Like, "oh, they control 73% of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblast" but not, like, the major cities those oblasts are named after. Zaporizhzhia city is, like, half the population of the oblast alone. Holding empty fields isn't the same as holding cities.
Very on-brand for the party that is pissed that land can't vote
Of course the deeper problem is the implication for the policy process: Trump is so stubborn and ill-informed that a lot of this comes down to who he talked to last and what impression his map has, because he doesn't know the specifics, leading to his court of scheming viziers.
Time and time again Trump has followed the Russian line on the war, his threats to Russia if they fail to cooperate never materialize, and he gets along famously with Putin. Trump might not know the details but he has made it 100% clear which side he favors and where he's going to lean.
Trump runs on irrelevant maps of land area. It's the same reason he wants Greenland so badly.
Trump is a Mercator president
I feel like you're giving Trump too much credit, painting him as mislead by his "viziers" as opposed to just being fundamentally a clown with no long-term memory commanded entirely by his demented Id.
Nono, I think he is exactly the clown you describe, which is precisely why he is surrounding by grasping, wretched courtiers all hoping to guide the senile fool to their desired end - he hasn't the strength to actually pull them to a solid policy process, even if he cared to.
I would like to point out a subtle feature of this map: Crimea doesn't have a % occupied value because the Trump administration considers it Russian territory.
It's how they think the US vote works so it's consistent
I mean makes sense coming from the same people who have spent literal decades showing each other "LOOK AT ALL THE RED DISTRICTS ON THIS ELECTORAL MAP" graphics.
This is really a new application of the same principle they have failed to understand for 25 years of those "look how much red there is" maps of domestic elections.
Mmmm, I see this was not as novel of a point to make as I thought it was.
Well, you're in company. I don't know if I'd call it good company - they all follow me, after all.