LOS ANGELES.–President Donald Trump, 78, met with 47-year-old Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelensky on the sidelines of the Vatican to discuss ongoing talks on the Ukraine War. Trump and Zelensky were concerned about recent missile and drone strikes in Kiev, killing 12 and injuring scores more. Flying home from Rome after Pope Francis’s funeral, Trump wondered whether or not Putin really wanted peace, raising doubt in the fake news about the prospect for peace. Democrats and the fake news don’t want peace, they want a continuation of 82-year-old president Joe Biden’s proxy war strategy that destroyed U.S.-Russian relations. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), 91, chimed in that Trump should hit 72-year-old President Vladimir Putin with more economic sanctions. Grassley should have retired from the Senate long ago, a big supporter of Biden’s proxy war with the Kremlin.
Trump says things to get both sides motivated in making a peace deal, not something Grassley should latch onto. Biden’s Ukraine policy, that Grassley backed 100%, destroyed decades of diplomacy, détente and arms control with the Russian Federation. Putin reacted to Biden’s policy by redoubling efforts in Ukraine, believing the war was an existential threat to his power. So when it comes to the last three months with Trump in power, Putin hasn’t yet switched gears that the U.S. under Trump is no longer Russia’s enemy. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei, Lavrov, said yesterday, that the U.S., with special envoy Steve Witkoff, has made great progress toward ending the Ukraine War. So, the fake news and old voices like Grassley should be ignored. Trump is on track to make a historic peace deal to end the reckless and destructive Ukraine War.
When Trump makes comments to the press, they are calculated to send subtle message to both Zelensky and Putin. Trump wants the two combatants to come to deal, accepting a deal negotiated by Trump and Witkoff. It’s taken months of talks with Putin to figure out the right formula for ending the war. Zelensky has done everything possible to sabotage Trump, including running the European Union [EU] to somehow get a better deal. Zelensky has resisted Trump’s formula for peace that involves ceding Ukrainian territory to Russian, swapping land-for-peace. Zelensky was hung up with the idea that Russia would take Ukraine’s sovereign territory, rather than make a deal based on today’s negotiation, leaving the sovereignty issues for another day. Over the course of several months, Zelensky has finally come around to trading land-for-peace with sovereignty decided later through negotiations.
Trump’s on the right track to pull off a major peace deal against all odds, and certainly the objections of Democrats and the fake news. What are Democrats and the fake news thinking when pushing to continue the Ukraine War? How much more destruction and loss of sovereign territory can Zelensky take into the indefinite future. Zelensky thinks he has friends in the EU that accept his position against Putin. But Trump has a real ceasefire and peace plan that spares the European Continent more war and the prospects of WW III or nuclear war. No one in Brussels wants to fund proxy war in Ukraine with the Kremlin. Whatever Biden did for three years is not something the EU wants to take on. Biden decided to end decades of U.S.-Russian relations for the purpose of funding proxy war. No one in the EU wants to go to war with the Kremlin to support Ukraine.
Zelensky has a lot of sympathy in the EU in part from certain EU countries like Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, all former Soviet satellites, worried about Putin’s future ambitions. Putin has discussed his future plans in the press, all consistent with what he’s said about Ukraine. He won’t tolerate Ukraine joining NATO or receiving excessive U.S. and NATO weapons on his border. Putin asked Biden to discuss new security arrangements for Ukraine for months before the Feb. 24, 2022 invasion. Biden ignored Putin’s requests and kept pushing for Ukraine’s NATO membership. So, when it comes to provoking the Ukraine War, there were plenty of reasons for Putin’s invasion. Putin never said he had a master plan to take over more European countries. That was all Biden and Zelensky’s propaganda used to justify continuing the Ukraine War.
Trump has Zelensky finally coming around to the reality of exchanging land-for-peace but under the condition that at some future point the sovereign territory can be returned to Ukraine through negotiation. How realistic is that is anyone’s guess. But Zelensky now accepts Trump theory of ending the Ukraine War. But Zelensky hasn’t yet accepted that post-war security guarantees won’t come from the White House. Trump has worked hard to reverse Biden’s anti-Russian foreign policy, winning back the trust of Putin and the Kremlin. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov, not known for his optimistic forecasts, sees very positive results in restoring normal U.S. Russian relations. All the noise with Democrats and the fake news should be ignored to let Trump and his national security team repair all of Biden’s damage to U.S. foreign policy and national security.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
