It is probably a safe bet that a gallon of ketchup hit the wall when Trump heard that his billionaire real estate buddy Steve Witkoff was dissing him in his leaked conversation with the Russians (see below).
How many scaramuccis before Trump claims he never knew Witkoff, probably just fetched coffee.
The big question, of course, is who leaked the transcript. Unless Bloomberg was added to the Zoom call, we can assume it was someone with access to classified material — assuming it came from an American source, that is.
It might have come from a Ukrainian source. But my money is on the Russians.
When will people learn that every interaction with Russian officials is recorded?
You can read the whole transcript here.
SW: Yuri, Yuri, here’s what I would do. My recommendation.
YU: Yes, please.
SW: I would make the call and just reiterate that you congratulate the president on this achievement, that you supported it, you supported it, that you respect that he is a man of peace and you’re just, you’re really glad to have seen it happen. So I would say that. I think from that it’s going to be a really good call.
Because — let me tell you what I told the President. I told the president that you - that the Russian Federation has always wanted a peace deal. That’s my belief. I told the president I believe that. And I believe the question is — the issue is is that we have two nations that are having a hard time coming to a compromise and when we do, we’re going to have a peace deal. I’m even thinking that maybe we set out like a 20-point peace proposal, just like we did in Gaza. We put a 20-point Trump plan together that was 20 points for peace and I’m thinking maybe we do the same thing with you. My point is this...
YU: Ok, ok my friend. I think that very point our leaders could discuss. Hey Steve, I agree with you that he will congratulate, he will say that Mr. Trump is a real peace man and so and so. That he will say.
SW: But here’s what I think would be amazing.
YU: Ok, ok.
SW: What if, what if... hear me out...
YU: I will discuss that with my boss and then I come back to you. Ok?
SW: Yeah because listen to what I’m saying. I just want you to say, maybe just to say this to President Putin, because you know I have the deepest respect for President Putin.
YU: Yes, Yes.
SW: Maybe he says to President Trump: you know, Steve and Yuri discussed a very similar 20-point plan to peace and that could be something that we think might move the needle a little bit, we’re open to those sorts of things — to explore what it’s going to take to get a peace deal done. Now, me to you, I know what it’s going to take to get a peace deal done: Donetsk and maybe a land swap somewhere. But I’m saying instead of talking like that, let’s talk more hopefully because I think we’re going to get to a deal here. And I think Yuri, the president will give me a lot of space and discretion to get to the deal.
Well, I certainly hope Witkoff has enemies in Washington. He deserves a lot of them.
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Putin aide Yuri Ushakov called the leaked chat with U.S. envoy Witkoff “very unusual,” blaming WhatsApp and hinting someone wanted it exposed. He claimed neither side wanted the leak, but compared it to the Flynn case, suggesting Witkoff might have enemies in D.C.
Yeah right.
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— NOELREPORTS (@noelreports.com) November 26, 2025 at 6:15 AM
This makes perfect sense. Witkoff is a fool and Russia decided to play him like one.
Speaking of being played for a fool ….
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👀Have you heard the Bloomberg audio where Witkoff is teaching the Russians how to like you and win your favor?
🇺🇸Trump: Well, I haven’t heard that, no, but it’s standard practice. You know, because he has to sell this to Ukraine, he has to sell Ukraine to Russia. That’s what a deal-maker does.
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— Savchenko Volodymyr (@savchenkoua.bsky.social) November 26, 2025 at 3:16 AM
And they say Little Marco is the adult in the administration.
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🇺🇸‼️🇪🇺 Rubio refused to meet with EU diplomat Kallas amid discussions of Trump's peace plan, - Politico.
Kallas has effectively dropped out of the spotlight due to her difficult relationship with the Trump team.
Kallas "is playing the bad cop, uniting member states behind the scenes."
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— Savchenko Volodymyr (@savchenkoua.bsky.social) November 25, 2025 at 5:57 AM
Remember when TACO Trump declared that Ukraine had until Thanksgiving Day to accept the peace proposal? Yep, it blew up in his face like a faulty North Korean grenade.
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⚡️Trump walks back Ukraine deadline, says 28-point peace plan was 'just a map.’
