What did Donald Trump do today?

He forgot to tell Vladimir Putin that he'd already declared their phone call tomorrow "successful."

On Saturday, Trump announced that he would be speaking with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Trump has been trying in vain to broker a ceasefire between the two, largely by demanding that Ukraine concede to Russia even more than the Putin regime has been able to win on the battlefield. But neither country is especially interested in peace on Trump's terms or timetable, something that has confused and frustrated him.

In fact, Russia's response to Trump's attempts to intervene has been more insulting than engaging. It sent only a low-level delegation to a Trump-brokered meeting in Turkey last week, after Putin had initially agreed to attend personally. It was a diplomatic snub that observers agreed was meant to send the message that Russia is not worried about Trump.

(Trump is deeply financially entangled with the Putin regime, and sought and received help from Russia during the 2016 election. His first impeachment was over his attempts to blackmail Ukraine into making false accusations against his likely 2020 opponent Joe Biden.)

Today, Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, announced in advance that the call would be "successful." Witkoff, like Trump, is an enthusiastic admirer of Putin, but has no diplomatic experience or special knowledge of the conflict, and did not elaborate.

Apparently unaware that Monday's call had already been deemed "successful" in getting the Putin regime to start de-escalating, Russia launched the largest single drone barrage against Ukraine since the start of the war in 2022.

Why does this matter?

• It's a problem if hostile foreign regimes don't fear or respect the President of the United States.
  

• It's a big problem if they act like they don't.
  

• It's an enormous problem if they don't really have any reason to.