The year 2025 will go down as the one where the ‘Mar-a-Lago Braggart’ believed he could tame History by the sheer force of his ego. Driven by a compulsive need to mark his territory—where an animal lifts its leg, he affixes his surname in solid gold letters—Donald Trump sought to transform geopolitics into a branding operation.
After attempting to rival the prestigious Kennedy Center (with the ‘critical success’ that all of New York continues to mock), he wanted to stamp his brand on peace in Ukraine. But in Anchorage, the real estate developer hit a wall: you cannot negotiate with ‘Total War.’ An analysis of a fool’s bargain where the Sheriff’s vanity fueled the Tsar’s nihilism.[01]
Table of Contents
Introduction: The Mirage of Alaska
August 2025. The world’s eyes are fixed on Anchorage. In the cool Alaskan summer, a meticulously orchestrated performance plays out before cameras from across the globe.
The handshakes are virile, the smiles predatory. On one side, Donald Trump, the revenant, the self-proclaimed « Sheriff » who promised to settle the war in Ukraine in twenty-four hours. On the other, Vladimir Putin, the cold « Tsar, » who seems to be savoring the moment.
Europe holds its breath, oscillating between the naive hope of a miracle peace and the terror of a new Yalta. But what commentators are celebrating as the « Summit of the Century » is, in reality, nothing more than a gigantic optical illusion. This is not a diplomatic meeting unfolding before our eyes, but the tragic collision of two mental worlds that do not speak the same language. It is the story of a fatal misunderstanding between a real estate merchant convinced he can buy anything, and a nihilistic tyrant ready to destroy everything.
To understand how we arrived at this strategic hangover of December 2025, we must summon two indispensable and complementary reading grids: that of Laure Mandeville, who dissected the American president’s psyche better than anyone, and that of Françoise Thom, who laid bare the deadly mechanics of the Russian system.
I. The Illusion of the « Deal »: The Promoter’s Hubris (Laure Mandeville)
If the Anchorage summit took place, it was primarily because it fulfilled a vital narcissistic need for Donald Trump. As Laure Mandeville masterfully analyzed as early as 2016, Trump is neither an ideologue nor a strategist in the classical sense. He is a man of transaction and ego, driven by one obsession: the Brand. [02]
The « USS Donald Trump » Syndrome
To understand the mindset of the American delegation in Alaska, one need only look at the projects circulating in the Pentagon’s corridors under the Trump II era. The president’s obsession is not military efficiency, but the projection of his own grandeur.
Rumor has it that plans for a new flagship, the USS Donald Trump, were drawn up to satisfy this thirst for posterity.
Far from modern, invisible, and lethal stealth frigates, the president dreams of a return to the « heavy cruisers » of yesteryear—mastodons bristling with visible guns, symbols of brute, retro power. Plans leaked on the Golden Fleet website reveal a ship, the USS Defiant (Trump Class), that defies the laws of physics and budgeting.
Just when we thought the space was saturated, the project manages to stack a technological overkill worthy of a sci-fi movie: railguns, high-power lasers, and no fewer than 140 missiles ready to fire. And of course, the flight deck was kept, not for tactical missions, but—as the Pentagon’s wags whisper—to ensure that Marine One can deposit the Commander-in-Chief directly onto his floating toy for a troop inspection. It is the perfect metaphor for his diplomacy: an accumulation of motley and terrifying weapons, topped with a VIP parking lot.
The Real Estate Transaction
Arriving in Anchorage, Trump does not see Ukraine as a sovereign nation fighting for its survival, nor Russia as an existential threat to the West. He sees, as Mandeville explains, a « bad real estate deal » that must be liquidated. His approach is purely transactional: « I give Vladimir what he wants (an end to sanctions, de facto recognition), and in exchange, he gives me what I want (a signature on a piece of paper, a photo for History). »
Trump’s fundamental error is this typically American hubris: the belief that the will of a single strongman in Washington can bend centuries-old historical reality. He thought he could charm Putin as one charms a reluctant investor. He thought that the personal bond, « man to man, » would be enough to erase ideology. He did not see that facing him was not a business partner, but a war machine running at full speed.
II. Behind the Scenes: The Mechanics of the Void (Françoise Thom)
While Donald Trump admired the golden reflections of his spectacular diplomacy in Anchorage, an entirely different reality was playing out in the shadows—a glacial reality that Françoise Thom is one of the few to have decrypted in real time.
The Ludendorff Trap
Facing the « Sheriff » who came to sign a contract, the « Tsar » was not playing the same game. As Thom explains in her brilliant analysis from late 2025, Russia is no longer a classic state with rational interests. It has become an entity governed by the logic of « Total War, » as theorized by the German General Ludendorff in 1936.[03]
In this system, war is not a means to obtain peace; it is the nation’s very mode of existence. The Russian economy has been entirely cannibalized by the military-industrial complex. Stopping the war, for Putin, would mean stopping the factories, bringing home hundreds of thousands of brutalized men to unemployment, and admitting that the sacrifices were for nothing. In short, peace would sign the regime’s death warrant.
