NY Times: U.S. ‘Could Be Switching Sides’ and ‘Dividing Up Areas of Dominance’ With Russia
Heikki Saukkomaa/Lehtikuva via AP
Under President Donald Trump, the U.S. “could be switching sides” by allying with Russia at the expense of most of Europe, according to The New York Times.
On Tuesday, delegations from the U.S. and Russia met in Riyadh to discuss a potential end to the latter’s war of aggression in Ukraine, which Russia launched in February 2022. Conspicuously absent were representatives from Ukraine, as they were frozen out by the U.S. and Russia.
“For more than a decade, the West has faced off against the East again in what was widely called a new cold war,” reporter Peter Baker wrote in a piece published in the Times on Tuesday night. “But with President Trump back in office, America is giving the impression that it could be switching sides.”
At a press conference at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday afternoon, Trump blamed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for the war that Russia launched.
“I think I have the power to end this war, and I think it’s going very well,” Trump said. “But today I heard, ‘Well, we weren’t invited.; Well, you’ve been there for three years. You should’ve ended it three years. You should’ve never started it. You could’ve made a deal.”
Trump has long insisted that Ukraine could have staved off an invasion by making concessions to Russia.
The Times said the president is currently pivoting toward the longtime antagonist of the U.S.:
Mr. Trump is in the middle of executing one of the most jaw-dropping pivots in American foreign policy in generations, a 180-degree turn that will force friends and foes to recalibrate in fundamental ways. Ever since the end of World War II, a long parade of American presidents saw first the Soviet Union and then, after a brief and illusory interregnum, its successor Russia as a force to be wary of, at the very least. Mr. Trump gives every appearance of viewing it as a collaborator in future joint ventures.
Moreover, the paper went so far as to say Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will divvy up spheres of influence on Europe, a là Franklin Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin at Yalta:
No Ukrainian leaders were in the room for the meeting, held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, much less other Europeans, although Mr. Rubio called several foreign ministers afterward to brief them. Instead, by all appearances, this was a meeting of two big powers dividing up areas of dominance, a modern-day Congress of Vienna or Yalta Conference.
As a presidential candidate, Trump repeatedly claimed that if elected, he would end the war in Ukraine “in 24 hours.”
Three days into his second term, Trump appeared remotely at the World Economic Forum in Davos and was asked if he will have brokered a deal within the next year.
“Well, you’re gonna have to ask Russia,” the president replied.
