Trump and Putin’s ‘bromance’ is over – the Russian leader has been playing him like a cheap violin

Such is the Trump Tower-sized self-conceit of Donald J Trump that for weeks – if not months – he could not see what virtually the whole of the rest of the world could: Vladimir Putin was playing him like a cheap violin.

Trump, seemingly mesmerised by the Russian leader, gave his friend everything he wanted: dominance in Ukraine, aside from a carve-out for US mineral interests; a Russian zone of influence in Europe; the abandonment of Nato and other allies. All of that in return for the Russians scaling back their nuclear arsenal and giving the Americans a free run at acquiring Greenland and Canada (even if they are not Russia’s to give away and won’t ever happen).

That looked to be the kind of grand bargain Trump was looking for, but Putin overplayed his hand.

In this gangsterish carve-up of the world, albeit one where the Chinese are yet to assert themselves, Trump somehow realised that it is Putin – and not Volodymyr Zelensky – who is taking him for a ride. The reaction when this obvious truth dawned on him was typically Trumpian: intemperate, foul-mouthed and public.

In an unusual phone briefing to an NBC journalist, Trump said he was “angry” and “p***ed off” with Putin, and he’ll be having words with him later this week.

Surprise, surprise, Putin has broken every promise he’s made to Trump, and the so-called peace conference in Saudi Arabia (in reality, an elongated proxy surrender ceremony for Ukraine).

Putin has obfuscated, tricked and duped his way to gaining further advantage on the battlefield by exploiting Trump’s childlike naivety. It has been pitiable to observe.

Trump, infamously, even called Zelensky “a dictator with no elections”, hinting at a willingness to jettison the democratically elected leader of Ukraine as readily as he might “primary” a troublesome RINO (Republican in Name Only) congressman. But when Putin pushed his luck and called for a UN-controlled “temporary” administration in Kyiv to sign up to the humiliating peace, for some reason, Trump finally lost his temper.

Will things change? Probably not.

The Russians know they’ve gone too far and are already slyly rowing back – but preserving their freedom of movement in the negotiations. Soviet throwback Dmitry Peskov has told the world’s media that Russia is continuing to "work with the American side" on peace in Ukraine and that Putin remained "open to contact" with Trump.

I bet he is – looking forward to manoeuvring his "mark" back where he wants him in this grand game of deception.

A fresh, even more lucrative, deal on Ukrainian natural resources seems to be the fresh bait, and maybe a guarantee that even if Russia does invade Ukraine later on, US interests will be sacrosanct and continue to operate under Russian rule of what used to be independent Ukraine.

Needless to add, that would render entirely worthless any security aspect to the minerals deal. The American staff and executives getting the lithium and the cobalt out of the Ukrainian chernozem will be able to carry on regardless.

It is, sadly, not unlike the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact that divided up Poland between Stalin and Hitler in 1939 – an historical comparison Putin and Trump might privately enjoy.

The idea of a UN administration of Ukraine that so enraged Trump will be quietly dropped. There will be no tougher sanctions on Russian oil, and the Kremlin will continue to use the Americans to gain what they cannot win on the battlefield.

Putin will placate his victim; the long, painful extinction of Ukraine will drag on; and Europe will be left to wonder why the Americans despise us and ask, “Who’s next?”

The answer, of course, is Europe, because Putin’s territorial ambitions have no limits. Only Trump seems not to comprehend that.