What did Donald Trump do today?

He begged Vladimir Putin to play along with the "peace deal" only he wants.

Early Wednesday morning, Russia launched missile attacks at Ukraine's two largest cities. An unusually large strike against a civilian target even by Russian standards, the attacks killed at least 12 people in an apartment building in the capital city of Kyiv.

Trump, who has single-handedly switched the United States' side in the war to align with the Putin regime, has been attempting to broker a peace agreement, something he'd bragged on the campaign trail he could accomplish on "day one." But neither Ukraine nor Russia seems interested. 

Russia's indifference is most likely because it hopes it can invade even more Ukrainian territory than it already has now that Trump has sidelined American support for Ukraine's defense. Ukraine opposes Trump's plan because it is essentially a surrender to Russia without any real guarantees against further aggression. Trump also wants to lift sanctions on the Putin regime, which would amount to a massive financial windfall for both the Russian state and for the network of oligarchs who administer Putin's personal wealth.

Trump's personal loyalties aside, the vast majority of Americans support Ukraine in the conflict.

In response to the Russian attack, which further embarrassed his efforts to broker a deal, Trump took what he may have hoped was a stern tone with Putin on his private microblogging website:

 

(Trump did not say when would have been a good time to send North Korean missiles into an apartment building.)

Public reaction to his pleading was not kind to Trump, with pundits using terms like "pathetic" and "objectively embarrassing."

Trump's frustration was evident today when he snapped at a reporter who asked whether he'd try to put any pressure on the Putin regime: "You don’t know what pressure I’m putting on Russia." That much is true: nobody is aware of any pressure Trump is putting on Russia.

Why does this matter?

• Presidents who aren't completely captive to hostile foreign autocrats at least occasionally act like it.
  

• For someone who likes people to think of him a tough guy, this really is humiliating.