Trump’s Ukraine Strategy: What Worked and What Could Still Fail…See More

Trump’s Ukraine Strategy: What Worked and What Could Still Fail…See More
CNN
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It was the best day Ukraine has had in a very long time. But it’s still hard to see how the war unleashed by Russia’s brutal invasion ends any time soon.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the White House on Monday and, unlike last time, there wasn’t a blow-up in the Oval Office.

President Donald Trump offered tantalizing glimpses of how he could approach presidential greatness by saving Ukraine, securing Europe and genuinely deserving the Nobel Peace Prize.

A phalanx of European leaders who came to support Zelensky were impressive and unusually unified despite their wide ideological divergences. They took turns in on-camera remarks to try to invest Trump with a political and emotional rationale for standing with Ukraine.

A historic day echoed great political gatherings that ended World War II and built the modern world. This is how the West is supposed to work, with an American president leading powerful Europeans who share common goals.

But is it too good to last?

It is a measure of the fracture in the transatlantic alliance and Trump’s brittle temperament that avoiding disasters is seen as serious progress, especially after the president’s concessions to Russian President Vladimir Putin at their unctuous
Everyone at the remarkable meetings in the White House, Trump included, was ostentatiously doing everything to stress possibilities and to avoid specific discussions of issues that could blow the day apart.

By evening, Trump was posting on social media about a potential three-way summit he’d host soon that would also include Zelensky and Putin that could be preceded by a one-on-one between the Russian and Ukrainian leaders. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said such a meeting could happen within two weeks, suggesting accelerating diplomatic momentum.