timelets

Trump told the leaders that Putin agreed to start direct negotiations on a ceasefire immediately. A source on the call said there were a few seconds of puzzled silence.

Zelensky then pointed out that Putin had previously agreed to negotiate, and the first round of ceasefire talks took place on Friday in Istanbul. Trump didn't directly respond, the sources said.
The sources said Zelensky and several other leaders on the call told Trump it had been his idea to start the peace talks with an immediate 30-day ceasefire.

https://www.axios.com/2025/05/20/trump-putin-call-european-leaders-zelensky

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration’s Justice Department has disbanded a Biden-era program aimed at seizing the assets of Russian oligarchs as a means to punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

The move to disband Task Force KleptoCapture is one of several moves undertaken by the Justice Department under the new leadership of Attorney General Pam Bondi that presage a different approach toward Russia and national security issues.

https://apnews.com/article/russia-sanctions-trump-treasury-doj-bondi-85ccedf25d5146db74d83dce01c9958c

...there’s no putting lipstick on this pig. Mr. Trump was crushed by a woman he previously dismissed as “dumb as a rock.” Which raises the question: What does that make him?

https://www.wsj.com/opinion/a-catastrophic-debate-for-trump-2024-presidential-election-d2e5aa7f

Vance left Revolution in 2019. Shortly after, he started Narya with Greenspon. The pair raised $120 million in their first fund with backing from Thiel as well as venture capitalist Marc Andreessen and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, according to a person familiar with the fund’s financials. That fund generated a multiple on invested capital of 1.67 and an internal rate of return of 24.35% after fees as of March 2023, according to an investor document.

Since its founding, Narya has made 14 investments, one of which is in stealth, the person said. They include Rumble, a video platform popular with the political right which went public through a special-purpose acquisition company, better known as a SPAC, while Vance was running for the Senate seat, and Hallow, a Catholic meditation and prayer app. Three others have ties to Vivek Ramaswamy, a businessman who once vied for the Republican presidential nomination and was a law school classmate of Vance’s.

Vance invested again in AppHarvest through Narya and joined the board in July 2020, according to the company’s securities filings. Other board members included Martha Stewart and investor Jeffrey Ubben. In February 2021, the company went public through a SPAC. Vance resigned from the board two months later to make his run for the Senate.

Months after Vance left the board, AppHarvest was sued by individual investors and a county retirement association in five separate lawsuits. These suits alleged that the company had misled regulators and investors and failed to disclose adverse facts about its operations, including a “lack of employee training and an inability to hire and retain employees due to attrition.” The company filed for bankruptcy in mid-2023.

https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/vp-pick-jd-vance-short-career-venture-capitalist-b3d941e1

FORT WASHINGTON, Md.—Billions in potential American aid to Ukraine is stuck in monthslong limbo on Capitol Hill , and to the Trump-loving partisans attending this year's Conservative Political Action Conference, that's exactly as it should be.
...
Many attendees argued that Putin was provoked by NATO's push to add Ukraine to the alliance. "Mitch McConnell is not a real Republican. He needs to go. He's too old, he's compromised, he does not represent the ideology of most Republicans," said Pat O'Brien of Fairfax, Va., a 67-year-old retiree. "The war is the fault of the U.S. We have no business encouraging Ukraine to join NATO. That's what triggered this whole thing."
...
In recent weeks, Trump has declined to condemn Russian President Vladimir Putin for the Feb. 16 death of Alexei Navalny, instead comparing his own multifarious legal issues to the plight of the imprisoned opposition leader. He has said he wouldn't defend NATO countries that don't meet their financial commitments to the alliance but would instead encourage Russia "to do whatever the hell they want." In a CNN town hall in May, he refused to say which side he hoped would win the war.
...
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) has said the chamber won't take up the Senate bill, which he acknowledges would likely pass if put on the House floor because most Democrats and many Republicans support it. But opposition from Trump and a growing share of the grassroots GOP base has made the issue toxic and divisive within the party. House Democrats are working to force the bill to the floor through a rarely used procedural gambit called a discharge petition, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

A group called Republicans for Ukraine this week launched a six-figure digital ad campaign in the districts of 10 House Republicans it hopes would support such an effort. A 60-second ad features rank and file GOP voters who argue that not doing so puts American national security at risk. The group's executive director, the anti-Trump GOP consultant Sarah Longwell, said the ad aims to show that not all the party's voters are in Trump's camp on the issue.

"Trump's always been in love with Putin, but now a big chunk of the Republican Party is as well," Longwell lamented in an interview. "If you grew up with the Cold War as a backdrop, to watch what's happening to the Republican Party right now is absolutely staggering. Ronald Reagan would be spinning in his grave."

https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/how-trump-turned-conservatives-against-helping-ukraine-d9f75b3b

Donald Trump's real estate empire could be saved by his wife, former first lady Melania Trump, after the former president was barred from conducting business in the state of New York for three years.

https://www.newsweek.com/melania-ivanka-could-save-donald-trumps-businesses-1870853