The Purpose of All the Nuclear Escalation—De-escalation Theater Is Now Clear
- john raymond
- Aug 11
- 2 min read
The mask is off.
With President Trump’s latest praise of Vladimir Putin as “very respectful,” the full contours of the so-called “nuclear kayfabe” stand revealed in a starkness that should shock the souls of righteous men.
What for weeks was sold as high-stakes brinkmanship—threats from Dmitry Medvedev, Trump’s dramatic announcement of nuclear submarine deployments, Moscow’s feigned admonitions, and the supposedly grave risk of a U.S.–Russia rupture—was nothing more than theater.
It was a scripted prelude, carefully staged to create the illusion of real tension between Trump and his Kremlin master, when in truth the two have been moving in lockstep toward the same destination: a capitulation dressed up as statesmanship at the upcoming Alaska summit.
The cadence is textbook escalation–de-escalation theater. First, the manufactured rise in nuclear risk—an atmosphere thick with menace—to make the audience lean in and accept that the stakes were life and death. Then, the “cooling” phase, in which Trump and Putin appear to step back from the brink, performing the role of responsible statesmen who can bring peace to a dangerous world.
The fact that nothing of strategic substance changed—no verifiable arms reductions, no withdrawal of Russian forces, no expansion of Ukraine’s security position—has been obscured by the play-acting. The operational reality is irrelevant. Narrative is everything.
And that narrative now comes into sharp relief: the purpose was not merely to launder surrender into diplomacy, but to invert the moral frame entirely.
By staging this faux clash, Trump and Putin set the table for the moment when Ukraine refuses to accept territorial amputation. When that happens, the script will call for Trump to lament that he “tried,” Putin to nod gravely about “hard truths,” and the world’s cameras to pivot toward Kyiv as the unreasonable party blocking “peace.”
In this performance, the aggressor becomes the magnanimous dealmaker, the puppet becomes the indispensable intermediary, and the victim becomes the villain.
This is the endgame of nuclear kayfabe. It is not about managing nuclear risk; it is about weaponizing the appearance of nuclear risk to coerce moral and political surrender. It is about turning the defense of sovereignty into a public relations liability. It is about making the West’s conscience work against itself, and doing so with the help of an American president who takes his cues from the Kremlin.
That righteous men are not enraged by this already is a measure of how effective the theater has been.
The Alaska summit will not be a peace conference. It will be the third-act reveal of a con long in the making.
And history will record whether we saw through the play in time to stop its final scene.
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