Trump’s capitulation to Putin over Ukraine follows a clear pattern: he’s the pushover, giving everything away and getting nothing in return. He postures as a strongman, but in reality, he’s weak—pitifully weak. Against America’s adversaries, Donald Trump is, as he might say, a sucker, a patsy, a doormat. He folds at the slightest pressure.
Just look at what he handed Vladimir Putin this past week. After years of diplomatic isolation following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Trump effectively welcomed Moscow back onto the world stage. Sergei Lavrov, Putin’s foreign minister, remains under international sanctions, yet he was granted a high-profile meeting in Riyadh with Trump’s Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, for so-called “peace talks.”
The meeting itself was a major win for Putin. It signaled that the U.S. sees Russia as its equal—not as a rogue aggressor but as a great power deserving of respect. Regardless of what was discussed in Saudi Arabia, Putin will count that as a victory.
And Trump’s generosity didn’t stop there. Who wasn’t at the table in Riyadh? The Ukrainians. In negotiations about the future of Ukraine, they were nowhere to be found. That exclusion alone handed Putin a major concession: the ability to dictate the terms of the war’s end without Ukraine’s input. But the implications run deeper—it validated Putin’s claim that Ukraine isn’t a real country, but merely a Russian province without sovereignty.
Europe was also left out of the talks, another favor to the Kremlin. Despite being directly affected by Russia’s war and standing as Kyiv’s strongest ally, European nations were sidelined. Why? Because their presence would have been inconvenient for Putin. And in doing so, Trump advanced one of Putin’s central strategic goals: the weakening of the Western alliance.
For years, Putin has worked to divide the West, backing Brexit, funding far-right movements in Europe, and supporting Trump. Now, Trump himself is playing directly into that script, shutting out allies and making it clear that America will not stand with them.
The timing made this even more disgraceful. Just days earlier, Vice President J.D. Vance stood in Munich—a city forever linked to appeasement—lecturing European democracies about culture wars while ignoring Russia’s suppression of free speech and political opponents, many of whom end up dead.
And still, Trump wasn’t done. His Defense Secretary, the woefully unqualified Pete Hegseth, declared that Ukraine should give up any hope of reclaiming its stolen territory and abandon its aspirations to join NATO. Two more wins for Putin.
Then came Trump’s social media outburst, parroting the Kremlin’s propaganda. He called Zelenskyy a “dictator without elections,” falsely claimed he was unpopular, and accused Ukraine of siphoning off Western aid through corruption. Worst of all, he reversed reality itself, saying: “You should have never started it.” As if Ukraine had invaded Russia.
So what did Trump get in return? Nothing. No concessions, no strategic gains—just flattery and vague promises of Russian energy deals. He didn’t even ask for anything. The self-proclaimed master negotiator bowed before Putin before the real talks had even begun. Kurt Volker, Trump’s former Ukraine envoy, admitted as much, saying the president has a “blind spot” for Putin.
This isn’t a peace deal. If one side gets everything it wants while the other is denied everything it needs, that’s not diplomacy—it’s surrender. And anyone could do that.
Trump has a history of this kind of weakness. Remember his 2018 summit with Kim Jong-un? The North Korean dictator walked away with legitimacy, a suspension of U.S. military exercises in the region, and gushing praise from Trump. In return, Kim gave vague statements about a nuclear-free world—nothing of real value. He played Trump like a fiddle.
The problem here isn’t just Trump’s weakness. The real danger is his willingness to appease dictators, abandon allies, and dismantle an international order that has kept the West secure for decades. His defenders claim he’s doing this to refocus on China, but in reality, a fractured Western alliance only strengthens Beijing’s hand.
Europe, including Britain, must recognize the new reality that came into sharp focus this week. The postwar era is over. The system built in 1945 is being burned down by Trump. Europeans must plan for a future in which they defend themselves without American support. That future isn’t on the horizon—it’s already here.
For now, there is one political task: exposing the myth Trump has built around himself. Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal got it right when he said, “The president’s surrender is pathetic and weak.” That’s the language to use. Trump may be a skilled showman, but he is the weakest strongman the world has ever seen.
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