Trump’s proposed Ukraine ‘deal’ is a disgrace

Finally, finally, President Donald Trump just might get a peace prize that would secure his place in history. Unfortunately, though, it is not that Nobel Peace Prize he so covets.

- Thomas Friedman

It is the “Neville Chamberlain Peace Prize” — awarded by history to the leader of the country that most flagrantly sells out its allies and its values to an aggressive dictator.

This prize richly deserves to be shared by Mr Trump's many “secretaries of state” — Steve Witkoff, Marco Rubio and Dan Driscoll — who together negotiated the surrender of Ukraine to Vladimir Putin’s demands without consulting Ukraine or our European allies in advance — and then told Ukraine it had to accept the plan by Thanksgiving.

That is this coming Thursday of Nov 27.

If Ukraine is indeed forced to surrender to the specific terms of this “deal” by then, Thanksgiving will no longer be an American holiday. It will become a Russian holiday. It will become a day of thanks that victory in Mr Putin's savage and misbegotten war against Ukraine's people, which has been an utter failure — morally, militarily, diplomatically and economically — was delivered to Russia not by the superiority of its arms or the virtue of its claims but on the whim of an American administration.

How does one say “Thanksgiving” in Russian?

To all the gentlemen who delivered this turkey to Moscow, I can offer only one piece of advice: Be under no illusions. Neither Fox News nor White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt will be writing the history of this deal. If you force it upon Ukraine as it is, every one of your names will live in infamy alongside that of Chamberlain, who is remembered today for only one thing: