Trump the new sheriff in town has a vulnerable Russia panicking

Moscow is in a tizzy: The denizens of the Russian capital did not see this version of President Trump coming for Mad Vlad.Prior to Trump’s inauguration, Russia’s gilded oligarchs and apparatchiki were confident the 47th president of the United States was going to serve Ukraine to Russian President Vladimir Putin on a silver platter. That was then.This is now — and the man from Mar-a-Lago has Moscow panicking.Instead of giving Putin the golden keys to the Ukrainian kingdom, Trump issued an ultimatum to the Kremlin: Cut a deal to end the war or, as he posted Wednesday on Truth Social, “It is only going to get worse [for Russia].”Putin’s state-sanctioned talking heads were at a loss.“[Trump] can’t talk to Russia this way,” Andrey Gurulyov, a member of the Russian Duma and a regular guest on Russia-1, whimpered hours later to host Vladimir Solovyov on Russia’s most popular TV talk show. “It’s just so rude!” Gurulyov whinged.

“How is [Trump] talking to us? Who does he think he is talking to?”Predictably, if not on cue, Solovyov — who is essentially Putin’s unofficial mouthpiece — suggested nuking London to get Trump’s attention.Such saber-rattling is not going to work.Trump is not a man who backs down in the face of a threat.His defiance after the assassination attempt is proof enough.Yet beyond grit, Trump also knows he holds the winning cards. He made that crystal clear on his first day back in office, as he talked with reporters while signing a stack of executive orders in the Oval Office. Trump’s assessment of Putin’s negotiating position was brutal.

“[Putin] is not doing so well,” he said, noting that losing “almost 1 million soldiers” was “no way to run a country.”And the clock is ticking. Trump just gave retired Army Lt.Gen.

Keith Kellogg, the newly appointed White House envoy to Ukraine and Russia, a 100-day deadline to bring an end to the war in Ukraine. No more of Biden’s “as long as i...