Back on May 23, 2025, I posted a blog about the ineffectual attempt on the part of the President of the United States to engage in nuclear diplomacy with the Islamic Republic of Iran. The piece’s subtitle queried rhetorically “A whole lot of nothing-burger?!”https://iroon.com/irtn/blog/21163/iran-us-nuclear-talks-a-whole-lot-of-nothing-burger/. 

What can I say, the man loves burgers https://www.unionleader.com/news/back_page/did-rfk-jr-eat-mcdonald-s-in-that-viral-pic-aboard-trump-s-plane-here/article_6b27b898-a6c0-11ef-a6b1-5b66c0674d8d.html and so it came as no surprise when, after an entire weekend of teasing the world with some “major” announcement about Russia vis-à-vis the Ukraine war, President Trump has managed to flip another nothing-burger.

An Iranian saying likens the notion of a person being slow-to-grasp a matter to the lag of time between inserting a coin in the public phone and the coming on of the dial tone upon the coin hitting the bottom of the collection box (tazeh dozarish oftad). Finally his coin may have hit the bottom of the collection box when it comes to Putin’s modus operandi,  which is to obfuscate, to delay, to misdirect, and to fill Trump’s ears with a whole lot of sweet-nothings about peace, unattainable conditions for peace, help with the Iran nuclear issue, etc.

Towards the end of April, Trump admitted that Putin may have been playing him, by saying that Putin is “tapping me along.” https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-admits-putin-may-playing-171641838.html. Instead of showing some concrete action evidencing a resolve to hit back at Putin for his insincerity about a ceasefire, Trump started accusing Putin of “going crazy” with his relentless strikes on Ukraine. Next, the self-anointed peacemaker noted his displeasure with Putin by saying how “disappointed” he has become in Putin. Duh! And so finally, the other day in the cabinet meeting at the White House (July 8, 2025), Trump finally admitted publicly what the whole world already knew - Putin had been throwing “a lot of bullshit” at him.: he also noted that “he’s very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.” https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/09/trump-administration-news-today.

Nice! Nice? Really, where are we, in kindergarten?! Just because one thinks that one has a “good relationship” (whatever that means) with a world leader – like Putin or Xi – it does not mean that these guys will roll over and give up their pursuits for the sake of niceties. How confused and out of touch can one individual be to misread Putin';s character. He has finally realized that there is a limit to his art of the deal.

So, today (July 14, 2025) finally came that long-awaited  “major announcement.” https://www.bbc.com/news/live/c36xrr9kj11t. At the meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office, Trump said “We’re going to be doing secondary tariffs if we don’t have a deal within 50 days. It’s very simple … And they'll be at 100%.” He also said “We’ve made a deal today where we’re going to be sending them [NATO nations] weapons and they’re going to be paying for them… We, the United States, will not be having any payment made. We’re not buying it, but we will manufacture it, and they’re going to be paying for it." https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-tariffs-russia-ukraine-deal-to-end-war/.

What I cannot get over is the 50-day ultimatum. Fifty days?! If past is prologue, when it comes to Russian diplomacy Putin will make some meaningless gestures towards achieving a ceasefire or peace, which then will induce Trump to pull back his threat and in all likelihood extend the ultimatum for more more months, by which time we will be in the dead of winter and the Ukrainians will be in even worse shape.  

Why give Putin fifty more days to go on with impunity on  murderous pursuit against  Ukraine. To borrow from John Kerry’s testimony before the Senate in April 1971 – “How do you ask an innocent Ukrainian - man, woman, or child to be the last to die in a war that Putin started and Trump thinks he can get Putin to end it in fifty days hence. Moreover, these tariffs on the purveyors of goods and services originating in countries that do business with Russia are as meaningless as they are impractical and costly to enforce. And so, we ask – is this fifty-day ultimatum yet another nothing-burger?