Trump's piece (of nothing) in our time

Author

Neil McIntosh
August 16, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes

👋 Good morning! It’s Saturday 16 August 2025. I’m Neil McIntosh, editor of The Early Line, and it’s great to have you here. Welcome to The Party Line - the weekend supplement for The Early Line newsletter.

🌤️ The weekend’s weather: Pleasant across the country. Two largely sunny days for Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen. London much the same. (Here’s the UK forecast).

Planning a barbecue? Here are six conversation starters as you poke at the sausages…

SIX THINGS TO TALK ABOUT
Trump’s piece (of nothing) in our time

🍸 Of course Donald Trump wasn’t able to extract a ceasefire from Vladimir Putin during their talks in Alaska. He didn’t get close. But he did get a little flattery - Putin claiming his invasion of Ukraine wouldn’t have happened if Trump had been in the White House - and the appearance of having done… something. Maybe they’ll meet in Moscow next time, he agreed.

Putin got a lot, The New York Times tells us: the end of a diplomatic exile in place for three years, the optics of an apparent close friendship with Trump, a ride in the presidential limousine. Democrats said his war crimes were legitimised, too. Senator Chris Murphy told US TV it all sent a clear signal: evil men and autocrats “can get away with murdering civilians and still get a photo-op with the president of the United States”. (🎁 The New York Times - gift link)

  • Trump rolled out the red carpet for Putin, and get little back (🎁WSJ - gift link)

  • David Smith: “They feared that it might resemble Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement of Adolf Hitler in Munich 1938, or Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin carving up the world for the great powers at the Yalta Conference in 1945. It was worse than that.” (The Guardian)

📣 For paid subscribers, beyond the jump… why government advice to delete your emails to save water is crazy (and wrong, and bad), a reminder of risk management the Lehman Brothers way, why taking a cargo ship to Shetland may be a better option than Cal Mac, and this week’s beautiful Absurd Home of the Week… PLUS… TV, film and sporting recommendations to make it the perfect weekend.

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