For over a decade, the West was heading east again in what was widely known as the New Cold War. But once President Trump takes office, the US has given the impression that it may be switching sides.
Even if US and Russian negotiators sat together on Tuesday for the first time since Moscow had a full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly three years ago, Trump would be able to do a common cause with President Vladimir V. It shows that they are willing to abandon their allies. Putin from Russia.
As far as Trump is concerned, Russia is not responsible for the war that devastated its neighbors. Instead, he suggests that Ukraine will condemn Russian invasion. Listening to Trump talking to reporters about the conflict on Tuesday was to hear a version of reality that is unrecognizable on Ukraine’s earth.
In Trump’s narrative, Ukrainian leaders blamed the war for not agreeing to surrender their territory, so he sat at the table for a peace negotiation that had just begun with Putin. It suggested it was not worth it. “You’d never have started it,” Trump said. In fact, he mentioned Ukrainian leaders who didn’t start it. “You could have made a deal.”
Speaking at Mar-a-Lago Estate in Florida, he continued: In contrast, Trump fought a low-intensity war against Putin or Russia, who first invaded Ukraine in 2014, and invaded it through all of Trump’s first term, which led him to invade Putin or Russia. He did not speak any criticism. We aim to take over the entire country 2022.
Trump is an 180-degree turn that forces his friends and enemies to readjust in basic ways while he is carrying out one of the most amazing pivots of American foreign policy in a generation. Since the end of World War II, a long parade of American presidents first saw the Soviet Union. After that, after a short and fantastic Interregnum, its successor Russia was at least a wary force. Trump gives it all the look he sees as a collaborator in his future joint venture.
He reveals that the United States is quarantining Putin due to unprovoked attacks on the massacre of his weaker neighbors and hundreds of thousands of people. Instead, Trump, who is constantly confused by Putin, wants to load Russia into an international club and become one of America’s top friends.
“This is an illegitimate reversal of America’s foreign policy in 80 years,” says Kori, director of foreign and defense policy studies at the American Institute of Corporate Research and national security aide to President George W. Bush. Shake said.
“Through the Cold War, the United States rejected the legitimate conquest of the Soviets in the Baltic countries and gave hearts to those fighting for their freedom,” she continued. “Now we are legalizing aggression to create an area of influence. Every US president in the last 80 years will oppose President Trump’s statement.”
In Trump’s circle, pivot is a necessary correction to years of incorrect policies. He and his allies believe that protecting Europe is too expensive given the other needs. In this view, coming to some kind of accommodation with Moscow allows the United States to either bring back more troops or transfer national security resources to China. This is considered the “biggest threat.” month.
The US reversal has certainly been declared over the past week. A few days after Vice President JD Vance exploited his European allies, he said the “internal threat” was more worried than Russia. If they could simply dispose of the Ukrainian war, then the Russians.”
Although the Ukrainian leaders, with far fewer other Europeans in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, were not in the meeting room, Rubio then called out several foreign ministers and briefly called them . Instead, by all appearance, this was a conference of two great powers that divides the realm of domination, a modern conference of the Vienna or Yalta Conference.
Trump has long seen Putin as a compatriot who is a powerful and “very knowledgeable” player who tries to bully Ukraine in order to make territorial concessions. Putin, in his eyes, is a man worthy of praise and respect, unlike his traditional US allies such as Germany, Canada and France, as he is exhibiting the light corn. is.
Certainly, Trump spent the first month of his second term stiffening his allies. They not only excluded them from the consultations of emerging Ukrainians, but also threatened tariffs on them, increased military spending and demanded that they assert claims against parts of the territory. His billionaire patron Elon Musk is publicly supportive of the German party’s far-right alternative.
“For now, Europeans believe this is something Trump is treating Russian relations and treating it in a way that he can’t trust his allies, Europeans,” says Ian Bremer, president of the international consulting firm Eurasia Group. states. “Supporting the AFD, which German leaders consider to be a neo-Nazi party, makes Trump look like an enemy to Europe’s biggest economy. It’s an extraordinary change.”