The Mobilization of Souls
Françoise Thom highlights an even more terrifying aspect, totally ignored by the American negotiators in Anchorage: seelische Geschlossenheit (the cohesion of souls).[04] Putin was not seeking security guarantees from Trump. He was seeking to buy time to complete the mental formatting of his population. By agreeing to shake Trump’s hand, Putin validated his status as a global power in the eyes of his people, while preparing the next phase of annihilation. He used the American’s vanity as fuel for his internal war machine. Putin’s smile in Alaska was not a sign of openness; it was the smirk of someone who knows his opponent has understood nothing of the nature of the fight.
III. The Synthesis: The Merchant vs. The Warrior
Here lies the tragedy of 2025. Anchorage was the impossible meeting between a transactional vision (Trump’s, described by Mandeville) and an existential vision (Putin’s, described by Thom).
The misunderstanding is total. Trump thought he was buying peace with territorial and economic concessions, convinced that « every man has a price. » Putin, on the other hand, pocketed the concessions as his due, without ever intending to deliver the counterpart. Why? Because in the logic of Total War, one does not compromise with the enemy; one uses him until he can be destroyed.
The « Sheriff » left Anchorage with historic photos and a sense of duty accomplished. The « Tsar » left with the certainty that the West, led by a blind man, was ripe for defeat. We spent the year commenting on the Sheriff’s outfit and the size of his gun, while we should have been listening to the dull roar of the death factory running at full capacity in the East.
Conclusion: Exiting the Theater
As winter sets in and the cannons thunder louder than ever, dissipating the illusory smoke of Anchorage, it is time to put away the stage costumes. Laure Mandeville warned us about the man: Trump will not save us, for he serves only his own image. Françoise Thom warned us about the enemy: Putin will not stop, for he can only survive in chaos.
It is time to blow the whistle ending recess. The backdrop has fallen. The naked, brutal reality remains. And to face it, we no longer need an operetta « Sheriff, » but the courageous lucidity of those who, like Françoise Thom, dare to look the monster in the eye without blinking and tell the Mar-a-Lago Braggart some home truths.
Joël-François Dumont
Notes:
[01] See « Shérif de l’Apocalypse ou fou du tsar ? » — (2025-0311)
[02] See Laure Mandeville, Qui est vraiment Donald Trump ?, Éditions Les Équateurs / Le Figaro. « This complex and explosive character, who took the Republican Party by storm and won over its voters, turning all traditional ideological assumptions, all codes of rhetorical propriety, in short, all the well-oiled mechanisms of the usual political world, on their head; this man, whose silhouette stood out in black against the light that evening, has become the as-yet-unwritten page onto which everyone in America projects their hopes, fears, doubts, fantasies, imprecations, and questions.«
See also: « In Anchorage, the Kremlin Master’s Ascendancy over the Drunken Ship of American Diplomacy » (2025-0825).
[03] Françoise Thom, “Total War, the Culmination of Putinism,” in Desk Russie, December 15, 2025.
[04] Erich Ludendorff, Der totale Krieg (Total War), 1936.
See also:
- « Anchorage ou le théâtre des dupes : Quand le « shérif » négociait avec la Guerre Totale » — (2025-1227)
- « Anchorage or the Theater of Dupes: When the « Sheriff » Negotiated with Total War » — (2025-1227)
- « Anchorage oder das Theater der Betrogenen: Als der „Sheriff“ mit dem Totalen Krieg verhandelte » — (2025-1227)
Decryption: The Braggart and the Tsar: Autopsy of a Foretold Shipwreck
The image is cruel, but it sums it all up: a 200,000-ton battleship stuck in New York Bay, vainly trying to salute Trump Tower on 5th Avenue, inaccessible to warships. This is exactly what happened in Anchorage. Donald Trump arrived with his own mental geography—that of « deals » and gold lettering—only to crash against the bloody topography of « Total War » imposed by Vladimir Putin.
The American commercial approach carried little weight against the Kremlin’s ideological nihilism, which prioritizes permanent conflict over stability.
The collision between these two worlds could only be fatal. On one side, the promoter’s hubris described by Laure Mandeville, believing History can be bought like a golf course. On the other, the logic of annihilation dissected by Françoise Thom, where peace is merely a ruse of war. Why did the « Sheriff » not see it coming? Because he was too busy admiring his own reflection in the icy waters of Alaska, while the Tsar was loading his gun.
The result of this negotiation without diplomats pits a Donald Trump, more narcissistic than ever and treating geopolitics like a simple real estate transaction, against a Vladimir Putin exploiting this vanity to serve his « Total War » strategy. A deceptive staging that testifies to the collapse of Western influence. An analysis that takes stock of a fool’s bargain where territorial concessions achieved only one thing: strengthening the Russian war machine.
2025 was the year of theater and illusions. 2026 will be the year of the reckoning. Behind the facade of smiles, the scenery is crashing down on us.
