Europe frets as Trump drifts back into Putin’s orbit
Donald Trump really, really wants a Nobel Peace Prize.
Vladimir Putin knows that Trump is desperate to be praised as the man who ended the war in Ukraine, which once again makes the US President very useful to Russia.
Trump went into last week’s talks in Alaska threatening sanctions and demanding an immediate ceasefire. Just a few hours later sanctions were forgotten and Trump insisted he never really wanted a ceasefire, preferring a long-term deal that he seemed to believe was imminent.
After literally rolling out the red carpet for Putin, still an international pariah after his invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Trump returned to Washington where Volodymyr Zelensky brought a human shield of top European leaders, protecting him from another Oval Office bullying session.
It all adds to the growing unease that Trump is drifting back under Putin’s influence. Seven years ago, he sided with the Russian president rather than his own intelligence agencies, believing Putin’s insistence he would never interfere in an American election.
This time, Trump took advice on election integrity from Putin, a man who has spent 25 years corruptly hanging on to power, while jailing or killing his political opponents.
Now Trump says the very idea of Ukraine joining NATO would be “insulting.” Insulting to who? Vladimir Putin, of course — the only leader truly affronted by the notion that Ukraine might be protected from future Russian aggression.
That’s what most alarms Europe’s political leaders — forced to choose between Ukraine’s fight for survival, and courting the favour of Russia’s murderous autocrat, Trump gives every impression of craving Putin’s approval.
