The column below reflects the views of the author, and these opinions are neither endorsed nor supported by WisOpinion.com.
Putin and Trump held a summit in Alaska to supposedly end Russia’s war against Ukraine, whose leader, President Zelensky, was not invited. Prior to the summit: “Trump said (over 50 times) he’d end Ukraine war within 24 hours or before taking office” (CNN). Moreover, “Trump cold-called Norwegian minister to ask about Nobel Peace Prize” (Politico). “So it goes” (Kurt Vonnegut).
The so-called strongmen met to negotiate the fate of Ukraine. However, Putin is weak: Russia’s casualties are over one million; his stumbling economy rests tenuously on oil exports; Russian aggression and war crimes have isolated Putin, an indicted war criminal. Trump presides over a morally bankrupt foreign policy, constant U.S.-initiated conflicts with allies, trade wars, the Epstein files scandal and a troubled economy with worrisome inflation.
Each had different motives. Putin wanted to end Russia’s isolation and sanctions, manipulate Trump and reduce Ukraine to a colony. Moreover, Putin, seeking to reconstitute the Russian Empire, will not stop there. Trump, driven by an insatiable need to always be the center of attention, operates on impulse, wholly ignorant of foreign affairs, but needing continuous adulation and seeking distraction from declining polls, a troubled economy and backlash to the Big Beautiful Act, not releasing the Epstein files and police state tactics.
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Moreover, Trump seemed oblivious to Russia’s multiple violations of international law. Nonetheless, Trump rolled out an unwarranted red carpet for Putin. However, the UN Charter forbids the “threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state”; the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe: Final Act, Helsinki, 1975 emphasized the “inviolability of frontiers” and that European countries must “refrain from any demand for, or act of, seizure or usurpation of part or all of the territory of any participating State”; and the 1994 Budapest Memorandum which assured Ukraine that Russia would “respect the independence and sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine” and “to refrain from the threat or use of force.” In return, Ukraine gave up 1,900 strategic nuclear warheads. Russia is a party to all of the above principles.
All Wisconsin congressional Republicans are stunningly ignorant of the above and are in complete denial and subservience to Trump. They have all blocked U.S. military aid to Ukraine or voted to cut or end it. Wisconsin GOP Representative Derrick Van Orden (3rd CD) is the worst, cheering Trump’s duplicitous zigzags on Ukraine. In contrast, NATO and the European Union have taken the high road: First, negotiate a ceasefire, no compromises or peace settlement without Ukraine and there must be ironclad security guarantees for Ukraine. Moreover, continuous European military aid to Ukraine has now surpassed what the U.S. contributed.
Ukrainians die as Russia’s murderous aggression continues. Putin and Trump got a photo op. The summit concluded with no deal, and brief, vacuous statements by Putin and Trump. No questions were allowed from the assembled press. The war will continue with tragic consequences for Ukrainians. A devious Putin played Trump and all Wisconsin congressional Republicans to his advantage.
– Kaplan wrote a guest column from Washington, D.C., for the Wisconsin State Journal from 1995–2009.
