For once, the news was buoyant, with an unexpected twist for rational behavior.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, virtually summoned to the White House to hear what Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin had cooked up as an imposed solution for ending the war with Russia, is arriving with the full array of European leaders today.
It is turning the meetup into something far more serious than Trump probably intended, with a lot more work involved in reaching a practical and effective set of required security arrangements.
It also is a vivid reminder to Trump that his personal style of shoot-from-the-hip dealmaking doesn’t cut it in a real problem requiring resolve and a lot more realism that he usually tosses off in a partisan political slogan.
It remained unclear who exactly invited whom to today’s meetings, whether Zelenskyy insisted on it or whether the heads of the European Union and the leading powers in Europe simply invited themselves. But whoever made it happen deserves praise for a brilliant counter to the Alaska summit. For sure, this time Trump and Vice President JD Vance can’t just sit there belittling Zelenskyy live on television.
What is going on in the name of ceasefire or peace talks between Ukraine and Russia obviously affects more than just the two nations, and far more than whether Trump collects his aspirational Nobel Peace Prize.
No Carving the World
The arrival of Europe’s leadership, a none-too-subtle protest, should remind Trump and Putin that no one is sitting by as the two would-be imperialists sit by themselves to remake the world order.
Trump has spent his time since Saturday’s summit in Alaska issuing posts and softball television appearances trying to present an appeasing, capitulating session with Putin as some kind of diplomatic victory. Rather than roll out a red carpet for Putin on the same day that Putin was bombing civilians, Trump should have followed through with his threatened economic sanctions or increased the pace of weapons deliveries to Ukraine.
The sudden appearance of the European cousins at the White House should dispel that happy vision as a danger sign to Ukraine, to national sovereignty and to democracy itself.
Indeed, it is also a reminder to Trump that his America First thinking that simply seeks to remove U.S. involvement from the world’s problems is a nonstarter. Trump’s attempt at serving as a non-aligned broker for peace masks his distinct new alignment with Putin to grab 20 percent of Ukraine’s land with no effective promise to go back for more, perhaps as soon as Trump’s term ends.
Let’s hope that the resolve survives the day.
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