On Gaza and Ukraine, Trump’s answers are better than none

In both Gaza and Ukraine, we’re seeing how dramatically different President Donald Trump is going to be, not just from President Biden, but frankly, from virtually all previous presidents in the post world war two era. President Trump doesn’t rely on the so called foreign policy establishment. He doesn’t rely on the traditional indirect patterns of diplomacy. He pointed out one time that he doesn’t actually need the ambassador to deliver a message to a head of state. If he wants to deliver a message, he picks up the phone and calls him, and he knows virtually all these people by name, because he was president for four years and got to know them all. In the case of

Ukraine, what makes him very different is he wants to get to peace. He’s very worried about the danger of nuclear war. He’s also very worried that Putin not believe he can go around and randomly attack people. He does not believe it is possible for Ukraine to recapture most of the lost ground, because there’s just simply not a strong enough military in Ukraine, and he’s not prepared in any way to use American forces against Russian forces in Ukraine. So I think what you’ll see happening is a series of meetings in which, ultimately there is probably some kind of compromise in place, probably with an understanding that Ukraine is a sovereign country, that it can have defensive alliances, and that it can rebuild its military. There will certainly be very tough negotiations about who’s going to pay to rebuild all the damage that the Russians have done, and there may be some adjustments along various lines to make the Ukrainians a little more comfortable. But the objective reality is, unless Europe or the United States, are prepared to send troops and engage in a really big war. You’re not going to be able to push the Russians back very far, and Ukrainians are more likely to run out of fighting people than Russia is. Russia is a much bigger country. It has an ability to mobilize a lot more resources,

which doesn’t mean that we should in any way regard what Putin did as acceptable or appropriate. And I think President Trump’s probably right that had he been president, it would never have happened. So he’s just trying to stop the killing and get back to a more peaceful world. In Gaza, he has broken with all of the deals of the last 80 years, he said, Look, having people who support Hamas live next to Israel is going to guarantee another massacre, another war. It’s just not going to work. And so he’s come up with a very bold proposal to move everybody out, not necessarily as the final agreement, although he did say he was prepared for the United States to take a major role. But he’s also saying to Egypt and Jordan and others, if you don’t like this answer, tell me what your answer is. But we’re not going to go on with the kind of war and bitterness with that. It’s an amazing tour by a remarkable man, and we have to keep tuned to see what he does next. Do.