Opinion | We're All Trapped In Trump's 1980s Worldview

Updated: Mar 13, 2026 11:58 am IST Published On Mar 13, 2026 11:49 am IST Last Updated On Mar 13, 2026 11:58 am IST

Published On Mar 13, 2026 11:49 am IST

Last Updated On Mar 13, 2026 11:58 am IST

Take a moment to digest the following, quite extraordinary sequence of events. At the end of last week, US officials leaked to the Washington Post that Russia had been giving Iran target data to strike US military assets in the Persian Gulf. These attacks have killed seven American service members and wounded more than 150 to date. They also damaged a $1.1 billion radar that's among just six of its kind in the world. A subsequent CNN report said Russia was also helping Iran with drone tactics learned from fighting Ukraine. 

The Iranian barrage consisted mainly of roughly $40,000 Shahed attack drones, some of which US Gulf allies had to shoot down with PAC3 Patriot air defence missiles that cost $3 million to $4 million apiece. They have burned through about 800 of these high-end interceptors.

As all this was going on, Ukraine offered and then provided some of its unique, low-cost counter-drone technologies to defend the very same Gulf targets that the Kremlin was helping Tehran to hit.

And now comes the surprise: It wasn't that Russian President Vladimir Putin helped an ally against the US, a country both see as their primary enemy; it was the response of the US president.

Donald Trump didn't thank Ukraine or reprimand Russia, as one might expect. He dismissed any Russian sharing of target data as inconsequential. He got on the phone to Putin for a "good" chat about the war in Ukraine. And he said he'd be lifting oil sanctions, a move that would inevitably reward Russia with fresh revenues to pursue its invasion of Ukraine.

This is so perverse that it has to raise the question of whether there is anything Putin could do that would sour........

© NDTV