Equally and perhaps even more important is that Ukraine will be the odd man out as Trump plans his summit with Putin. Trump has three objectives in Ukraine—all tied to his conception of winning. The first is to end the fighting and be able to claim that he ended the war, even though he surely knows that cease-fires without iron-clad security provisions are made to be broken. Second, Trump seeks to shackle the Europeans with the responsibility for keeping and paying for the peace without any serious commitment from the United States. Third, Trump wants to normalize relations with Putin, whom he admires and respects as a fellow strongman. The minerals agreement with Ukraine is a bonus, though much of the rare-earth deposits are apparently in areas that Russia controls and others are unmapped.
Because Trump sees diplomacy as a series of short-term transactions where he can benefit, it just might be possible to salvage the train wreck. Indeed, now that Europe has indicated a willingness to increase its aid and involvement, Trump could decide that repairing ties with Zelensky will lead to the minerals agreement. He will argue that his brand of America First diplomacy finally got the Europeans to increase their share of responsibility for their own defense. If he and Vance call off the sycophantic attack dogs, it just might be possible to get things back on track.
The last depressing takeaway from the Trump-Zelensky meeting is that there’s not much anyone can do to change how this president operates abroad. Republicans are cowed and Democrats are on their back feet without much influence to compel Trump to change course.
The politically inconvenient reality is that there’s pretty strong bipartisan consensus on any number of foreign-policy issues, including China, Iran, and Israel, even if there are differences over tactics and approach. Indeed, most Americans—MAGA supporters and others—are not clamoring for foreign aid to be resumed. And there is a good deal of agreement that U.S. allies should do much more and stop free-riding.
For the United States’ allies, it is imperative to learn from the Trump-Zelensky meeting. Unsurprisingly, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who knows a narcissist when he sees one, was quick to offer his thanks to the United States and to Trump personally for the assistance Israel has received. It’s tough to take but others may need to be equally deferential to the oversized ego of the U.S. president to get what they want. The best strategy may be to play the long game. Trump needs immediate gratification and cares little about the truth or long-term impacts. The long game requires focusing on what is critical and what can be salvaged, as well as playing into Trump’s personality needs.
Democrats also need to hunker down, as James Carville suggests, identify the areas where Trump’s policies are failing and unpopular, and create a Project 2026-2028 game plan of their own to fix what Trump has broken if they want to return to power.
And for Republicans, it is time for the senators and representatives to remember that they represent the American people in a co-equal branch of government—not simply a rubber stamp for a president who seems bent on sowing chaos and destruction of U.S. institutions. Saying no to the unqualified nominees for executive positions and to the destructive actions against government workers is the American thing to do.