He has the entire resources of the US and world at his fingertips.

And secret service protecting him for life.

Trump doesn't give a damn about Ukraine, except that he said he could end the war on Day One with a phone call, which isn't happening because Putin wants Ukraine a lot more than he wants Trump sucking his d&ck all the time. Not to mention the fact that Trump wants the Nobel Peace Prize so desperately that he can taste it, mostly because Obama got it, and that's not happening either. Since Trump has only two settings - fawning adoration and furious retribution - and fawning adoration didn't get him what he wanted, he has to switch to furious retribution.

Putin is quite possibly the only person in the world Donnie was careful to always praise and never say anything negative about.

(Ok, maybe ivanka...)

Donnie always very clearly gave Putin the "I'm subservient to you" treatment in the Donnie "life is a hierarchy" view of everything. He always would humiliate himself and praise Putin the same way he insists cabinet members treat him at cabinet meetings, etc.

But now that he's telling universities and law firms what to do, now that he can threaten any ceo with a tariff, now that the media is squarely in his camp with only a thin veneer of deniability, he figures he's ready to take on Putin.

I think this power struggle is why he hasn't just abandoned Ukraine. He doesn't really care about Ukraine at all, the war is just a pawn to him in his power chess game with Putin. Putin is hurting politically because of Ukraine and Donnie see personal power gain in making putin's problems worse.

Of course. He's making no commitments. He thinks he can be the cowboy who shoots at Putin's feet and says "dance!"

We shall see how Putin fights back. He's gotta be piiiiissed.