José Niño provides an unfiltered assessment of the original Trumpening and Trump 2.0.

Donald Trump vowed to end the NATO-funded proxy war in Ukraine in 24 hours. However, after threatening to further sanction Russia if it did not enter a negotiated settlement with Ukraine, Trump appears to be fine with continuing to escalate tensions with Russia. As I’ve previously documented, Trump’s track record on Russia is quite hawkish, contrary to media depictions of him as a Russian puppet. All things considered, Russo-American relations will likely remain tense.

With respect to the Middle East, Trump remains committed to defending Israel. Despite a ceasefire reached between the Israelis and Hamas, Trump has already given the green light to sending Israel thousands of 2,000-pound bombs and has apparently been in talks with Israel to resettle Palestinians into other countries such as Egypt and Jordan — ethnic cleansing by another name.

Trump’s team has also been in talks to expand the Abraham Accords, with a particular focus on normalizing relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia. Seeing through the rosy talk about heightened cooperation and moving towards a bright future, the Abraham Accords are merely a scheme to build an anti-Iran balancing coalition. Though Israel’s live-streamed genocide of the Palestinians since October 7 has horrified the Arab Street, thus making Gulf Arab leaders leery of deepening ties with the Jewish State. Nevertheless, the gaggle of neocons and Israel Firsters surrounding Trump makes a potential conflict with Iran a not-so far-fetched prospect in the next few years.

On immigration, Trump has been a mixed bag. On Day 1 he issued an executive order to get rid of birthright citizenship. Unfortunately, this measure will be tied up in the courts as a federal judge in Washington state recently blocked Trump’s order. This issue will be litigated in the courts for some time before the Supreme Court finally rules on the matter.

Read the whole thing. While it’s good to keep the hope alive, there comes a time when realism trumps fantasy and hype. Trump might be the best ‘Murica has left, but he would have been better suited for the America of 1960 or 1980. Time will tell but it looks like the writing is on the wall.