Trump’s False Promise to End the Ukraine War
Trump claims he can end the Ukraine war in 24 hours, but his tactics would prolong conflict, empower Russia, and undermine global stability.
The Delusion of a Quick Peace
In a world increasingly shaped by misinformation, media spectacle, and political theatre, it is tempting for the public to cling to simple promises, especially when they come from familiar figures offering easy answers. Donald Trump, President of the United States and a leading figure in the Republican Party, has repeatedly suggested that he could end the war in Ukraine “in 24 hours.” To many who are fatigued by war footage, global instability, and economic uncertainty, that promise may seem appealing, even rational. But closer inspection reveals something more dangerous: a man trading the lives of Ukrainians for a mirage of peace, all in service of a manufactured legacy.
Trump does not want peace. He wants headlines. And in the pursuit of those headlines, he is not ending wars, he is prolonging them.
The Flawed Logic of Trump’s Negotiation Playbook
Trump’s political and business career has long been defined by one approach: the all-in gamble. Whether it was bankrupting casinos in Atlantic City, sparring with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, or threatening to annex Canada with offhand remarks, Trump has consistently chosen spectacle over substance. His so-called “Art of the Deal”, a negotiation tactic honed under the mentorship of Roy Cohn, the notorious lawyer behind Joseph McCarthy’s witch hunts, depends not on careful diplomacy but brute-force bluffing.
The formula is painfully predictable: create chaos, insert yourself into the centre, and offer a one-man solution. The problem is, international diplomacy doesn’t work that way. Trump’s approach fails to consider historical tensions, entrenched ideologies, and the enormous human cost of political miscalculation. It’s a strategy designed for reality television, not real-world conflict.
This is precisely why his overtures to North Korea during his first term fell flat. His administration failed to understand the deep ideological and strategic foundations of North Korea’s Songun policy, a decades-old doctrine of military-first governance. By ignoring nuance in favour of narcissism, Trump simply handed Kim Jong Un a media stage without extracting any meaningful concessions in return.
Ukraine: Another Pawn in the Media Game
Trump’s claim that he could end the war in Ukraine so quickly is not rooted in strategic wisdom. It is rooted in the assumption that Ukraine will, or should, surrender. In Trump’s mind, forcing Ukraine to concede territory to Russia is a costless victory, a simple transaction. But it isn’t.
The Ukrainian people have made clear, time and again, that their sovereignty is non-negotiable. They are not a bargaining chip for Western powers, and certainly not for a man who struggles to grasp the difference between authoritarian strength and legitimate statehood. Pressuring Ukraine to accept terms that benefit Russia would not bring peace; it would invite further aggression. History has shown this repeatedly in Georgia in 2008, in Crimea in 2014, and again in 2022 when Russia launched its full-scale invasion.
By signalling a willingness to abandon Ukraine’s territorial integrity, Trump hands Vladimir Putin precisely what he wants: an invitation to escalate. It is no coincidence that, amidst renewed Republican ambivalence toward Ukraine, Russia announced the conscription of 160,000 more soldiers, the largest call-up since 2011. Nor is it surprising that the Kremlin is openly preparing to expand its active military to 2.4 million personnel by 2028. When the United States wavers, Russia advances.
The Illusion of Neutrality, the Reality of Surrender
Despite some sanctions remaining in place, Trump’s foreign policy apparatus has repeatedly echoed Russian propaganda narratives, from questioning Ukraine’s legitimacy as a nation to casting doubt on Western unity. While some in the American electorate may view these statements as rhetorical posturing, European nations, who live with Russian aggression on their doorstep, view them as betrayal. The damage to diplomatic credibility cannot be overstated. Trust, once eroded, takes generations to rebuild, if at all.
In diplomatic terms, Trump’s approach has exposed the United States as erratic, unreliable, and ethically compromised. It is one thing to seek peace; it is another to abandon your allies while flattering your enemies. That is not neutrality, it is complicity.
No concessions have been extracted from Moscow. No red lines have been enforced. And no roadmap for a just peace has been offered. Instead, Trump’s rhetoric has emboldened an irredentist regime that has demonstrated time and again that it only respects power, not dialogue.
When Peace Becomes a Cover for Cowardice
The danger of Trump’s approach is not only that it fails to achieve peace, but it actively undermines the possibility of it. By showing Russia that the West is divided, that American support for Ukraine is subject to the whims of domestic politics, Trump undermines deterrence. He offers a window of opportunity for aggression and signals to autocrats everywhere that media strategy can outplay international law.
The moral consequences of this are staggering. Every Ukrainian life lost due to delayed aid, every family displaced by renewed offensives, and every atrocity committed under the false premise of diplomacy is blood on the hands of those who trade justice for headlines.
Biden, for all his flaws, at least understood that a Ukrainian victory would restore faith in the liberal international order. His mistake was hesitation, a fear that decisive support might provoke wider war or nuclear escalation. But in trying to manage the war instead of helping end it on Ukraine’s terms, Biden limited its capacity to defend itself early on. Trump, by contrast, threatens to dismantle even that limited support. The choice is not between escalation and peace. The choice is between deterrence and collapse.
How Do We Fix This?
Restoring global confidence in diplomacy begins with honesty. We must reject the fantasy that wars can be ended with press releases. Real peace requires real sacrifice, not from the victims, but from those with the power to stand alongside them. The West must supply Ukraine with the tools to fight, the permission to strike military targets within Russia, and the diplomatic backing to negotiate from a position of strength.
We must also confront the fact that Trumpism has transformed American foreign policy from a collaborative exercise into a performative stunt. Undoing that damage requires more than a new administration; it requires a cultural shift away from cynicism and towards solidarity.
If we want a rules-based world order to survive, we cannot treat justice as optional. We cannot allow dictators to redraw borders with impunity while the world watches. And we cannot outsource our morality to a man who sees human suffering as a stage for self-promotion.
The choice before us is not between surrender and escalation. It is between cynicism and courage. Between appeasement and accountability. Between the illusion of peace and the hard path to justice.
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You again reinforce my assessment that Canada clearly made the right choice in this election.
Trump has no plans no understanding of anything other than promising anything that would get him elected. His followers were misguided and fed a continuous stream of lies but they wanted to believe so hard they ignored the facts that were in front of them . They are waking slowly and the sooner the better but there are some lost souls that have joined his mental illness , he’s going to feel the pain of their perhaps violent response there are rumblings getting closer and louder . He will feed them more illusion . They will wake and leave some behind . They will ask where is the great . Let’s see who he try’s to blame for his failing, oh never him !