U.S. President Donald Trump said that there is no specific deadline for Ukraine to accept the initially drafted 28-point proposal, easing previous statements that implied he hoped for a Thanksgiving agreement.
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— The Kyiv Independent (@kyivindependent.com) November 25, 2025 at 10:27 PM
Did they also promise not to steal any more children, bomb kindergartens, terrorize civilians with drones, rape and loot, murder POWs, abuse their own soldiers, bomb apartment buildings and turn entire towns into wastelands?
Bacon is from Nebraska and is retiring. He clearly has no fucks left to give.
Ukraine struck an electronics plant in Cheboksary, the capital of the Chuvashia republic. Cherboksary is about 130 km west of Kazan.
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Good video of the moment drone sanctions were applied to the VNIIR plant in Cheboksary, Chuvashia Republic.
This plant produces electronics for use in missiles such as guidance, flight control, and navigation systems.
It also produces bright light and heat when sanctioned.😎🔥
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— Maria Drutska (@mariadrutska.bsky.social) November 25, 2025 at 6:45 PM
Any day that a TOS gets tossed is a good day.
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Pilots of the Third Army Corps destroyed a multi-million-dollar heavy flamethrower system "Sontsepyok" in the Lyman region. The 220-mm TOS fires thermobaric munitions, destroys fortifications, and creates a zone of total destruction used by the enemy to pressure defenses.
t.me/c/1639691719...
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— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) November 26, 2025 at 7:37 AM
Russia continues to gradually advance.
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‼️ The enemy occupied the villages of Promin, in the Pokrovsk district, and Vysoke east of Hulyaipoe, — DeepState.
The Russian army also advanced near Myrnohrad and in Pokrovsk. Advances were noted in the settlements of Zatyshshya and Marfopil, Zaporizhzhia region.
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— MAKS 25 👀🇺🇦 (@maks23.bsky.social) November 26, 2025 at 7:26 AM
Close combat in the Zaporizhzhia region.
I recommend leaving the audio off. The music is super annoying.
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Footage of the close-quarters elimination of Russian assault troops and the clearing of a building in the Stepnohirsk area of Zaporizhzhia region, filmed on a GoPro camera by Ukrainian special forces "Kraken" and "Biznes Team".
The video has subtitles.
www.instagram.com/p/DRcrW-ajfiP/
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— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) November 26, 2025 at 8:58 AM
Wait! Widespread alcohol abuse is sapping morale and unit effectiveness? Say it ain’t so!
“Where the hell are they going? Where the hell are they going? I’ll shut off their radios remotely, and they can go f*ck themselves at full speed,” the commander shouts.
Judging by the tone, the unit has failed to advance for several days. Furious over the lack of progress, the commander threatens to classify the entire formation as deserters.
“And then we’ll send them forward as f*cking deserters. Yesterday they couldn’t break through, today they can’t even get through the treeline,” he yells.
HUR said the intercepted call reflects a broader pattern on the Donetsk axis, where Russian forces continue to stall, suffer heavy losses, and increasingly refuse orders as morale collapses.
Earlier, reports emerged that a Russian airborne unit operating in the Zaporizhzhia direction was experiencing a breakdown in discipline due to widespread alcohol abuse, leading to fatalities and posing risks to fellow soldiers.
FPV Drone: Knock, knock
Russian: Nobody’s home.
FPV Drone: You aren’t really dead.
Russian: Yes, I am.
You only have one functioning cupholder in your vehicle? Off to the meat grinder with you!
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1/ Russian soldiers are complaining that if they fall foul of military regulations in any way – such as having only one litre of water in their car instead of two, or wearing a non-regulation patch – they face being arrested by the military police and forced into an assault squad. ⬇️
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— ChrisO_wiki (@chriso-wiki.bsky.social) November 26, 2025 at 2:32 AM
Foreign Affairs magazine has an article examining the “toothless sanctions” against Russian oil.
The article points out how Trump hasn’t wanted to upset his relationship with Xi Jinping and has so far only gone after Chinese entities on the periphery, avoiding China’s biggest and most important oil companies.
But even if Trump got serious about it, making the sanctions really work would be a huge task — and we all know Trump isn’t up to huge tasks.
