Trump, March 9 -- "You're not in a good position. You don't have the cards right now. With us, you start having cards."

Zelensky: "I'm not playing cards. I'm very serious, Mr President. I'm very serious."

Trump: "You're playing cards. You're gambling with the lives of millions of people. You're gambling with World War III."

Donald Trump told Volodymyr Zelensky that the latter had no cards no fewer than five times in the last 10 minutes of their infamous meeting at the Oval Office last week. The US President likes to think in terms of cards (both metaphorical ones used for negotiating deals and literal ones to gain permanent residency in the US). As much as I dislike reducing international relations to a game, realism demands that we de...