{"id":1308253,"date":"2025-10-18T13:15:44","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T10:15:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/the-budapest-trap-for-putin-or-trump\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T08:44:33","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T05:44:33","slug":"the-budapest-trap-for-putin-or-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/the-budapest-trap-for-putin-or-trump\/","title":{"rendered":"Putin vs. Trump in Budapest: Who\u2019s Walking into the Snare?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Source: Author&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/viktor.shlinchak\/posts\/pfbid02fm5q4DfgKkkhqFGw8pJnTi5pp3kULamwEHAtYbDvoRwiYZFdMZGiSQ6piqocsabDl?locale=ru_RU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Facebook<\/a> page<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>In Budapest, Trump plans to press Putin on when he intends to end the war \u2014 and only then decide on the Tomahawks. From Trump\u2019s tower, it looks logical: scare, provoke a reaction, and leave a trail of uncertainty in his wake.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p data-start=\"119\" data-end=\"490\">The threat of Tomahawks signals that the time limit Putin negotiated for Trump\u2019s stay in Alaska has expired. At that time, Putin was painting a picture of breakthroughs on the front \u2014 advancing to the borders of the Donetsk region and forcing Ukrainian surrender. It didn\u2019t happen (and I maintain that the foundation of Ukraine\u2019s subjectivity lies in its Armed Forces).<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"492\" data-end=\"624\">Time is up. Trump has no Nobel. The campaign is starting in the United States. The White House wants to flex its muscles at China.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"626\" data-end=\"983\">Why Budapest? Because Trump wants the honors that Orb\u00e1n \u2014 himself a sycophant \u2014 will arrange for him. He\u2019s desperate to bolster his image ahead of the spring election. But Orb\u00e1n will roll out the red carpet, and Putin? That\u2019s guaranteed. A kind of \u201cEuropean Yanukovych\u201d eager to serve not one or two, but three masters. And yet, even that won\u2019t be enough.<\/p>\n\t\t<aside class=\"shortcode-also\" data-title=\"Read also\" >\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/budapest-summit-will-putin-be-able-to-get-to-hungary\/\">Putin\u2019s Hungarian Gambit: Diplomacy on Borrowed Time<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\n<p data-start=\"136\" data-end=\"572\">After all, there may be a slight silver lining in Trump\u2019s latest conversation with Putin for us \u2014 Russia might (for now) hold off on pressing energy issues in the coming days. That said, Putin\u2019s promises to prepare for the Budapest summit are not yet a final commitment. The \u201cgrandfather\u201d could simply claim to be ill, while Trump waits patiently for his consent. So far, only meetings of \u201chigh-level\u201d delegations have been confirmed.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"574\" data-end=\"803\">The upcoming Trump\u2013Xi meeting at the end of October will be far more decisive. Its timing remains uncertain, however, because it is difficult for Trump to negotiate with China while Putin keeps spinning unpredictably underfoot.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"805\" data-end=\"1144\">It seems Trump still clings to the illusion of pulling Moscow away from Beijing. And if reports of Putin\u2019s proposal to conclude a deal on rare earth minerals are accurate, this could once again mislead Trump. In reality, it might be far easier to strike an agreement with Beijing to jointly exploit this \u201craw material cow\u201d to exhaustion.<\/p>\n\t\t<aside class=\"shortcode-also\" data-title=\"Read also\" data-right>\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/the-geopolitical-triangle-and-the-c-factor-another-detail-of-trump-putin-relations\/\">Trump, Putin, and the \u201cC Factor\u201d: How China Turns Their Triangle into a Trap<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\n<p data-start=\"121\" data-end=\"373\">A summary before Trump met with Zelenskyy: Putin has been granted another 2\u20133 weeks (or perhaps 2\u20133 months) \u2014 time he will likely use to try to undermine the White House\u2019s effort to shift the U.S. strategy toward \u201cshowing force\u201d against Russia.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"375\" data-end=\"408\">We\u2019ve seen this pattern before.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"410\" data-end=\"648\">But Trump now needs results, not just the process. Buoyed by his Middle East decisions, he aims to add another star to his political record \u2014 especially with the congressional election campaign looming and the need for a striking start.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"650\" data-end=\"730\" data-is-last-node=\"\" data-is-only-node=\"\">The key, of course, is to avoid a Budapest-style misstep like the one in Alaska.<\/p>\n<p>Also, follow <strong>\u201cPryamyi\u201d<\/strong> on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pryamiy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Facebook<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/prm_ua\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Twitter<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/+rtV4dxYu2_cyNjVi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Telegram<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/pryamiy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><em>\u2022 Materials published in the \u201cOPINIONS\u201d section reflect the opinion of the author of the publication, who bears full responsibility for the accuracy of the information.<\/em><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><em>\u2022 The editorial staff of prm.ua may not share the opinions expressed in the author&#8217;s material.<\/em><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><em>\u2022 The owner of the webpage in the \u201cOPINIONS\u201d section is the author of the publication.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: Author&#8217;s Facebook page In Budapest, Trump plans to press Putin on when he intends to end the war \u2014 and only then decide on the Tomahawks. From Trump\u2019s tower, it looks logical: scare, provoke a reaction, and leave a trail of uncertainty in his wake. The threat of Tomahawks signals that the time limit [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":1281112,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[76871,76872,76893],"class_list":["post-1308253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-2","category-news-feed","category-thoughts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1308253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1308253"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1308253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1308665,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1308253\/revisions\/1308665"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1281112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1308253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1308253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}