Not so sure Putin cldn’t do as well with JD as President. Perhaps even better. Vance seems hot to dump Ukraine in the ditch and cut off all assistance to them.

Someone else might understand how things work well enough to hesitate. Trump doesn't know anything about how it works so there is nothing he won't rip down. Putin wants us disabled. Trump wants us to suffer. These are congruent

Even to ripping down the very base he stands upon on his self-raised pedestal.

The only Americans he did not hate after Nov 2020 were the ones who tried to overthrow the government for him. The rest failed him. He knows he lost.

...He knows he is causing suffering. For him, it's the main point. He's acting just like a man engaged in an ongoing act of revenge because THAT'S WHAT THIS IS. The acts benefit others above him for different reasons. But that's his motivation.

Totally agree.