President Trump fashions himself as a successful businessman, a tough negotiator. But looking at his posture towards Ukraine and Russia, I have to wonder. Trump and his emissaries have already conceded just about everything that could be negotiated in a peace deal. Ukraine must forfeit its lost territory. Ukraine will never join NATO. Ukraine is somehow at fault for being invaded. Ukraine doesn’t deserve a seat at the table. Russia shall face no repercussions for its war-mongering or deliberate destruction of civilian infrastructure. Indeed, Russia will be welcomed back with open arms! When you’ve already given everything away before negotiations really begin, what’s left to talk about? Trump campaigned saying he would end the war on his first day. He never explained how he would do so. Now it seems his solution is simple: end the war by giving Putin everything he wants while screwing Ukraine and our European allies in the process. Is his adulation of Putin, and Putin’s false flattery, really so disarming? Is Trump’s pathetic grievance against Zelensky so strong he’d abandon an ally? Trump — myopically, childishly — views all interactions as a zero-sum game. I win only if you lose. If I haven’t gotten something from you, I haven’t dominated hard enough. So one really has to wonder what Trump thinks he is gaining here for the United States and who is the sucker in this deal. And after it’s all over, Trump will smugly declare, “Peace for our time!”

Alex Streeter

Concord