The Daily Signal - Victor Davis Hanson: Could Trump End War in Ukraine During Tomorrow’s Meeting With Putin?

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Starting point is 00:00:25 We'd love to talk. Business. There's a scheduled summit between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, and it's scheduled to be held in Anchorage, Alaska. These summons are very important. Nobody in the last four years in the Biden administration has met with the Russians, and especially the last three years since the war started. Nobody made the attempt.

Starting point is 00:00:48 One thing that we're not hearing from the left and the Never Trump right is that Donald Trump is a Putin asset, a Putin puppet. And the reason they're not saying that is he gave Putin an art of the deal leeway when he first came into office. Basically was saying Putin, I'm giving you an opportunity. Putin did not take it. Donald Trump pivoted and found out that he had to use leverage against Putin. And the leverage is far more deleterious to Russia.

Starting point is 00:01:20 Hello, this is Victor Davis-Hansson for the Daily Signal. This week, there's a scheduled summit between Vladimir Putin. and Donald Trump, and it's scheduled to be held in Anchorage, Alaska. Apparently, this was a place that offered a great deal of security. It's a smaller, controllable city. It's in the United States, but on the other hand, it's one of the closest places, major cities, to Russia itself from the United States.

Starting point is 00:01:56 We don't have a very good history of summits and many summits. As you remember, in March of 2017, Anthony Blinken, the Biden Secretary of State and Jake Sullivan, the National Security Advisor, met with their Chinese communist counterparts, and they were dressed down and humiliated and really didn't say anything. And what followed then from that was further Chinese aggression toward Taiwan, the Chinese balloon, et cetera. So these summits are very important.

Starting point is 00:02:30 One thing that we're not hearing from the left and the never-Trumped right is that is that Donald Trump is a Putin asset, a Putin puppet. I'm quoting pretty loosely, but accurately what John Clapper, James Clapper and John Brennan have been saying for 10 years on social media and on cable news. And the reason they're not saying that Donald Trump is a Putin and going to be had is that he gave Putin an art of the deal leeway when he first came into office. and he doubled down on Zelensky, he basically was saying Putin, see, I'm giving you an opportunity, Putin did not take it, Donald Trump pivoted, and found out that he had to use leverage against Putin.

Starting point is 00:03:17 And the leverage he's going to use or has threatened to use is far more deleterious to Russia and far more dangerous and far more ambitious than anything imagined by Joe Biden, namely a secondary boycott. That would be to not trade with countries that trade with Russia. That could include the two largest countries in the world, India and China. India had very close relations with us. We were trying to triangulate India against China. They have their own border disputes and longstanding disagreements. But if we secondary boycott India, that will be a ruination of our relations with India. So what I'm getting at is Donald Trump's taking a lot of risk, a lot of risk in using a secondary boycott to pressure Putin. 90% of the issues are already solved.

Starting point is 00:04:13 They have been since a year or two. We're now in a deadlock. Russia claims they've only lost 200,000 dead, but they more likely lost a million dead wounded, missing, taken prisoner. We don't know the exact ratios of each. And probably Ukraine with their dead, missing, wounded prisoners around, I don't know, four or five hundred thousand. So this is like a Stalingrad or a Somme or a Verdun. We know the general parameters. We've discussed them before.

Starting point is 00:04:44 Ukraine will not be a NATO. That's a concession to Putin, but it really isn't a concession because privately a lot of the NATO members did not want Ukraine because they had no intention of going all the way to the Dombas. Should Russia invade again on Article 5 of the NATO doctrine? They were not going to follow that, so they don't want Ukraine in NATO. Either do we? I'm not sure Ukraine even does privately. Secondly, there was no military ability.

Starting point is 00:05:18 There's a moral argument for, but no military ability to take back Crimea and take back the Donbas. So what we're discussing now is that the Russian army is about 100 miles west from the border in Crimea, the Dombas, and then further west, in total about 100 miles. That would be the DMZ, in other words, the de-militarized zone where we have a ceasefire and armist, and then we would haggle in a peace conference over exchanges of territory on either side. That's the outline of peace. The problem is that there's two problems. One, Ukraine's constitution says no land, no land, not Crimea, not Donbass, nothing can be

Starting point is 00:06:03 ceded to a foreign country without a plebiscite. And we don't know what the Ukrainian people will say they pull their tire to the war, they don't want to give one an inch of their sovereign territory. On the other side, Putin himself knows that he has to report to the oligarchic and military hierarchy, and he doesn't know whether 100 miles west, in addition to institutionalizing the possession of Crimea and the Dombas for good, whether that extra 100 miles from the border territory will justify the enormous losses, humiliation that the Russian military has suffered. So we're going to have this summit, and Trump is going to say to Putin, you can have

Starting point is 00:06:53 no NATO Ukraine, you can have the Crimea, you can have the Donbass, I think I can get Zelensky and the Ukrainian people to agree, but we've got to fight over how far west you are and whether you have to go back or we'll stay in place. And then he's going to have to tell Zelensky, we're supplying you. That's the only leverage we have against Putin along with a secondary boycott. But you have to decide whether you're going to see the Donbass, Crimea, and some of the territory because if you don't, there's not going to be a peace and if there's not going to be a peace, we can't assure you a blank check forever. So that's what the parameters are. And one thing that we do know, the never Trump right, as I said, and the left have ceased. The Donald Trump is a

Starting point is 00:07:41 puppet. Donald Trump is a sellout. Donald Trump is a Russian asset because nobody in the last four years in the Biden administration has met with the Russians, and especially the last three years since the war started, nobody made the attempt. So at least we have the principles talking to each other. We know what the outlines of a peace agreement are. And it's just a matter of what each president has to take back to the powers that be and see if they've given too many or not enough concessions. Thank you very much. This is Victor Davis-Hanson for the Daily Signal. Thank you for tuning in to the Daily Signal. Please like, share. and subscribe to be notified for more content like this. You can also check out my own website

Starting point is 00:08:32 at victorhansson.com and subscribe for exclusive features in addition.

The Daily Signal - Victor Davis Hanson: Could Trump End War in Ukraine During Tomorrow’s Meeting With Putin?

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