Donald Trump’s push for peace in Ukraine has left the West aghast and with good reason. The man expected to pull America off the world stage seems determined to have a hand in every conflict. The candidate who campaigned on fear of World War III is set on upending the rules that prevented it for 80 years. The self-styled master negotiator is giving away the game before it begins, ceding Moscow’s main demands before Vladimir Putin even agrees to come to the table. Long-time American allies—including in all the capitals of Europe—have been left out of talks about Ukraine.
The outcome in Ukraine is to be determined, but what is certain is the damage to the international order—perhaps permanent damage. Tensions between Washington and Europe dominated this weekend’s Munich Security Conference, and on Monday anxious European leaders will gather in Paris to plan a collective response.
The administration’s diplomacy is inscrutable. First, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said one thing—that there could be no return to Ukraine’s prewar 2014 borders, no Ukrainian membership in NATO, and no American peacekeeping troops in Ukraine. John Coale, America’s deputy envoy to Ukraine, said the opposite: the U.S. had not ruled out NATO membership or restoring Ukrainian territory. Then, Vice President J.D. Vance dramatically shifted the tone, threatening increased sanctions on Russia and sending U.S. troops to Ukraine, as Secretary of State Marco Rubio tried to reassure Kyiv, declaring that the U.S. has “a stake in Ukraine’s long-term independence.”
