For all his Twitter rage, combined with the slavish devotion of his loyalists, who drift about in a fantasy world, where Donald Trump is equal parts noble, holy, genius, and tough guy, he really is just a simpering coward.

Nothing proves that more than his relentless need to stay in favor with Russian strongman, Vladimir Putin.

A bit of heat was generated when U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley announced additional sanctions on Russia, to have kicked in on Monday, as a response to their part in the chemical weapons attack in Syria.

Almost immediately, the White House issued a statement saying no decision had been reached on additional sanctions, yet.

Later reports were that Trump was enraged, wondered aloud who had told her there would be more sanctions, and ordered the correction, himself.

It was just one more example of Trump’s willingness to cut the legs out from under one of his own, and in this case, the crown jewel of his administration.

Trump’s new economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, stepped in it, himself, by suggesting that Haley had gotten confused about the policy.

Haley raised up to her full 10 feet and shot back, “With all due respect, I don’t get confused.”

(She’s going to make an awesome president.)

On Wednesday, Trump held a joint press conference with visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. When questioned about the additional sanctions on Russia, the answer was absolutely Trumpian.

Our president announced that Russia would see further sanctions “as soon as they very much deserve it.”

Just a couple of weeks ago, he was raging about Russia partnering with Assad’s murderous regime. This wasn’t enough?

“There has been nobody tougher on Russia than Donald Trump,” the president said, restating one of his common talking points.

(Seriously, is there no one else as unnerved as me when this guy refers to himself in third person?)

He noted that he has helped raise money for NATO, as well as touted a recent military strike in Syria that was carried out in coordination with France and the United Kingdom.

Yeah. About that…

We still don’t have a clear notion of what was accomplished with that strike. What was the goal? To cripple Assad’s ability to launch more chemical weapons at civilians?

While the U.S. is claiming success, and President Tweety declared “Mission accomplished,” the rhetoric from Russia is that somebody tipped them off (probably not through somebody’s tweet) and all personnel and equipment was moved out before the strike.

Israeli intel have also questioned the effectiveness of the strike, not going as far as to accuse anyone of tipping off the Russians, but suggesting that the statement “Mission accomplished” had no basis.

Whether it did or did not, sanctions are probably well warranted now, given their interference in that region, even engaging in firefights with U.S. forces on the ground.

Trump is all about hurting allies with tariffs, but he flinches when it comes to really tightening up on Russia, and for somebody in his position, that doesn’t look good.