President Trump is upset.

So he is making all kinds of threats about the war in Ukraine - such as that the USA will be supplying more weapons to Ukraine and increase the sanctions on Russia and any countries that trade with them.

It's all a long way from his election aim to end the war in 24 hours and stop the killing - all those very 'Nobel' sentiments, that got him nominated for a peace prize by those peace-loving nuclear nations Pakistan and Israel.

Instead it's become clear what this latest outburst is really all about: Ego and money.

Trump is annoyed that Putin in not playing ball and did not roll-over and let Trump tickle his stomach as a sign of submission. Hence his 50 day ultimatum to Russia to end the war.

And he's really not happy with the idea that people might think Putin is fooling or playing him, as he claims Putin has done with half a dozen former US Presidents.

But not him. Oh no. That's not the Trumpian 'art of the deal'. His art of the deal is: I win.

Trouble is, Putin is a completely different level of opponent than Kamala Harris, E. Jean Carroll and Letitia James.

After all, when Putin first became the elected President of Russia in 2000, Trump had been on the Oprah Winfrey show in 1998 saying he would make America's allies 'pay their fair share'. When Putin faced down a bunch of Russian oligarchs, who essentially owned the country after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the firesale (largely to them) of state assets, Trump was facing down City Hall in provincial New York.

To his credit, Trump has stuck to his 1998 guns. He has played a blinder in his dealings with Europe, slapping the EU with his famous yo-yo tariffs and agreeing to supply more Patriots to Ukraine via NATO on the condition that Europe pays for them.

It's quite clear who's the daddy in that relationship and it's not Mark Rutte, the head of NATO, who is happy to roll-over and have his tummy tickled whenever Trump is in the mood.

As a result of his latest shenanigans, Trump satisfies the Ukraine hawks at home while getting a few more billion to support the US MIC or even to pay some interest on the US deficit. Bonus!

But the President's transactional approach to everything means that he is fooling no-one with this kind of stop-go diplomacy in relation to Ukraine...only himself.

As The Who rightly warned in Won't Get Fooled Again: Meet the new boss/Same as the old boss.