Submitted by QTR's Fringe Finance

Today, with his permission, I’m happy to offer up the latest thoughts from my friend Anton Wahlman, whose takes I don’t always agree with — but are always worth considering.

Anton is a brilliant analyst and has, many times in the past, help me see “blind spots” in analysis I’ve performed, whether it be of politics, macro or individual companies.

Here’s his take on Trump’s recent meeting with Vladamir Putin.

How you know the Putin-Trump meeting was a success

The Trump-Putin meeting in Alaska ended a few short hours after it started, and it was by any intelligent standard a great meeting. We don’t have all the details yet, but the verdict is still clear.

Let’s first establish why the critics have no leg to stand on. From at least March 2022, no Western leader, whether in Europe or North America, ever bothered to meet with Putin. You would think that because there is a war going on, that such a meeting would be priority #1, but apparently they all failed this basic test: Macron, Mertz, Starmer, Meloni, Kristersson, Stubb and all the rest -- most importantly, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. None of them lifted a finger to speak with Putin. Only one or two of them even placed a phone call to Putin over those three years. They were useless, which turned into being counterproductive.

A total failure 2022-2025

And what was the result of all this complete incompetence and unwillingness to talk with Putin? War and thousands dead.

When all of those leaders are now predictably coming out and complaining about Trump meeting with Putin, the simple fact is that they failed 100% of their own attempts -- or perhaps we can call them “non-attempts.”

The idiotic European negotiation position

They are complaining that the US is not tougher on Russia. Well, that’s another way of saying that they want the war to continue.

Do they think they can win a war against Russia? If so, they are clueless. You can’t win a war against Russia in its home backyard...(READ THIS FULL COLUMN 100% FREE HERE).