Matthew Miller
@matthewamiller
Partner at Vianovo.
This is a real disappointment that will have significant internal and external costs for Zelensky. Suspect the Trump admin either took its eye off the ball or just didn’t care, especially after Amb. Brink left.
Latest: Zelensky has signed law stripping powers of Ukraine’s independent anticorruption agencies, according to two sources close to the president. It has not yet been published on the presidential site.
This is literally superpower suicide. These are some of the most talented public servants doing critical work. Champagne corks are popping in Beijing and Moscow after they already emptied the wine cellars celebrating the end of USAID.
HAPPENING NOW!! Moving scene - tears, hugs, and cheers - inside the State Dept HQ tonight, as diplomats gathered in the lobby to clap out their laid off colleague, some of which have served for decades 👇🏻
Some thoughts on the strikes against Iran’s nuclear program: nytimes.com/2025/06/24/opi…
That is in fact what we were doing during the Biden admin - coordinating with the EU, Japan, Korea and others to confront China’s unfair practices. Trump just tore that coalition up and pushed our allies closer to China.
Bessent: "At the end of the day, we can probably reach a deal with our allies... then we can approach China as a group." He compares China's economy to the "brooms carrying buckets of water" in Disney's Fantasia. "They keep producing and producing, and dumping and dumping."
Trump’s reversal (for now) on arms to Ukraine is quite a diplomatic achievement for Rutte, Starmer, and Macron. They started working this back during the transition and have never given up, even when the Zelensky blow up in the Oval Office seemed to scuttle everything.
In the competition for influence in an important Indo-Pacific nation, China is represented by an experienced, seasoned diplomat and the U.S. will be represented by…whatever is going on here.
Mr. President, thank you for the honor of a lifetime. In your America, all dreams come true. It will be my honor to represent the United States of America in Malaysia. To the esteemed Members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, I look forward to a confirmation process…
Today we learned Hegseth stopped arms shipments to Ukraine without anyone at the WH knowing and Rubio and Grenell were working separate Venezuela negotiations at cross purposes with each other. Is anyone actually running national security policy?
If I understand Hegseth’s point, it’s that early assessments are nearly always wrong, we shouldn’t believe the early assessments offered by his own internal intel agency, but we should give 100% credence to his early assessment that the Iranian nuclear program has been…
China has won this round of the trade war, in Beijing's eyes. Beijing's view is that its "firm countermeasures & resolute stance" have been highly effective. They believe Trump has folded, at least for now, in the face of China’s “firmness” & the negative market reaction.
In exchange for getting nothing from China, we agreed to remove the gun we had pointed at our own head. We will continue to aim the gun at our own foot, however. Masterful negotiating.
Would generally be considered a step down for the Secretary of State to become NSA.
Everything can change in Trump’s world, but I was told SE Witkoff doesn’t want to be the next NSA , he is not considered fur the job .
He might want to think this through a little more before making such a referral.
Secretary Hegseth is now directly saying the staffers of his that were fired were leaking and suggests an investigation could result in DOJ recommendations. "Disgruntled former employees are peddling things to try to save their ass," Hegseth tells Fox.
The thing about severing feedback loops is you have no idea when you’re staring at a catastrophe. Trump is already facing one with an economic crisis and continues to risk an enormous national security crisis every day he leaves Hegseth in place.
Ah yes, the woke Pentagon. Just like that other longtime hotbed of liberal activism, the FBI. Nevermind that it’s Hegseth’s own people who are blowing the whistle on his tenure.
. @PressSec "The President stands strongly behind @SecDef, who is doing a phenomenal job leading the Pentagon. This is what happens when the ENTIRE Pentagon is working against you and against the MONUMENTAL change that you are trying to implement.”
As this fiasco continues to collapse the economy, there is going to be a strong desire by Trump’s defenders and even the press to identify a fall guy - Lutnick, Navarro, maybe even Bessent. But this is all on Trump. He owns 100% of it, from conception to execution.
He’s on track to pull it off! Hoover’s legacy at home combined with Chamberlain’s on the international stage.
Everything from Gulf of America to annexing Canada to revising the global economic order suggests that Trump is in search of some monumental legacy achievement, so that when people look at a map or consider the economy in 100 years, they think of Trump.