Richard Epstein
President Donald J. Trump has long regarded himself as the ultimate of negotiations, even before the 2016 campaign, when he crowned himself such in his best-seller The Art of the Deal. Sadly, it should now be evident that Trump has lost his touch; today, he has no idea how to act when high-stakes international matters are on the table. The plan was reportedly drafted by Trump and Putin, with no involvement from Ukraine, which helps explain why reports that the supposed deal calls for “Outright capitulation” from Ukraine, which “risks becoming another Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.” The New York Sun stated “Trump’s Peace Plan for Ukraine Leaves Putin Gloating, Zelensky Despondent,” given Trump’s explicit demand that Ukraine accept these terms of abject surrender or lose American military and logistical support. It was exactly backwards. He should have leaned on Putin to moderate his demands.
But now that Trump has made the wrong choice, one can hope that an errant United States has already its wad by having reduced its support so far that by now, Ukrainian ingenuity has stepped up. Ukraine replaced American long-range Tomahawk missiles with its homegrown Flamingos, with the same range and power, all guided by its own intelligence and cybercapacity, buttressed by increasing support from Germany and other NATO allies. The President that he can take advantage of a current corruption scandal (of which there are many instances of in the second Trump administration). But Europe has to, and will, step up its support, so the correct political judgment is, as the UK’s Independent, to tell Trump to buzz off while backing Ukraine to the hilt.
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