The Consequences of Trump Walking Away from the Russia-Ukraine Conflict

by Con Coughlin  •  May 25, 2025 at 5:00 am

• Far from helping to end the war in Ukraine, all the indications suggest that US President Donald Trump's mediation efforts are not only prolonging the conflict, but increasing the likelihood that Russia will ultimately emerge victorious.

• Indeed, far from showing any interest in ending Russia's military offensive in Ukraine, the Russian leader has given every intention that he intends to continue fighting until victory has been achieved.

• Nor does there appear to be any serious prospect that Trump will be willing to hit the Kremlin with further sanctions, let alone military encouragement, if it fails to show any serious interest in peace negotiations.

• The problem with Trump's hands-off approach to the Ukraine conflict is that it could ultimately prove counterproductive for the US and its allies, as the more Washington indicates it is losing interest in the conflict, the more encouraged Moscow becomes that it will ultimately achieve victory.

• This outcome would be a disaster for the entire Nato alliance -- including the US, which would see its extensive trade ties with Europe threatened by Russian aggression.

• In addition, Trump walking away from the conflict would be seen worldwide as a green light to other US adversaries, such as Iran and China, that it is open season, as the US is not serious about defending any allied territory.

• As someone who shows a keen interest in expanding America's trade ties, Trump of all people should understand the disastrous implications another Putin-inspired war would have for the US economy.

Far from showing any interest in ending Russia's military offensive in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has given every intention that he intends to continue fighting until victory has been achieved. Pictured: Putin in Moscow on March 19, 2025. (Photo by Alexei Nikolsky/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

Far from helping to end the war in Ukraine, all the indications suggest that US President Donald Trump's mediation efforts are not only prolonging the conflict, but increasing the likelihood that Russia will ultimately emerge victorious.

Trump's pledge to end the conflict within 24 hours of taking office now seems but a distant memory.

Instead, his belief that he could use his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin to implement a lasting ceasefire has amounted to nothing, with Trump now conceding that the Russian autocrat has shown little interest in negotiating a peace deal.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Trump has informed European allies that Putin is not ready to end the war because he believes he is winning. Trump apparently made the acknowledgement during a call with European leaders that followed a May 19 phone call with Putin, with whom he claims to have a special relationship.

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France: Grand Principles and Sentiments

by Amir Taheri  •  May 25, 2025 at 4:00 am

• [T]he hypocrisy of those grand principles and sentiments is illustrated by the fact that 24 hours after Macron, Barrot and de Villepin invoked them to justify their trompe-l'oeil anti-Israel posture, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau unveiled a 76-page report designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a present and imminent threat to France's national security.

• The report, compiled over two years, labels the Muslim Brotherhood as an international organization that promotes extremism and covers terrorist activities across the globe.

• De Villepin and his ilk see Hamas as a "liberation movement" that cannot be eliminated. Yet, Hamas has never dubbed itself such. It sees itself as part of the Muslim Brotherhood, with global ambitions, and has deliberately kept the very word "Palestine" out of its identity. It doesn't want to "liberate" Palestine, however defined; its stated goal is to wipe Israel off the map.

• No one can deny France's right to take sides in this tragic conflict. But there are two things that cannot be accepted.

• The first is to hide or redefine the identity of the side you take. The second in this particular case is to use explicit or implicit sympathy for Hamas as a cover for a crackdown on real or imagined "threatening" outfits in France itself.

• The French leaders only state what they want Israel to do; never what Hamas should do. They forget that Hamas could instantly end this war by releasing all remaining hostages and surrendering its arms.

French President Emmanuel Macron and Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot have been doing nothing but invoking grand principles and grand sentiments in a rather quixotic way with regard to the ongoing tragedy in the Gaza Strip. Pictured: Macron speaks, flanked by Barrot, at the Elysee presidential palace in Paris on April 17, 2025. (Photo by Ludovic Marin/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

If you are under pressure to do something but know that you can't do anything, what do you do? Well, you do nothing but to appear to be doing something. You invoke grand principles and grand sentiments.

This is what French President Emmanuel Macron and his Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot have been doing in a rather quixotic way with regard to the ongoing tragedy in the Gaza Strip.

The French leaders are talking of taking "concrete measures," not realizing that in philosophical parlance, a measure that isn't concrete isn't a measure but a "henid," a concept that dissolves into nothing in contact with reality.

So far, they have talked of three concrete measures.

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Those Who Have Worn the Uniform of Our Nation's Military Would Remind Us: In the Face of Military Challenges From Nuclear-Armed Foes, Failure Is Not an Option

by Lawrence Kadish  •  May 25, 2025 at 3:00 am

President Donald Trump is now seeking to restore American strategic deterrence by ordering the creation of what he is calling "Golden Dome." Essentially, it is a multi-layered defense system of anti-missile missiles, satellite surveillance networks, and AI computers that can react to threats within nanoseconds. Pictured: Trump speaks to the media about the Golden Dome project, alongside Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, at the White House on May 20, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

As one who lived through the darkest days of the Cold War, when the United States and the Soviet Union had sufficient nuclear weapons to destroy each other many times over, along with the rest of the world, the key to keeping the peace was the knowledge that neither nation would survive the contest.

It was called the balance of terror, deterring the other guy from launching its ballistic missiles because it was understood you would be on the receiving end of same within 20 minutes.

Today, that deterrence is gone, leaving nuclear-armed terrorist nations such as Iran with the means of using low-flying hypersonic missiles to evade early-warning radars until minutes from impact.

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