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The White House announced on Tuesday that President Donald Trump will not attend a meeting in Hungary with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Speaking about the report on MSNBC, international affairs reporter Elise Labott is hopeful that this will influence Trump's decision about sending more weapons to Ukraine. It hasn't in the past, however. Trump spent over two hours on the phone with Putin last week and announced a trip to Hungary with the world leaders as part of the ongoing efforts to end the war after the Russian invasion. "Kind of an abrupt postponement. But maybe the question is, should we be surprised?" asked MSNBC host Chris Jansing. "I'm surprised that he's not going," said Labott. "I think Donald Trump can't quit ... Vladimir Putin. He wants to go there. He wants to see that — he — obviously, we just talked about the Middle East. He fancies himself a dealmaker. He really wants to get Putin to agree, and he thinks that he can. I think the fact that he's not going is a recognition by President Trump himself that Vladimir Putin has no interest in ending the war."She recalled that U.S. officials were also set to meet with Russian officials, but now those meetings are canceled. Labott said that the Russian position hasn't changed, but she'll be curious to see if Trump will give Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine after all. During his meeting with Zelenskyy, Trump said he wasn't prepared to provide them with anything. "Now that President Trump has made the conclusion, you know, [Putin] is continuing to play us, he's not ready to end the war. I'm going to look to see whether President Trump is ready to, you know, put the squeeze on Putin. And at least in rhetoric, I think you'll hear more about these tomahawks. Now, whether President Trump is actually willing to give them to the Ukrainians is an open question because that would be an escalation."

A Donald Trump proposal to bail out struggling Argentina with a $40 billion loan is bumping up against economic reality with banks being asked to provide half of the amount demanding collateral or federal assurances.According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, financial institutions, including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs, are “struggling” to come up with a loan they would feel comfortable with. With Trump pushing to assist Argentine President Javier Milei’s government, the plan was to create a financial package made up of a “$20 billion currency swap with the U.S. Treasury Department and a separate $20 billion bank-led debt facility,” the Journal is reporting.According to the report, it is turning out to be far easier to make the proposal than it is to make it a reality.“While banks normally arrange these types of rescue facilities on their own, Treasury has been controlling the broader package and banks feel they can’t act without backing from Washington, some of the people said," the Journal reported."The loan facility hasn’t been finalized and might not come together if the banks’ collateral question isn’t resolved, they said. U.S. banks haven’t been lending to Argentina, and the country has been shut out of the international capital markets for years.”The report adds that Argentina has already been the recipient of 20 bailouts from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) since the 1950s — and that has bankers nervous.There is also a risk to the U.S Treasury which would “swap $20 billion for a roughly equivalent amount of Argentine pesos,” which are rapidly depreciating.According to Brad Setser, a former deputy assistant Treasury secretary for the Obama administration, ”The risks from these operations are unusually large. Should the peso depreciate, which many think is not only likely but necessary, the Treasury would be left holding assets that have fallen in value.”

President Donald Trump insulted Australian Ambassador to the U.S. Kevin Rudd to his face during a meeting with the country's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.During a Monday appearance with Albanese at the White House, a reporter asked Trump if he was concerned with "things the ambassador said about you in the past.""I don't know anything about him," Trump said of Rudd, who was sitting across the table from him. "I mean, if you said bad, then maybe he'll like to apologize. I really don't know.""Did an ambassador say something bad of me?" the U.S. president asked Albanese. "Don't tell me. Where is he? Is he still working for you?""Yeah, yeah," Rudd volunteered."You said bad?" Trump asked."Before I took this position, Mr. President," the ambassador replied."I don't like you either," Trump fumed. "I don't, and I probably never will."Rudd, himself a former Australian Prime Minister, has been a vocal critic of Donald Trump, describing him as a threat to democratic institutions.

Donald Trump’s boast that he has used his influence to convince India to stop buying oil from Russia was ridiculed on MSNBC on Monday as a big deal about a topic of little importance at the moment.Incorporating both his trade war with his attempts to get Russia to end its war on Ukraine, the president boasted, “I spoke with Prime Minister [Narendra] Modi of India, and he said he's not going to be doing the Russian oil thing.”Appearing on “Morning Joe,“ Yale School of Management Professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a former adviser to Trump as wall as Presidents Joe Biden, Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush, claimed oil prices are nothing special at the moment — and that Russian President Vladamir Putin is likely not interested in selling right now.Speaking with the hosts, Sonnenfeld said that Trump was using the announcement to cover for his administration’s bumbling.“Frankly, what's happening with India, finally, is that Trump's providing a cover basically for failure, getting trade talks with India” he remarked“India says, ‘Oh, we're going to stop buying Russian oil.’ Who cares? Who cares?” he exclaimed. “Russian oil, and the price was called Urals oil is the same price right now as WTI [West Texas Intermediate}, the rest of the world's oil. They're not making any sacrifice.”“It's they're acting like they're giving something up and in fact, Putin would like to produce less oil because it's so cheap right now. He's not making money on it,” he pointed out. - YouTube youtu.be

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