Another day, another controversy, or four or five, it really is madness in Washington.

All right, but there's one story everybody's missing.

And I am not missing it, which is why you're here.

And that is the subject of this evening's Talking Points Memo.

It is now Donald Trump versus Vladimir Putin.

Stare down down big time. Could get very intense. It's all about Ukraine,

of course. As reported, the Ukrainians, after being browbeaten by Donald Trump, have agreed

to a ceasefire for 30 days.

In that time, there would be a peace negotiation,

but Russia has to cooperate.

Now Putin today said, yeah, maybe I will,

but maybe I won't.

Okay.

Now, Putin is evil, and I know a tremendous about him, tremendous amount about him,

from researching my upcoming book, confronting evil. And this is a bad man. I think, and I could be wrong, that he is insane.

All right, let that sink in. I don't think he's rational. Bad Vlad Putin. I could be wrong. I'm not a

psychiatrist, but I am not wrong about this. It's a showdown between Donald Trump and Putin.

So, we can expect a lot of back and forth. All right, Russia's not going to do this.

Putin's not going to do that. You'll hear it every hour on the hour. Don't get emotional about it.

I will tell you what's real and what isn't real. There is a negotiation

going on now behind the scenes between the Trump administration, Steve Whitkoff, and Lavrov,

the foreign minister and second most powerful man in Russia. Okay? And they're setting the table for

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