What did Donald Trump do today?

He "got played" by Vladimir Putin, according to his own party.

At least 19 Russian drones violated Polish airspace last night, as part of the Putin regime's continued attack on Ukraine. Commercial aviation was abruptly shut down throughout Poland as its F-16s, aided by Dutch F-35s, destroyed some of the drones. No casualties were reported, but at least one house was destroyed.

Trump's response, more than 12 hours later, was to post to his private microblogging website: "What's with Russia violating Poland's airspace with drones? Here we go!"

Poland is a NATO member. This is the first time since NATO was founded that hostile aircraft were engaged inside a member nation's airspace. But it's not the first time that Russia's attacks on Ukraine have affected Poland, which has repeatedly had to scramble its fighter jets to defend its airspace. 

Trump, whose political and personal debt to Vladimir Putin has defined both terms of his presidency, has been openly anti-NATO. He falsely speaks of it as an American-owned protection racket, something that the United States pays for in order to defend other member nations, and has threatened to unilaterally shut it down. He's also repeated a Putin talking point: that Russia's unprovoked attack on Ukraine was justified because Ukraine might have joined NATO at some point in the future.

But in reality, all NATO member nations maintain their own military forces for the mutual defense of one another. Only the United States has ever formally requested other NATO members to come to its aid (after the September 11th attacks).

Trump has been desperately courting Putin in the hopes of winning a cease-fire in its war against Ukraine, something he promised he could accomplish on "day one" of his second term. But his mild tweet-only response was so alarming that even members of Trump's own party spoke out openly against him, calling it "pathetic" and demanding much harsher responses in terms of sanctions and commitments to honoring obligations to NATO than he has been willing to give.

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA): "President Trump wants to make sure that he is giving every opportunity for peace to get this war resolved. But Putin is playing him right now."

Former Trump National Security Advisor John Bolton: "Putin has acted like he has a free hand since the Alaska summit. He's ignored any further conversation on a ceasefire, the Russian military is expanding its operations, and he's received the political support of his friends Xi Jinping, Narendra Modi, and Kim Jong Un." 

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC): "I think Russia is playing – they’re really playing us like a piano right now."

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS): "Amid the brutality, Putin has played games with peace talks. We’ve all seen it.  With one hand, he signaled interest in negotiations.  With the other, he lobbed bombs and kills civilians. …Putin clearly has no intention to stop." 

Why does this matter?

• There's no practical difference between a president who won't take necessary action in defense of the United States and its allies, and a president who (for whatever reason) can't take action.