“As long as Putin can’t beat Boston, he’s flashing Poland and the US military has nothing to do with it,” the US Treasury Secretary’s one speech, let the West as the dream, in comparison with Russia, the United States is the real paper tiger.
"I made it very clear to my European counterparts,'All I hear from you is that Putin is going to fight in Warsaw. But the only thing I am sure of is that Putin will never hit Boston.'"
Do you feel that what I retell here sounds a bit explosive? I read it with this feeling, because it was said by Trump's confidant and U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent when he participated in a Fox News program a few days ago. When Bescent said this, he was calm, but it was precisely because of this that many Americans and Westerners on American social media platforms were overwhelmed.
On X, some worried American netizens have begun to compare Bescent's statement of "collusion with Russia" with British Prime Minister Chamberlain's appeasement to appease Nazi Germany during World War II, believing that World War II was not a problem for the United States. Until the end, Pearl Harbor was really bombed by fascist Japan, and said that the situation facing the United States and the West now is "extremely similar" to that of that year. "The Russian army is so strong because Putin is 'allowed' to conquer any country Russia wants, while the United States stands by and claims that isolationism is the best way to do it."
It has not been a day or two for Trump and his senior officials to be wary of Russia on the Russia-Ukraine issue. Not long ago in August, Trump's attitude towards the Ukraine issue was a different face. He had made a solemn promise that “The United States will never send troops to help defend Ukraine.”He even publicly claimed that Ukraine’s hope of recapturing Crimea and joining NATO was “impossible”.
However, only a month later, the pattern muted. Following a meeting in late September at the United Nations headquarters in New York and Zelensky, Trump’s attitude turned 180 degrees. He posted on his own “real social” platform praising Ukraine for its “capability to recover all the land lost” and depreciating the outright powerful Russia he once referred to as an unbeatable “papier tiger”.
In the face of Trump's sudden change of face, the Kremlin's response is full of Russian humor. Russian Presidential Press Secretary peskov said slowly: "Rather than Russia being a tiger, I think it would be more appropriate to say bear, because it is well known that our image is usually associated with bears." And there is no paper bear. Russia is a real bear."
Obviously, Trump's "paper tiger" talk not only does not demonstrate the strength of the United States, but is more like a rage of incompetence after being angry.
So what exactly caused Trump's attitude to change so dramatically? The answer to this question was not a profound strategic consideration, but a series of events that made him feel personally humiliated.
People who have an in-depth understanding of the White House decision revealed that there were three key moments that radically changed Trump’s view.
The first was Alaska's "Double Peace". Trump had thought that his deep "private affair" with Putin could at least induce the other party to make some peaceful gestures. However, KGB-born Putin firmly grabbed Trump's vanity heart and understood that King would play between his hands. He spoke Trump's loving words in his mouth, but didn't give up on the core issue. After the meeting, Trump found himself nothing but a bunch of compliments, which made him feel like he was played by Putin as a monkey.
One is the 93 military parade in Beijing. Shortly after the end of the "Double General Meeting", Putin paid a high-profile visit to Beijing and attended an unprecedented grand military parade with the leaders of China and the DPRK. This scene completely shattered Trump's illusion of "uniting Russia to control China". He once naively thought that he could copy Nixon's brilliant tricks and alienate China and Russia, only to find that he was the one who was excluded.
The third is the criticism of the US media Bloomberg. A report published by Bloomberg titled "Putin decides he can step up attack on Kyiv and Trump won't take action" is said to have attracted special attention in the West Wing. The core point of this article is that the Kremlin has seen through Trump's trump cards and decided that he will never really get involved in the conflict. For Trump, who is extremely concerned about his personal image, this is tantamount to publicly declaring that he is a coward who can be ignored. According to people familiar with the matter, Trump felt "shamed and humiliated".
As a result, we saw a great change in Trump's subsequent attitude. But this policy shift is not to support Ukraine, but to become a passive bystander. Trump did this more for Putin: you played with my true feelings, and I didn't treat you well.
It is against this background of anger and anger that Besent's remarks that "Putin cannot beat Boston" seem more true.
The U.S. can sell weapons to Europe, and it can also verbally support Europe’s shooting down of a Russian aircraft into NATO’s airspace.But if asked if Europe really did, if the U.S. would provide support, Trump and the crowd under his hand would probably answer only vaguely “depending on circumstances.”
This is the real background of "America First". The United States, the so-called "martial arts leader" in NATO, is nothing more than a cold Zen-style pickled villain from beginning to end.
There are two theories about whether Russia is a "paper bear", but the fact that the United States is a "paper tiger" can no longer be hidden. When allies are in trouble, they hand over swords, and when they face strong men, they shrink their heads, and their slogans are loud, without any sincerity at all. In the final analysis, apart from hiding behind others and shouting "America First", what else does it dare to do? Today's United States is a complete paper tiger, and if it goes wrong, it may not even be covered with paper.