LOS ANGELES (OC).–President Donald Trump said, tongue-in-cheek, talking with his wife First Lady Melania made his see the light on Putin. Trump thought in the 2024 campaign that ending the Ukraine War could happen quickly based on his relationship with 72-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump found out the hard way that there are competing interests in ending the Ukraine War quickly, real differences between Putin and Ukraine’s 47-year-old PresidentVolodymyr Zelensky. “I go home. I tell the First Lady, ‘You know, I spoke to Vladimir today. We ahad a wonderful conversation.’ And she said, ‘Oh really? Another city was just hit,’” Trump said during a meeting with NATO Secretray-General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office. Trump pretends that anything Melania said made a difference but he certainly used the cute story sell his change of heart to the media.
Putin has been pressured by the EU with more sanctions if he didn’t meet directly with Zelensky to hammer out a ceasefire deal. Well, Zelensky considers Putin his mortal enemy, wants nothing but war, shows no interest in compromise. So, while it’s cute that Trump brings up Melania, it’s also true that he miscalculated the peace process especially with Zelensky. Everything was making progress until Zelensky ran to French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, claiming Trump was selling him down the river with Putin. Trump was doing nothing of the sort but it gave Macron, Merz and Starmer a way to grandstand, get into the peace debate. “I’m disappointed in President Putin because I thought we would have had deal two months ago, but it doesn’t seem to get there,” Trump said.
Trump wants to make something entertaining for the fake news, saying he consulted with Melania who opened his eyes to the fact that so-called nice conversations with Putin were getting nowhere. Trump called Putin a “tough guy” who has “fooled a lot of people” for a long time but “he hasn’t fooled me,” leaving Trump to take a more strident tone. Trump knows that his biggest obstacle to peace is Zelensky who shows no interest, while coddled by the EU, to compromise to end the war. Zelensky’s stance now rejects any idea about ceding land to Russia. But if he wants to end the over three year conflict, how’s he supposed to get a peace deal refusing to compromise especially on the idea of trading land-for-peace. Like any country involved in a war, Putin wants the spoils entitled from a decisive victory. Zelensky wants a peace deal without ceding any of Ukraine’s territory.
When Putin had his peace negotiators led by Vladimir Medinsky share his “memorandum” in Istanbul June 2, it was flatly rejected by Zelensky, calling it “blackmail.” Putin said he was willing to meet with Zelensky but only after the two peace delegations worked out the terms for a ceasefire. Putin said he wanted Ukraine and the West to discuss the underlying reasons for the Ukraine War. Sending his peace envoy to meet with Putin four times, Steve Witkoff knows what Putin meant were the underlying causes of the Ukraine War. He spelled out the U.S. arming Ukraine to the teeth on the Russian border. Putin complained about NATO encroaching on Russia, but, more importantly, accusing Putin of trying seize more European territory. Zelensky has insisted the Putin long-range plans involve taking over more European territory. Putin has told every journalist he had no such intent.
Putin’s decision to continue bombing Ukraine was the same intensity was not an affront to Trump but a message to Zelensky that if he wants war, he’ll get war. If he wants peace, he’ll have a cooperative partner but only when both delegations work out the details. “I’d get home, I say, First Lady, I have the most wonderful talk with Vladimir. I think we’re finished.’ And then I’ll turn the television, or she’ll say to me, “Wow that’s strange because they just bombed a nursing home,” Trump said, telling the press how he came to the conclusion that Putin was leading him on. Well, instead of taking in personally, Trump should recognize that Zelensky is no cooperative partner. He rejected Putin’s “memorandum,” saying he would never agree to cede territory to Russia. Well, if that’s really his position, how does Zelensky think he’s ever going to end the Ukraine War.
Pushing Trump to go back to the Biden policy of proxy war with the Kremlin, Trump doesn’t want to make that mistake, he only wants to give Putin a push to enter into a ceasefire arrangement while both teams can work on a peace deal. Putin sees nothing up to this point that gives him any encouragement about cutting a deal. He sees no effort from Zelensky or the EU to deal with underlying causes of the Ukraine War. Biden never admitted that arming Ukraine provoked the Kremlin. When Biden refused to discuss new security arrangements for Ukraine, Putin realized he had to demilitarize the region before war broke out. So, Biden saying the war was “unprovoked and justified” was the favorite media slogan but the opposite of reality to the Kremlin. Trump doesn’t want to fall into the Biden trap. He wants to encourage peace without alienating Putin.
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.
