What did Donald Trump do today?

He said Russia only wanted to help Ukraine.

Trump has returned to a full-court press to get Ukraine to surrender to the Putin regime on terms dictated by Russia. Today, after a phone call with Vladimir Putin and a meeting with Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Trump had this exchange with a reporter, in which he claimed that "Russia wants to see Ukraine succeed."

Q: In your conversation with President Putin, did you discuss what responsibility Russia will have for any kind of reconstruction of Ukraine— 

TRUMP: I did. I did. They're going to be helping. Russia's going to be helping. Russia wants to see Ukraine succeed. Once— it sounds— a little strange but I was explaining to the president [Zelenskyy], uh, President Putin was very generous in his feeling toward Ukraine— succeeding. Including, uh, supplying energy, electricity, and other things at very low prices. So, lotta—lotta good things came out of that call today.

The Putin regime does not want to see Ukraine succeed except as a conquered province of Russia.

Russia invaded and annexed Ukraine's Crimean peninsula in 2014, then launched a surprise decapitation attack against the remainder of the country and its government in 2022. Since then, it has killed nearly 100,000 Ukrainians (including more than 10,000 civilians), stolen Ukrainian children from parents in occupied territory, and committed numerous war crimes.

Reaction to Trump's endorsement of the Putin regime's "generous feeling" was sharply negative and bipartisan.

Trump has openly sought and received Putin's help in influencing American elections through disinformation campaigns and cyberattacks, and is personally and financially beholden to him. 

Why does this matter?

• Past a certain point it doesn't matter if the president is being controlled by a hostile foreign power or just behaving exactly as though he were.