larry johnson doesn't think much of how the trump operates;

During my chat with Danny Davis today, I made the following point: There is a wide gap between what Donald Trump says in public and what he actually decides to do. A few weeks ago, President Trump warned Hamas to release all hostages by, “noon Saturday, or there would be hell to pay.” And we remember what happened — Hamas released four hostages per the agreement negotiated by Steve Witkoff and the United States took no action.

In public, Trump insists that Russia will have to make concessions, but concedes any peace deal must be negotiated between Russia and Ukraine. On a positive note, Trump continues to refuse to provide US forces as a security guarantee for Ukraine and says that is the job of Europe, if they choose to do so. Trump appears confident that he is going to sign a rare-earth, oil/gas agreement with Zelensky on Friday. While such an agreement serves Trump’s public relations campaign in the United States, it is worthless because Russia controls much of the territory where those resources are located in Ukraine.

Trump’s public pronouncements are at odds with Russia’s clearly articulated position: No European troops will be allowed to take up positions in Ukraine, no ceasefire until Ukraine is demilitarized, and Russia’s frozen assets must be returned.

We learned today that Russian and US diplomats are meeting in Ankara, Turkiye on Thursday. As of this writing, the names of the respective delegations have not been released. The meeting is at a working-group level, which means no principals from either side. The focus of the negotiation is the restoration of normal diplomatic relations.............more.........