine will have to fight on.  

 A fundamental flaw in Trump's approach, Narayan points out, is, "To expect the MAGA movement to understand the value of democracy is like expecting a dictator to understand the value of truth.  It won't happen."

To read Narayan's article, go to Medium.com at Trump Tried to End the War.  Putin Humiliated Him Instead.

Russian Torture as an Instrument of War

Body of Ukrainian journalist Victoria Roshchyna imprisoned in Russia returned to Ukraine

“…her eyes, brain, and part of her larynx were removed before her body’s return. Her hyoid bone, located at the front of the neck, was also broken. A forensic expert interviewed by the outlet said these removals may have been intended to conceal evidence of torture by Russian security forces.”

https://flip.it/XIl6Lm

https://x.com/avalaina/status/1917254448679973229?s=46&t=VAWLHj9LgMpnUUVeXUrn9w

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/29/viktoriia-roshchyna-ukrainian-journalist-death-russian-prison

The War in Ukraine Is Already Over--Russia Just Doesn't Know It Yet

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The title above is by Paul Schwennesen a "military affairs analyst and environmental historian", writing in Reason magazine (Reason.com).  It is worth reading.  It is not about the advantages of military resources or the advantage of foreign support for either Russia or Ukraine.

The article is built on anecdotes about the resilience, cohesion, and fighting spirit of the Ukrainian people and the Ukrainian military, all lacking on the side of the Russians even when they are defending their own territory as they are today in the Russian region of Kursk.

In the early days of the war, no one believed that Ukraine could last more than three days, did no one expected that Ukraine over the first months of conflict would push the Russians back from most of the territory they occupied?  Did anyone believe that Ukraine could invade Russia as they have done in Kursk?

What accounts for it, when the Ukrainians, especially in the early days of the Russian invasion, lacked Russia's arms and manpower.  Certainly, the Russians made mistakes that have cost them dearly, but if the Ukrainians had acted as expected they would still have been overwhelmed by Russia's military superiority.  

Ukrainian resolve, Paul Schwennesen writes, made the difference and will determine the outcome of the war.

Schwennesen concludes, "The moral scales have now firmly settled on the side of the Ukrainian defenders, and it is far likelier that Russia itself splinters into its constituent republics than that Ukraine falls to its erstwhile invaders."