Five takeaways from Trump’s Ukraine summit (and his post-mortem on Fox News)
Washington: As the dust settles on a whirlwind of activity over the past week regarding the Russia-Ukraine war, it’s difficult to discern what – if anything – was achieved.
What started with a historic, if disconcerting, meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday (Saturday AEST) led to a hasty summit with European leaders at the White House four days later, after which the US president went on Fox News and undid a lot of what was achieved only hours earlier. Here are five things we can take away from the exercise.
Trump’s deference to Russian power is undiminished
Donald Trump greets Vladimir Putin in Alaska last Friday.Credit: AP
Much was made of the fact Trump called the Russian president towards the end of his meeting with European leaders on Monday (Tuesday AEST), after flagging his intention to do so. He told Fox News he left the room to make the call. “I didn’t do it in front of them, I thought that would be disrespectful to President Putin,” he said.
The remark is a useful insight into Trump’s psyche. Putin demands respect, despite his alleged war crimes, by virtue of his power. Hence the red carpet in Anchorage and the reluctance to press the Russian leader for any real concessions.
Likewise, Trump told Fox that Ukraine can’t join NATO – not because of opposition within the security bloc, which exists, but because Moscow doesn’t want it. “Long before Putin, it was a no-no by Russia,” Trump said. “Russia said ‘we don’t want the so-called opponent, the enemy, we don’t want them on our border’. Everybody knew: you just can’t do that.”
US President Donald Trump greets Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky as he arrives at the White House.Credit: AP
He still sees Ukraine as uppity
The flipside of Trump’s realpolitik is that he considers Ukraine and President Volodymyr Zelensky as ambitious beyond their station. This is evident each time he appears to blame Zelensky for starting the war by taking on a more powerful military in Russia, even though it was Russia that invaded.
On Fox, he said it was “insulting” for Ukraine to have sought to join NATO. As for wanting to regain Crimea, a large territory Putin annexed in 2014, Trump said this was impossible because Putin got it in a “good deal”.
“That was given [to Russia] all because Barack Hussein Obama gave it away in one of the dumbest real estate deals I’ve ever seen,” Trump falsely claimed, even though the international community still recognises Crimea as part of Ukraine.
Rescuers carry a body from a residential building damaged by a Russian attack on Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Monday.Credit: AP
Zelensky will have to meet Putin with bombs falling
Despite the concerns of European leaders, particularly German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron, Trump has made clear he won’t push Putin for a ceasefire. That means that if Zelensky and Putin do have this purported meeting, it will be with bombs still falling. That makes for trying circumstances. Remember, on the flight to Anchorage on Friday, Trump said he would be unhappy if he didn’t walk away from the Putin meeting with some form of ceasefire. Now he says it’s not necessary at all.
Oleh Shamshur, a former Ukrainian ambassador to the US and a senior fellow at the Atlantic Institute, said the talks had largely failed as Trump still believed “peace talks can advance while hostilities continue”.
But Michael O’Hanlon, foreign policy director at the Brookings Institution, said a ceasefire would soon become less important. “If there is no reasonable effort by Putin to end this war fairly soon – and I doubt there will be – then this whole notion that we should try to negotiate peace will just seem to everyone like a play for time,” he told CNBC. “Trump’s pretty good at sniffing out that kind of tactical ploy.”
Trump shows French President Emmanuel Macron, left, and Volodymyr Zelensky, right, his collection of MAGA hats.Credit: White House
Europe will have to do the work but cede the credit
Trump clearly revelled in the role of ringmaster, and the White House duly pumped out photographs showing European leaders thanking the president, listening to him or inspecting his “shop” of caps, books and merch.
One thing they heard over and over again was that Trump had already ended six wars – a dubious claim at best – and while this one was proving to be the hardest, he was sure he would get it done.
After leaving the door ever-so-slightly ajar to putting US boots on the ground as part of a peacekeeping force, Trump scotched that definitively the next morning on Fox News. But he did signal the US could support the Europeans with air power, as well as “co-ordinating” the security guarantee.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the details of this arrangement were now being worked out.
It was one of many components that remained vague after the meeting in Washington, but overall the picture was clear: US involvement will be minimal but just large enough for Trump to take credit.
The one thing Trump is wedded to is staying involved
Gone are the threats that the US may walk away from the Ukraine-Russia conflict altogether. Trump is now in this for the long haul.
Not only is the US president desperate for the Nobel Peace Prize – he even cold-called a Norwegian minister about it last week, according to a German media report – but he feels ending the war is his ticket to salvation.
“I want to try and get to heaven, if possible,” Trump told Fox. “I’m hearing I’m not doing well. I am really at the bottom of the totem pole. But if I can get to heaven, this will be one of the reasons.”
The comment may have been facetious, but it speaks to his ambitions and his God complex – now parroted by visiting leaders, such as NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, who feel compelled to testify that Trump is the only person on Earth who can get this done.
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