During the campaign, Trump vowed that he could end the Ukrainian War in 24 hours, but he couldn’t. In fact, he said that before taking office he would bring peace to Ukraine. After making a nearly 90-minute call with Putin last week, Trump assigned Rubio and two other advisors, Michael Waltz and Steve Witkov, to pursue negotiations.
The concession that Trump and his team are floating sounds like a Kremlin wish list. Russia can maintain all of the territory of Ukraine, which was illegally seized by force. The US does not provide security guarantees to Ukraine. There will be far fewer permissions to NATO. The sanctions will be lifted. The president has even suggested that Russia will be re-entered into a group of seven major powers after being exiled for an invasion of Ukraine in 2014.
What should Putin give up for the transaction? He must stop killing the Ukrainians while he pockets his victory. Trump has not highlighted any other concessions he claims. Also, he trusts Putin to maintain the agreement, considering his breach of the 1994 Ukraine sovereignty and the 1994 agreement guaranteeing two ceasefire transactions negotiated in Minsk in 2014 and 2015. It doesn’t even state how to do it.
Trump’s obvious belief in his ability to seal his contract with Putin makes veteran national security officials who have dealt with Russia for many years.
“We should talk to them the same way we spoke to Soviet leaders during the Cold War,” said Celeste A. Warander, who dealt with issues with Russia and Ukraine, and Joseph R. Biden Jr. I dealt with the issue as Secretary of Defense under the president.” That’s what you don’t trust them. ”
“When you negotiate, you do them with the presumption that they violate them. You try to find overlapping benefits, but our interests are fundamentally at odds, and I They realize they are trying to manage dangerous enemies rather than become best friends.”
Speaking to a reporter on Tuesday, Trump made him sound like he thought Russia was a friend, but not Ukraine. “Russia wants to do something,” he said. “They want to stop the wild and wild bars.”
Trump was disappointed with the murder and destruction that was born from what he called a “meaningless war,” and expressed disappointment in comparing the scene to “body parts of the entire field” until the Battle of Gettysburg. He said Ukraine was “wiping away,” and the war had to end. However, he refused to say who was wiping out Ukraine, but revealed that he denounced his leader and rejected their claim that he was part of the negotiations.
“I hear they’re angry that there’s no seat,” Trump said. “Well, they had seats for three years, and the long time before that. This could have been very easy to solve. Half-baked negotiators, without losing much land, They may have settled down a few years ago, with little land loss, without losing their lives, and without losing the city lying by their side.”
He repeated his claim that if he had been president, no invasion would have happened, and ignored the fact that the Russian-sponsored troops fought war within Ukraine for all four years of his first term. “I could have made a contract for Ukraine, who would have given them almost all the land,” he explained why he refused to negotiate peace when he took office. I said it without saying.
As he often does, Trump seasoned his comments with multiple false claims. In it, he said that the US has provided three times more aid to Ukraine since the war began, like in Europe. In fact, according to the Kiel Institute for World Economic Research, Europe has allocated $138 billion compared to $119 billion from the US.
He also denigrated Ukrainian President Volodimia Zelensky, saying multiple times, “He’s down 4% in recognition ratings.” In fact, Zelensky’s approval ratings have fallen from the former laminar basins, but they are not that different from Trump himself.
Trump also agreed to the Russian topic that Ukraine should hold a new election to get involved in negotiations. “Yeah, when they want a seat at the table, you can say that people have to do that — the people in Ukrainians have long since we voted. ?” he said. “It’s not about Russia. It comes from me, and it comes from many other countries too.”
Other countries he didn’t say. He also said nothing about the need for elections in Russia. There, votes are controlled by the Kremlin and its allies.
Trump’s comments were not written and were answered in response to questions from reporters. But they foresaw the next few months, reflecting how he viewed the situation. They also sent fresh shockwaves throughout Europe. It comes to grasp the fact that major allies in the new Cold War are no longer seeing it that way.
“Some of the most shameful comments made by the president in my life,” wrote Ian Bond, deputy director of the European Reform Centre in London, writing online. “Trump is watching along with the attackers and blames the victims. In the Kremlin, they must be jumping for joy.”
