WP: Trump's Pivot To Ukraine Was Inevitable

Putin had his chances but blew them.

Many are expressing surprise at President Donald Trump's "startling" and "extraordinary" turn toward Ukraine after the U.S. leader called Russia a "paper tiger" and said Kiev could reclaim all of its land.

But, as the American Enterprise Institute fellow and former chief speechwriter for President Donald Trump writes in a column for The Washington Post American Enterprise Institute fellow and former chief speechwriter for President George W. Bush Jr. Mark Thiessen, for those who follow Trump closely, there is nothing unusual about this, and in fact Trump's decision to support Kiev in the war against Russia was inevitable.

Thiessen explains that Trump gave Vladimir Putin chances to prove his interest in peace. But instead of seizing the opportunity to end the war, the Russian dictator was simply stalling and leading Trump around by the nose.

"Putin's major mistake was accepting Trump's invitation to attend the Alaska summit last month... The tacit agreement was that the Alaska visit would be followed by a bilateral meeting between Putin and Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky and then a trilateral meeting between the three leaders. Putin enjoyed the pomp and ceremony, arrogated to himself the prestige bestowed upon him by Trump, and broke his end of the bargain by dramatically stepping up bombing of civilians," he writes.

In addition, in Alaska, Trump personally handed Putin a touching letter from his wife calling for peace for the sake of war-torn children. Putin responded by bombing a kindergarten - a slap in the face to the first lady, the columnist emphasizes.

Then Putin sent military drones into Polish and Romanian airspace, and a week later, three Russian fighter jets violated Estonian airspace.

"Trump rightly argued that it was President Joe Biden's weakness that provoked Putin's invasion of Ukraine, which would never have happened if he were president. Well, now Putin is testing Trump's resolve and picking out his weaknesses. This is a mistake. Trump will not back down in the face of Putin's escalation," Thiessen notes.

He emphasizes that a coordinated campaign is needed to show that Putin has no path to victory:

The first step should be a strategy to drive Russian oil and natural gas out of the world market

The second step is to Resolutely respond to any further Russian violations of NATO airspace.

The third step is to sell Ukraine the weapons it needs to put Russian troops on the defensive and lift restrictions.

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