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If U.S. President Donald Trump were to join the leaders of Russia and China at the Kremlin on May 9, 2025, his name could be consigned to history as that of a “great peacemaker, both for America and for the whole world.”
Fortunately, it was not a nuclear WWIII or a massive asteroid hitting the Earth, but still, what a first Spring 2025 week it was! Due to the time difference with Europe, it started a bit earlier in Washington during the last winter hours in the White House Oval Office. In a sacred and symbolic place of pride for Americans, President Trump who earlier called Zelensky “a dictator without elections” and a “mediocre comedian who to spend $350 billion on a war that is impossible to win, that should never have started,” was insulted by the same fellow in front of the world’s media by continuously interrupting and contradicting President and using SOB derogatory term against the Vice-President. Zelensky used this term in Russian, but millions of people around the world watched this exchange and got the message.
Being kicked out of the White House without scheduled lunch and the signing ceremony of the mineral contract, Zelensky flew to London, where a “coalition of the willing” ready to continue financing the bloodshed and destruction of Ukraine forced him to issue a sort of apology to Trump in time for President’s speech to the joint session of Congress. However, the main obstacle to finalizing this deal, which is Trump’s firm rejection of US security guarantees, remains, and everyone at the London emergency meeting, including its organizer, Prime Minister Starmer, openly admitted that Europe wouldn’t be able to deliver without these guarantees. He said: “We will go further to develop a ‘coalition of the willing’ to defend a deal in Ukraine and to guarantee peace…. The UK is prepared to back this with boots on the ground, planes in the air,…together with others. Europe must do the heavy lifting…and to succeed, this effort must have strong US backing.
The Europeans are trying to trap Trump&Co, but Trump will not fall into the trap.
As Consortium News editor Joe Lauria sarcastically noted, Starmer says: “Europe stands ready to fight and die as peacekeepers to save Ukraine if necessary, but only with the Americans. So when they refuse to come, and the disastrous Project Ukraine, at last, comes crashing on our heads, don’t blame us; blame the USA.”
America under Biden, actually, Blinken- Sullivan duo, who ran this war while Biden was relaxing with ice cream on Delaware beaches or taking a nap, would listen to this party of war, but with Trump and his second team, which, contrary to his first term one that has betrayed him, and follows the leader, this is another story. The famous Russian expression “Nyet means Nyet” when talking about Ukraine’s inclusion in NATO is exactly what Trump is saying about security guarantees begged by Europe.
As Chicago University professor John Mearsheimer explained, “They are trying to trap Trump and Co., and Trump won’t be trapped.” What Trump is saying is, “It’s time to stop this madness. It’s time to halt the killing. It’s time to end the senseless war. If you want to end wars, you have to talk to both sides.”
The countlessly repeated lie used by Zelensky and the parties of war both in Europe and the US that after finishing the war in Ukraine, Putin will move further West is intended to scare the Western public and accept the living standard sacrifices in favor of continuing this war to weaken Russia. The unprecedented propaganda and censorship of different opinions worked, but the number of believers in this lie is decreasing dramatically; the same is true for the ratings of many European leaders. At the same time, the ratings of parties of peace are growing. This is especially evident in France and Germany, which, in the past, had the courage to resist the US war in Iraq and drive to move Ukraine and Georgia into NATO.
Trump has suggested that military spending could be cut in half if the United States, China and Russia can agree on a mutual reduction in their respective defense budgets.
Finally, with all these dramatic events, somehow, another significant development was almost ignored by the media and during Trump’s address in Congress, which is an apparent contradiction between the seemingly by-partisan policy of “Peace through strength” and Trump’s intention to cut the Pentagon budget in half.
I think there is no contradiction, and here are at least two explanations. First, Trump and many in the US suspect that there is a vast waste and corruption in the Pentagon, and if Elon Musk’s DOGE team, along with the Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, look closely into their books, this slash in defense spending wouldn’t be a big problem. Secondly, he suggested that expenditures could be halved if the U.S., China, and Russia could reach some deal to follow in kind. Russia signaled that it was ready for negotiations, while China was not.
So, the upcoming May 9, the 80th anniversary of the Allied victory in WWII, would be an ideal chance for what is frequently dubbed a Yalta 2.0 meeting between the leaders of the US, Russia, and China. They could talk not only about this deal but also about the new world’s security architecture. George H.W. Bush spoke in the early 1990s about such infrastructure from Vancouver to Vladivostok but got nowhere due to resistance from the Military Industrial Complex and others in the Deep State who needed enemies rather than friends. Chinese leader Xi has already confirmed his trip to Moscow on that day, and by joining him and Putin, Trump would make history as a great American and world peacemaker.
