Trump: Redrawing the Future of the World

by Drieu Godefridi • March 5, 2025 at 5:00 am

The true analogy [of Trump's deal with Zelenskyy] is with the assistance granted by the United States to the United Kingdom during World War II: the Lend-Lease Act of 1941. Under Lend-Lease, the US provided Britain with goods and services... over the course of the war.... Adjusted for inflation to today's dollars (as of February 2025), this amount equates to roughly $550 billion.
What, however, happens once the debt is repaid? Without a lasting strategic framework, financial leverage alone might not be enough to guarantee long-term security. The case of Hong Kong is a sobering precedent: the West was deeply invested in the city's economy, but when communist China asserted control, international businesses largely packed up and left rather than confront Beijing.
At the moment, Trump's unconventional proposal is probably the best offer for Ukraine -- and the only realistic one. It gives the US "skin in the game," enables Trump to have leverage when he approaches Russia, and prevents Putin, at least for a while, from retaking that part of the former Soviet Union.
Russia already has hundreds of miles of peaceful borders with NATO countries, including the Baltic states, and did not kick up a fuss when Finland joined NATO last year. The only country where joining NATO ostensibly appears to be a problem is Ukraine. Perhaps this exception should be regarded as a flashing red light, warning that Putin still might have his eye on Ukraine for its minerals, agricultural land and outlet on the Black Sea.
Trump has been a supporter of NATO but not as its guarantor. His worldview at the moment is that he rejects war, except as a last resort. To him, it seems, America's true rival in the 21st century is not Europe, or Russia, and certainly not the amorphous, inconsistent entity known as the BRICs. It is China.

At the moment, President Donald Trump's unconventional proposal is probably the best offer for Ukraine -- and the only realistic one. It gives the US "skin in the game," enables Trump to have leverage when he approaches Russia, and prevents Putin, at least for a while, from retaking that part of the former Soviet Union. Pictured: Trump greets Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as he arrives at the White House on February 28, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Although Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky finally agreed to the "Golden Parachute" US President Donald J. Trump offered him as a first step to have Russian President Vladimir Putin negotiate a ceasefire to the war he began three years ago, the meeting on February 28 between Trump and Zelensky -- as the world, to its shock, saw on television -- collapsed.

Trump seems to have been anticipating a signing ceremony; Zelensky seems to have been anticipating receiving assurances of greater security. Trump's ultimate message apparently was: a Trump final offer is a Trump final offer.

Trump was gracious enough to offer Zelensky the opportunity to return if he changed his mind -- as his did on March 4. Trump also in the did not preclude the possibility that the US would consider coming to Europe's military assistance should it be needed at some future time.

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Zelensky Agrees to Trump's 'Marshall Plan' for Ukraine

by Con Coughlin • March 5, 2025 at 4:00 am

Trump did not rule out considering US assistance to a European military force should that eventuality become necessary.
Trump clearly believes that it is important for him to take a tough line with Zelensky, to demonstrate to Moscow that he is acting as an "honest broker" to end the war and bring Putin to the table for a serious negotiation. If the US leader is seen to be too accommodating to Ukraine, then this will simply confirm Putin's long-held suspicion that the US and its allies -- including Ukraine -- are working to undermine the Russian state.
Such a move should send a clear signal to Moscow that, despite the very public spat between Zelensky and Trump in the Oval Office, the Trump administration remains committed to Ukraine remaining a free and sovereign state that is not constantly subjected to acts of Russian aggression.
Certainly, any deal that does not send a clear message to Moscow that the US will not tolerate any further provocative acts by Moscow will simply be seen as Washington punishing the victim in the Ukraine conflict -- Zelensky -- while rewarding the aggressor -- Putin.

It should presumably be a relief, especially for Ukraine, that Zelensky reached out to repair relations with Trump and demonstrate that he is serious about negotiating a deal to end the conflict with Russia. Pictured: Zelensky at the European leaders' summit on March 2, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by Toby Melville/WPA Pool/Getty Images)

After the unedifying spectacle of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's meeting at the White House with US President Donald J. Trump, the Ukrainian leader agreed to sign the vital minerals deal with the Trump administration as an important step to ending three years of bloodshed.

One of the main purposes of Zelensky's visit to the White House -- his first since Trump began his second term as president -- was to sign a deal allowing the US greater access to Ukraine's rare earth minerals, which the Trump administration believes is an important first step in its efforts to end the Ukraine conflict.

Under the terms of a preliminary agreement reached between Kyiv and the Trump administration prior to Zelensky's arrival in Washington, the two countries had agreed to set up a joint "investment fund" to finance Ukraine's reconstruction once hostilities with Russia had ended.

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