President Trump Makes a U-Turn on Ukraine

Who is the Trump whisperer who successfully suggested a change of course to the President? Knowledgeable sources say it is not Elon Musk. Whoever he is, in substance the Trump whisperer has pushed a policy course that confers immense strategic and other benefits to China.

- M.D. NALAPAT

CP General Secretary Xi Jinping must be heaving a sigh of relief. His nightmare scenario of a rapprochement between the US and Russia under Presidents Trump and Putin suddenly appears to be as improbable as such a reconciliation was under Joe Biden when he was President of the US. In a space of less than a week, Trump appears to have shifted 180 degrees from his stance that the Russian Federation and the US need to be friends of each other in the era of Cold War 2.0 between the US and China. The Trump proposal for a 30-day unconditional ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia, accompanied by as copious a flow of US intel and weapons to Ukraine as was the case under Biden, aligns entirely with the interest of Zelenskyy in such a pause but not in the slightest of Putin. Were the Kremlin to agree to such a call from the White House, the Russian side would cease offensive operations when they are on the offensive across all fronts in the Russia-Ukraine war in a way that makes the collapse of Ukrainian forces on several fronts, imminent. President Zelenskyy is desperate for such a temporary and unconditional cessation of hostilities. Now that US weapons, including missiles and warheads, are joining whatever supplies of lethal equipment France, Germany and the UK scrounge together in order to keep the conflict aflame, President Zelenskyy would once again be able to resume the fusillade of attacks after a needed respite on Russia, including on the territories that have been incorporated into the Russian Federation in 2022.