Trump, Making Deals, Ending Wars

DONALD TRUMP made it, as Richard Nixon used to say, "perfectly clear", during the presidential campaign. He could, if elected, and maybe even if not elected, end the war in Europe in a single day, by making a deal. As someone pointed out to me, he didn't actually say that he "would", but that he "could". Thers is a difference. My thought was, heaven forbid that somebody could end a war, but would choose not to. Quite a price in human lives for passing up a chance to end a war. Making a deal. Trump, the art of the artist of the deal, the ultimate transactional master, the self proclaimed stable genius, fixing the world, or able to if he so chooses and has time, through wheeling and dealing. Buy a golf course, sell a slum rental property. Buy a country, end a war. Its that easy, we are told. Now, there's been a change in plans. The new timeline given by the great deal maker extends to several weeks, not days or hours. It looks like the war is on track to be ended, by Trump, in "several weeks". Don't be surprised that when the fourth anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine rolls around next February twenty fourth, 2026, the time table has been extended to several months. And then, eventually, by several years, or even decades. Donald Trump promises that the war in Europe will end in several centuries, if not sooner....The proverbial "fly in the ointment" is, as always, the contents of the deal. The devil, as always, is in the details. The Trump administration is now telling us that it would be "unrealistic" to expect any peace agreement to include a Russian withdrawal from the twenty percent of Ukraine, and slowly growing, it currently occupies. That, of course, would make ending the war considerably easier for dealer Trump or...anyone. Ending the war with the status quo intact would have the further (dis)advantage of essentially rewarding Putin's Russia for its wanton aggression. During this second Trump administration, United States foreign policy is predicated on an "alternative reality", to borrow a phase from Trump's former spokesperson, that being that, in the world according to Trump, Ukraine, not Russia, is responsible for starting the war. This is the equivalent of blaming Poland or France for igniting World War Two, but it perfectly suits Trump's admiration and affinity for Vladimir Putin and all things authoritarian, and his unflagging penchant for rewriting hisotry, twisting the present as well as the past into fantastical alternative realities. The real reality is that, under Trump, the United States has, like Italy in World War Two, switched sides mid war. Its hard to remember the United States of America ever doing that before, unless you include its abandonment of the British Empire in 1776 as side switching. More than one hundred billion dollars spent on Ukrainian defense, and we end up, for all intents and purposes, on the side of Putin. Freedom's land, having its Benedict Arnold moment. Serving this alternative reality, Ukrainian president Zelenskyy now becomes, in the great Trump fun house, an unelected dictator. Why not? He was of course elected by a huge majority, but, one thing we know about Trump is that in Trump-land elections are vague, shadowy tenuous things the results of which can be interpreted in a variety of ways. Perception become reality. It now seems that their very exstence can be whitewashed from the history books. We probably won't see American boots on the ground fighting alongside Russian forces pushing ever further into Ukraine from the east, but, as we say, never say never. We now want to be repaid for our prior assistance to Ukraine in precious metals and minerals, a modern version of "Lend-Lease". Eventually, Russia can be expected to be handed a bill for American services rendered. The United Nations overwhelmingly voted to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine on the third anniversary of Putin's initial attack. The United States, freedom's land, joined North Korea, Iran, and China in voting against the proclamation. Our beloved America, joining itself at the hip with the world's most oppressive, authoritarian regimes as the former land of liberty enters its very own authoritarian era, courtesy Donald J. Trump and MAGA America. Conservative America wholly approves. Doesn't that make you proud to be an American?