The US President’s awful negotiating tactics have immeasurably weakened America’s global position
Lisa Haseldine 24 April 2025
“He can have peace or he can fight for another three years before losing the whole country.” Venting his anger with Volodymyr Zelensky on his platform Truth Social on Wednesday night, Donald Trump has threatened to walk away from his attempt to broker a peace settlement between Ukraine and Russia.
More than anything, the American President famously prides himself on having perfected the “Art of the Deal”. Finally, though, it seems that Trump has revealed once and for all exactly how he likes to negotiate – which is terribly.
Yet again the American President accused Zelensky of prolonging the war in Ukraine. A peace deal with Russia was “very close”, Trump claimed, “but the man with “no cards to play” should now, finally, GET IT DONE.”
But since when is forcing the loser of a conflict – as Trump so obviously sees Zelensky – to his knees the way for its supposedly neutral mediator to bring about a just end to a negotiation?
The reality is that Trump has blown it on securing a just, lasting peace deal for Ukraine – that is if he ever truly cared about achieving this in the first place.
The US President has a lot of leverage over Russia at his disposal to eke meaningful concessions for Ukraine out of Putin. At the start of the month, for example, there had been rumours that if the Russian President continued to drag his heels on meaningfully negotiating, Trump would crack down hard on Moscow’s shadow fleet of oil tankers, until now so vital for funding the war in Ukraine. It’s not too late for Trump to do it, but all talk of further sanctions has evaporated in Washington.
Trump wants an end to the war now, at any cost. In his book, the quickest way to do that is simply to offer Putin everything he wants – often before he’s even asked for it at the negotiating table.
Last week, the details of the deal Trump is proposing began to emerge. Included among the terms are US recognition of Crimea as Russian territory (something Trump promised America would never do during his first term); granting Moscow control of all Ukrainian territories occupied since February 2022; lifting all sanctions on Russia and improving relations with the US. Some of the terms don’t even mention Ukraine at all. Zelensky and the country he has fought so hard to defend have been reduced to an irritating afterthought.
If the terms of Trump’s deal sound familiar, that is because they are: these terms echo the maximalist demands made by Putin over the past three years almost word for word. Yet before the American President or his team had even started speaking to their Russian counterparts, they publicly stated just how many of Russia’s demands they’d be willing to concede to. Having shown Putin his hand before he’d even got him to the table, the only route Trump has left himself to achieving this deal is to strong-arm Ukraine into accepting it.
Is it any surprise, then, that Zelensky is refusing to bend over and accept Trump’s proposed deal for his country? After all, while Putin is being served up all his demands on a silver platter, it is Ukraine who will lose out. Trump’s outburst on Truth Social brings to mind the famous catchphrase Scooby Doo villains utter when the gang unmasks them: “I would have gotten away with it too if it weren’t for you meddling kids!” Zelensky is the stumbling block to Trump getting his way.
In truth, Trump set himself up to fail before he had even begun trying to force Zelensky and Putin to negotiate. On the presidential campaign trail last year, he repeatedly, hubristically promised to end the war in “24 hours”. Three months into his second term, with no end to the conflict in sight and an increasingly bruised ego, he has resorted to cajoling, bullying and emotional blackmail to try to force Ukraine into a deal that suits him and Russia.
Trump might have failed but it is important to be clear, his decision to give Russia all the carrots and Ukraine all of the stick is a choice.
This bodes terribly for other negotiations Trump plans to kick off around the world, including with Iran (on its nuclear programme) and China (on trade). Where Trump at least claims to enjoy mutual respect with Putin, the same can’t be said of his relations with Ali Khamenei or Xi Jinping. If Trump can’t successfully strike a fair deal between Russia and Ukraine, how can he be expected to do the same where American interests are so much more obviously on the line?
Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff is planning to meet with Putin imminently to finesse the agreement over Ukraine. But as much as the American President would like to think otherwise, without Zelensky’s signature, any deal over his country’s future is meaningless.
Ukraine may be showing up Trump’s weaknesses, but the only person he has to blame is himself.
…………………….
Extracts from another DT article:
Starmer challenges Trump peace plan for Ukraine
PM stands by Zelensky and refuses to back giving Crimea to Russia in exclusive interview
Sir Keir Starmer has insisted that Ukraine must be allowed to decide the terms of any peace deal with Russia in a challenge to proposals by Donald Trump.
The Prime Minister contradicted Mr Trump by saying that the “courageous” Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, was not to blame for the failure to strike an agreement ending the war.
Sir Keir also refused to back US plans to formally recognise Crimea as Russian in any negotiated settlement with Vladimir Putin, and demanded that Moscow agree to an “unconditional ceasefire”.
In an interview with The Telegraph aboard the Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, he said: “We are at an intense stage in the negotiations.
“In the end, I’m always mindful of the fact that it is Ukraine that must decide on those issues – it’s not for other people to decide on behalf of Ukraine. It is for Ukraine to decide. And Russia must come to the table for that unconditional ceasefire.”
Asked whether Mr Zelensky was to blame for the lack of a peace deal, Sir Keir said: “No. Russia is the aggressor. Never forget that Zelensky was offered safe passage out of his country in the first week of the conflict.
“At that point, everybody thought that Russia would succeed very quickly in its intent of taking over Ukraine. And he stayed to fight and to lead his country, which he’s done with huge courage and resilience for over three years, as has his whole country. It’s Russia that needs to come to the table and agree to a ceasefire.”
The support and praise for Mr Zelensky is in marked contrast to Mr Trump, who a day earlier had accused the Ukrainian leader of “prolonging the killing”.
The Prime Minister added: “It’s got to be a ceasefire that is on terms that all parties can accept, including Ukraine, and it’s got to be a lasting ceasefire.
“What I don’t want to see is a ceasefire that is temporary, because I am as convinced as I can be that that will simply leave Russia with the capability and wherewithal to come again at some future time. They’ve done it before, I’ve no doubt that they will do it again.”
Boris on X: “As for Ukraine – what do they get after three years of heroic resistance against a brutal and unprovoked invasion? What is their reward for the appalling sacrifices they have made – for the sake, as they have endlessly been told, of freedom and democracy around the world?
“Apart from the right to share their natural resources with the United States, they get nothing. What is there in this deal that can realistically stop a third Russian invasion? Nothing.”
It seems also that Starmer and Macron under pressure are scaling back their “coalition of the willing.” They are going to send trainers instead of divisions of combat troops, which will make Krasnov laugh.
As for putler, he will react as Stalin did before :
“Washington, Sept. 14 1948 (INS)—President Truman verified for the first time last night the remark often attributed circumstantially to Premier Stalin of Russia—“how many divisions does the Pope have?”
The president departed from his text to tell the story at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
The President said:
“I remember at Potsdam we got to discussing a matter in Eastern Poland, and it was remarked by the Prime Minister of Great Britain that the Pope would not be happy over that arrangement of that Catholic end of Poland.
“And the Generalissimo, the Prime Minister of Russia, leaned on the table and he pulled his mustache like that (gesturing) and looked over at Mr. Churchill and said:
“‘Mr. Churchill, Mr. Prime Minister, how many divisions did you say the Pope had?’”
A great power these days is determined by the size of its military just as before.
The UK had the world’s third largest military in those days, now it is barely sufficient to defend the Principality of Wales. If attacked now, we’d have to go nuclear.
Ukraine now will have to provide its own security guarantees. That means they must get the $300 billion, double the size of their armed forces and restore their nuclear deterrent.