Wednesday, August 20, 2025

DON'T EXPECT TRUMP TO PUT UKRAINE OR EUROPE ABOVE HIS EGO

 Filenews 20 August 2025 - by Timothy L O'Brien



Shortly after Vladimir Putin arrived in Alaska on Friday to discuss how he could end his invasion of Ukraine, President Donald Trump drove the Russian leader into the back of his armoured limousine, known as "The Beast."

The duo travelled alone for about 10 minutes before arriving in a conference room, where their formal meeting would take place. Putin speaks adequate English, and there were no interpreters in the car. No other aides or officials were present either, and so far there is no public record of what they discussed.

This is generally Trump's preference for how to approach Putin. In previous meetings, including a particularly embarrassing meeting in Helsinki in 2018, he had met Putin only with interpreters or simply confiscated the notes of their conversations. There was once a world before the Trump era where no president would have so consistently sabotaged transparency in politics, good governance, national security rules, the recording of federal archives and the history books, conducting the management of state affairs in the dark. Those days have passed, of course, but it remains a mystery what exactly Trump asks of Putin every time they discuss privately.

The optimistic interpretation of all of the above is that Trump is a skilful negotiator who relies on personal approach and persuasion to ensure excellent results for America and its allies. Other than the fact that Trump's track record as a businessman and president is replete with deals that failed, there is little indication that what he gained in Alaska was exceptional. He went to the meeting with Putin claiming that he would seek a ceasefire before negotiations to end the war and left saying that Ukraine and Russia should seek a peace agreement.

Under this scheme, Ukraine may be forced to cede significant parts of its territory to Russia, to satisfy Trump and Putin. This, however, is not a peace plan. It is capitulation. It replicates the mistake the West made in allowing Putin to invade and annex Ukraine's Crimean peninsula in 2014, believing that this would prevent further attacks and a larger conflict.

Putin reportedly offered a written promise not to attack Ukraine again, but this guarantee is just as reliable as the person who provides it. The danger in all of this, combined with Trump's turn on Alaska, is why several European leaders attended Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky's meeting with Trump at the White House on Monday.

Europeans, familiar with Putin's broader ambitions for the Baltic states and the ongoing threat he poses, understood that pressuring Zelensky for concessions can only postpone further conflicts, without ending them.

We need to free ourselves from thoughts of "strategy" or "dogmas" or broad "political targets" when trying to figure out what motivates Trump when he unpredictably changes positions and makes contradictory statements.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: the best glasses to understand why Trump does what he does is self-promotion and self-preservation. It's almost always driven by at least one of these two factors — and often both. All the energy spent speculating about his grand plans or his philosophy is a distraction. He is there for himself – and only.

You can conclude that his desire to use taxpayers to buy a federal stake in Intel means that Trump is an admirer of China's capitalism. You can think the same about the demands that Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices return 15% of their chip sales in China to Washington. And of course, you can also describe his desire to create a national wealth fund financed by foreign investment and personally managed by him as part of that plan.

Or you might recall that the hallmark of his second presidential term is how much he enjoys finding and then exploiting every avenue of unilateral power that allows him to hold office — economically, diplomatically, and culturally. He is Donald Rex, the emperor of everything he sees.

So America ended up having a strange set of tariffs that have nothing to do with economic vitality, a renaissance of industry, and sensible trade regimes. They exist because Trump feels wronged and his office allows him to unfold a list of "bad guys" whom he has the ability to punish. He enjoys it.

Do scientists and other researchers propose solutions that do not agree with an understanding of public health from the late 19th century? Take away funding from them, because you can. Are universities too independent and hotbeds of left-wing sentiments and intolerance? Take away funding from them, because you can.

Cryptocurrencies are no longer a "scam", as you once said? Of course it isn't, so throw the weight of the federal government in support of them, because you can.

Are migrants flooding the country and threatening public safety and the economy more than filling jobs that businesses need? Squeeze them like sheep, strip them of their civil rights and expel them, because you can. Cities are drowning in crime on a scale that only you can see? Send the National Guard, the FBI, and unidentified agents with face masks.

Many of them also naturally serve Trump's base, while embracing very real public discontent that the Democrats have not adequately addressed. But beyond clumsily touching the most emotional chords and dark, divisive feelings, they do not constitute a worldview beyond a paranoid mood. Trump's efforts to "cure" the problems have far exceeded the dimensions of the problems he has become obsessed with. The common thread is that his answers are consistent with his sense of what it means to govern and live in grandeur (which is also one reason why he worships Putin, another guy who seeks to wield the same type of power).

Is Putin a great leader who needs to be charmed and reassured because you want to be like him? Or does convergence with him diplomatically offer an opportunity to talk about business deals in Russia, like the one you were trying to settle during your 2016 election campaign?

There is no high political or economic theory or any high-level game of chess here. It is neither a liberal nor a conservative point of view. It is medieval and monarchist. It is self-promotion. Trump is visible and satisfied, no matter what happens with Ukraine, Europe, and U.S. national security in between.

BloombergOpinion