TRUMP'S 50 DAYS BEFORE WHATEVER....

Trump is actually very predictable. He is the ultimate bluff addict, giving himself the necessary time to improvise, to lie, to cancel or to procrastinate.

He now plays at being finally "upset" by Putin's unrelenting pummeling of Ukraine. At the same time he is cynical enough to act by proxy and to let Europeans be Europeans. 

One can assume that he is currently more concerned with the Epstein flare-up than with the the Ukranian tragedy. He probably doesn't give a damn about cause and effect anyway. Ukraine, renamed Malorossiya in the 18th century, and Russia have quite a "history". So has Putin, since the unglorious end of the Soviet empire. Trump has none.

The former blasé nonchalance versus the East in Western Europe haunts it now, since the annexation of the Krim,  George W. Bush's eye / soul contact with Putin and the "end of history" intellectual miscast.

Nowadays World War III is being considered as a possible outcome in the not too distant future. The EU distrusts Trump and Putin alike and is getting nervous.

The West fell victim to a La Fontaine fable wherein the frog falls victim to its ambition. Trump is no frog and at the end of the day he is the ultimate survivor. This convicted felon has too many lives and carries too many lies. He may well be the ultimate performer, acting out his own death sentence, as long as America follows him to the grave. King Lear he is not.