Please See Through the Pattycake That Trump and Putin Are Playing Even as Trump Admits to Shielding Russia
- john raymond
- May 27
- 4 min read
If you’ve ever watched a con unfold in slow motion, you know the trick: pretend to be enemies in public while cutting deals in private. Perform conflict to distract from collusion. Stage a fight so that the reunion can be cast as peace.
That’s exactly what Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are doing right now.
Trump’s recent statement — claiming that “if it weren’t for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened to Russia” — is not a warning to Putin. It is not a show of strength. It is not a policy pivot. It is a performance. It is theater. And it is designed to fool you.
Trump and Putin think you are too stupid to realize exactly what Trump has just admitted to doing:
He has been helped Putin and Russia. He has been colluding with Russia. He has been protecting Putin even though the man put a bounty on the heads of American service members in Afghanistan. Let that sink in. Putin tried to kill our troops in Afghanistan — and Trump protected him.
If you let Trump — and the GOP who coddles him — get away with this you are being played. Don’t let any of them get away with it. Demand that every GOP senator and representative condemn Trump for what he has done.
The Illusion of Distance
Trump says Putin is “playing with fire.” On its face, this sounds like rebuke. But dig even a single layer deeper and the subtext is unmistakable: Trump isn’t condemning Putin — he’s boasting about having protected him.
But this isn’t the beginning of a break. It’s the continuation of a script. A scene in a well-rehearsed drama meant to create the illusion of opposition. The goal is to set the stage for what comes next: reconciliation, detente, and the public relations coup of “Trump makes peace with Putin.”
The problem? There was never a real fight between them to begin with. It’s all pattycake.
And the members of the GOP who aren’t willing to call Trump out for his treasonous behavior — who aren’t willing to call Trump out for coddling Putin even as Putin tried to kill our men and women in uniform? Don’t let them get away with pretending it was not big deal.
It is a huge goddamn deal!
And now you have to call the GOP out if they aren’t willing to break with Trump out for colluding with Putin, a war criminals and murderer. You can't let them pretend Trump and Putin aren’t playing pattycake, because they all know what is happening. They know that Trump protecting Putin isn’t right.
What This Game Tries to Achieve
The Trump–Putin relationship has always relied on obfuscation. Trump cozies up to Putin in private, then throws out occasional tough-sounding lines to placate the press and calm the critics. It’s the classic asymmetric behavior: create confusion through contradiction, then reassert control by appearing conciliatory.
This approach achieves several objectives:
Plausible Deniability
Trump can say, “Look, I warned Putin,” even as his record shows repeated capitulation — from Helsinki to his undermining of NATO, to his refusal to hold Russia accountable for election interference or bounties on American troops.
Narrative Control
The moment Trump appears to oppose Putin, the apologists get their talking point: “See? He’s not pro-Russia. He’s tough.” This opens the door to whitewashing the past and reframing collusion as “negotiating strength.”
The Setup for the Reconciliation
Once Trump pretends to scold Putin, he can later “broker peace between them.” He’ll say, “Putin listened to me,” even though it’s nothing more than a prearranged return to normal. And that return will be sold as foreign policy brilliance when it is and overtly craven capitulation and even more collusion.
This Is Not New — and It’s Not Harmless
This is not the first time Trump has performed toughness toward Putin. Each time, it’s been followed by a softening, by a compliment, by a reversal. Remember when he said he had been “tougher on Russia than anyone”? That was followed by him parroting Kremlin propaganda. Remember when he claimed he “stood up” to Putin? Then he canceled joint military exercises and stalled aid to Ukraine.
And remember how Trump said criticism of him was a hoax? Remember the “Russia Hoax?” Where is that hoax now?
I will tell you where... In one Truth Social post, Trump has basically admitted it was not a hoax. It was real all along. The Russian collusion and collaboration was happening all along. There was never a "Russia Hoax." There was always Trump working with Putin. Even when that meant our boys and girls were being targeted!
And the current formula? It is braindead simple: Pretend conflict → confuse public → excuse past behavior → reforge alliance.
It’s strategic dishonesty. It’s a con. And it has costs lives. And not just Ukrainian lives, but ours.
Why You Must See Through It Now
If this routine goes unchallenged, it will reshape the moral landscape. It will normalize treason by recasting it as statesmanship. It will make collaboration with a war criminal seem like savvy leadership. It will turn betrayal into strategy and propaganda into peace.
We must not allow that.
See the pattern. Name the lie. Break the spell. And certainly don’t let GOP members sidestep questions about supporting Trump, a man who has sheltered Putin even as his government paid to have members of our armed services killed. Killed! That is unforgivable!
So no, Trump and Putin aren’t adversaries. They’re partners in a shared performance. And we are their target. So don’t let GOP enabler get away with helping these evil men any longer.
One plays the strongman abroad. The other plays the disruptor at home. And their handshake is never far behind the staged slap.
Don’t fall for it. Don’t applaud the charade. And don’t mistake this pattycake for principle.
And certainly don’t let the GOP get away with whitewashing Trump’s treasonous behavior towards our own. And please know that any GOP member that refuses to break with Trump over this is themself a traitor — same as Trump.
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