Witless Witkoff

In this episode we begin with the Russian wish-list of a “peace plan” constructed with input from President Trump’s hapless envoy Steve Witkoff and leaked by his counterpart, Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev, and how the US government’s dysfunctional handling of the leak has left Secretary Rubio with another mess to clean up — and how Axios reporter Barak Ravid’s has been mendaciously defending his scoop by using that Trump administration’s response to gloss over Dmitriev’s role in the leak. Such dysfunction, and JD Vance’s political prospects, make it all the more urgent for Europe to take the lead on European security, and we note how the terms under which the war in Ukraine end have global implications — which brings us to Beijing’s temper tantrum in response to Japanese Prime Minister Senae Takaichi’s comments about how Japan would respond to a blockade of Taiwan. I argue that Takaichi’s departure from the tradition of ambiguity on this issue is a warranted response to Xi Jinping’s saber-rattling, and that the hysterical reaction from CCP mouthpieces denouncing Takaichi as an imperialist warmonger is an attempt to hurt her politically, which the dovish Japanese opposition is falling for. Fortunately, as Grant notes, Takaichi’s warm reception at the G20 suggests that the rest of the world isn’t buying the narrative that Xi is selling.