President Donald Trump is resuming shipments of defensive weapons to Ukraine, just days after the Pentagon paused them. Smart move.
Trump was “very disappointed” with Russia’s chief thugocrat, Vladimir Putin, after their call last week: “It just seems like he wants to . . . keep killing people.”
Indeed, Putin on Friday followed the call by launching his largest drone and missile strike on Ukraine yet.
Tuesday, Trump went further: “We get a lot of bulls— thrown at us by Putin.” Vlad’s gestures toward peace always turn out “to be meaningless.” Indeed.
Yet that raises troubling questions:
OK: In pursuit of a cease-fire, Trump has bent over backward to avoid provoking the Kremlin.
He let sanctions erode, spared Russia from tariffs, held his tongue on Putin’s atrocities and rapped Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
He spent months indulging Putin in talks that were never going to lead to a true cease-fire.
Yet Trump knows carrots aren’t always enough.
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He offered Iran peace and prosperity if it ditched its nukes, while warning of major consequences if it didn’t.
Tehran didn’t, and it paid a price.
Putin won’t quit either, unless forced to.
And that means arming Ukraine — not just with defensive weapons, but ones that can inflict enough damage to make Putin want a deal.
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Tougher sanctions can also help.
A bipartisan bill in Congress would slap broad new restrictions on Russian trade, including a 500% tariff on any nation that buys Russian energy.
That would make a big difference, and three-quarters of Trump voters back tougher sanctions.
On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu joined a growing list of leaders who’ve nominated Trump for a Nobel Prize.
If the prize committee cares at all about merit, Trump’s peace deals — between the Congo and Rwanda, India and Pakistan, Iran and Israel, plus the Abraham Accords — and his stripping Tehran of nukes make him a, maybe the, top contender.
But if he produces a stop to the Russia-Ukraine carnage on top of all that, even the retired Norwegian politicians who award the prize will be hard-pressed to deny he deserves it.
Of course, Trump cares a lot more for the peace than the prize — but either way, arming Kyiv and squeezing Putin is the only way to make it happen.