Trump's brutal gambling - Washington's examiner

chairman Donald Trump says the quiet side aloud. He has no Sotto voice setting. This is advancing against Statesmanf.

Former president Bill Clinton SAPS CNN years ago, it is best to be “brutal” sincere in private, but if you want someone’s help, don’t say things in public. But Trump doesn’t work that way. He is brutal in public for foreign powers and allies and trading partners with whom they try to make an agreement.

His handling from the most prominent news problems today, Ukraine and rates, do this.

Ukraine agreed to cease fire in discussions with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who offers hope that the largest war in Europe in 1945 can end in the foreseeable future. There is a lot of hard work. Russia must be won. Although Trump has seen encouraging signals in Moscow, he said on Wednesday that “a positive message means nothing.”

Real progress does not require vapors, but a solid compromise from President Vladimir Putin of a guy who did not even suggest, even while he blocking Trump’s preconceptions about the preservation of the territory conquered in three years of Imperial Aggression of Russia. (It should be mentioned that, permanently, Trump follows former President Barack Obama, who left Russia to annex Crimea in 2014).

In order to force the Kremlin to agree to what Ukraine can accept and, to eliminate this gap, Trump will have to show that he is willing to transform the bolts of economic sanctions so tight for Putin, that the understanding is more attractive to him than the continuous recalcitrant. Trump has books but will he play them?

What is unclear and interesting is the question of what made Ukraine agree, as it had unofficial, to give up more of its permanent land in exchange for peace. Several irreducible facts played a role. Ukraine is weaker than Russia, millions of people have been killed, injured, kidnapped or relocated, its cities and infrastructure are in partial ruins and cannot fight without foreign armaments and money. All this confirms what Trump said shockingly in his confrontation at Office Oval two weeks ago, that the president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky does not “have books”.

But were only the facts on the ground that changed Zelensky from trying to dictate the conditions of US involving in a more folding position? Or was the public brutality that Trump and JD Vice President JD Vance submitted? Their amazing accusation that the war had begun, that he was ungrateful, lacking in respect and had to change his attitude always seemed to be a show of contempt and indifference to soften him, to make him obey. Likewise, Trump’s decision to interrupt military help and information, which were presented from the beginning as a temporary, contingent on the behavior of Ukraine.

The ordinary suspects reflexively accused Trump of being a Russian Stooge, a powerful man, who enjoys tyrants, etc., but it may take brutal public comments to push Ukraine to where they need to be on negotiations.

Trump’s public brutality undermines international prestige and respect for America as a lighthouse of democracy and principle. This is an absolute and undeniable loss. However, it is also an effective way to continue against the background of new international realities that Trump does not create, as its critics involve, but also recognizes adaptation.

Is there a chance for Ukraine and Russia to go to peace negotiations now if Kamala Harris or Joe Biden was at the Oval Office, paying a continuous lip service to an old order that they failed to recognize?

As in the case of Ukraine, as well as Trump’s decision to be perceived in the commercial war. His rhetoric on the tariffs -imposing, suspends and climbing into a varied order and without stopping for breathing -makes it impossible to know what the administration policy is from time to time. It is different today than yesterday and will be different again tomorrow.

The elaboration policy was made behind closed doors, but no more. After making public publicly, on Sunday, if he will impose higher rates or will lower them and that there will be a recession, Trump has doubled on the uncertainty he created -talking to reporters from Air Force One. He talked about hatred to make predictions and a period of “transition”. This stuck investors and businesses and crushed the prices of shares as soon as the markets opened on Monday.

Similar confusion covers Washington. Sometimes Trump’s commercial war is It is assumed that a negotiation toolBut sometimes it presents it as a long -term source of income, even a replacement for income tax. On Air Force One, he told reporters“We will take rates in hundreds of billion dollars.” That doesn’t sound like a temporary negotiation position.

If the public threats, the rates that last one day and then disappear, and the confusion and contempt for Trump’s sown allies, eventually produce better trade conditions, it will be questionable that what we see now has always been smart at the White House.

Trump’s diplomacy wave

But even if someone offers the benefit of Trump’s considerable doubt in this matter, it is certainly a worrying bet. It bets the certainties of current financial damages, the economic anxiety and weakened international confidence against the possibility of future improvement in terms of trade.

To say that the quiet side outside lifts the stake. That’s what Trump does. Unlike everyone else, its tolerance of uncertainty and risk is apparently unlimited.