Even if the United States were to get serious about choking off the supply of Russian oil to China, Washington would struggle to target every entity. Traders of sanctioned fuels have honed their abilities to complicate the enforcement of U.S. oil restrictions. For example, Iran, which has been under U.S. oil-related sanctions for over a decade, uses a shadow fleet and ship-to-ship transfers off the coasts of Malaysia and other countries to deliver Iranian crude to China. Likewise, liquified natural gas from the Arctic LNG 2 project flows to a single port, which is operated by a state-owned enterprise, PipeChina, in the southwestern Chinese city of Beihai. Beijing may have calculated that by having all that liquified natural gas arrive at one port, it can reduce the number of Chinese entities at risk of being penalized by Washington; Chinese officials may also be betting that the United States will not target large, state-owned businesses such as PipeChina. The Wall Street Journal has found that China is also increasingly using barter-like systems to exchange oil for construction contracts, minimizing the movement of financial assets across borders and making it harder for Washington to detect which banks and companies are involved.
Chasing every individual actor that violates U.S. sanctions would be extremely hard and time-consuming. But the United States could probably stop such evasion by making an example of a handful of companies and banks. In China, there is a saying: kill the chicken to scare the monkey; that is, punish one party to deter others from engaging in the same behavior. Yet thus far, rather than targeting chickens, Washington has been swatting at mosquitoes—the teapot refineries and the individual ships and ship owners. This has proved insufficient to deter Beijing from importing sanctioned oil. To create a real sense of risk, Washington should prioritize sanctioning Chinese financial institutions that do business, however indirectly, with Rosneft and Lukoil. Trump could do this under existing sanctions authorities, which grant the U.S. president the ability to determine if institutions are providing material support for U.S.-sanctioned individuals or entities. If reducing the flow of Russian oil to China is a top priority for the president, he should exercise this power, identifying and threatening to penalize any entities in the Chinese financial system with ties to sanctioned actors.
Another 950 Russians plus 4 tanks.
Adios. Good riddance.
Three thousand dead in just one district of Dagestan, which is a small region on the Caspian Sea next to Chechnya.
The Russian ambassador to Moldova was summoned for a protest about Russian drones violating Moldovan airspace. Just in case he denied it, the evidence was there for him to see.
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A downed Russian drone was placed outside the building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Moldova. Today, Russian Ambassador Oleg Ozerov was summoned there to receive a note of protest following the incident of a UAV crash in the Florești district.
newsmaker.md/ro/ozerov-fa...
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— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) November 26, 2025 at 7:54 AM
I hope Viktor remembers to pack his kneepads.
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🇭🇺 Euronews: Orban will travel to Moscow this week to meet with Putin. The visit is scheduled for November 28.
However, the Hungarian government itself has not yet confirmed the visit. The topics of the talks are also not disclosed in advance
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— MAKS 25 👀🇺🇦 (@maks23.bsky.social) November 26, 2025 at 7:37 AM
The Russians are re-opening the theater in Mariupol that they bombed, killing many children sheltering there. But they are upset that the rebuilt theater is being condemned because it is literally built atop the bones of the victims.
There should be no sanctions relief. You don’t reward someone for pledging to release people it shouldn’t have arrested in the first place.
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The Trump admin is negotiating with Belarus to release 100+ political prisoners as part of a broader US-Minsk thaw, Reuters reports. EU allies remain wary, fearing it rewards a Kremlin-aligned regime. Some U.S. sanctions may be eased in return. Talks are ongoing, led by special envoy John Coale.
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— NOELREPORTS (@noelreports.com) November 26, 2025 at 5:58 AM
Ukraine is getting good results from its French Mirage jets.
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The Mirage 2000-5F jets recently supplied by France have proven extremely effective, claiming a 98% success rate intercepting drones and missiles, including at least 12 Russian Kh‑101 cruise missiles. Still, the pilots warn that the Mirage 2000-5F needs more long‑range weapons to stay effective.
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— NOELREPORTS (@noelreports.com) November 26, 2025 at 8:21 AM
Was RFK Jr. the chief medical officer?
They also cured cancer and extended life expectancy to 150 years. 🙄🙄🙄
Organizing a pro-Russian event in Warsaw is clear evidence of insanity.
She isn’t about to let Russia disrupt her routine.
When it comes to caring for animals at the front Ukrainian soldiers show that they give a hoot.
Go ahead, groan.
