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I am in Europe today, where a mix of outrage, fear, and a sense of betrayal is very real. Simply put, people are furious at Donald Trump’s brazen sellout of Ukraine to Russia.
Before describing the reaction to the plan let’s review the facts. Trump told Ukraine to sign a 28-point peace deal this week or lose American support. The plan gives Russia territory beyond the ground it already occupies. It limits Ukraine’s future military options. It puts constraints upon Ukrainian diplomatic and military ties to Europe and the U.S.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Senators that deal was a Russian plan, not an American one. Reuters that the deal was cemented at a meeting in Florida with a sanctioned Russian banker who leads one of Putin’s sovereign wealth funds, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. Witkoff is a real-estate wheeler dealer with no foreign policy experience, and also Trump’s peace negotiator. Kushner is banned from government service because of contracts with foreign nationals, and also Trump’s negotiator. The deal includes unlocking billions in frozen Russian assets for investors to use to rebuild (and profit from) Ukraine.
Quite possibly, Witkoff, Kushner, and Trump sold out Ukraine for personal profit.
An angry Europe responded quickly and in unison. The European Commission, led by President Ursula von der Leyen made clear that Europe will not accept a deal that changes borders by force or one that limits Ukraine’s future military capabilities. The E.U. together with Germany and France released a counter proposal. The European Parliament and Council warn that weakening Ukraine’s defenses endangers all of Europe. Guido Crosetto, Italy’s Minister of Defense says many points in the deal are simply “unacceptable.”
Major newspapers across this continent share that view. The Economist said the proposal is “so inadequately constructed, ambiguous, biased, and unrealistic that, in a more typical setting, it would never have been revealed.” The Telegraph called it “a dream scenario for the Kremlin.”
Rubio’s moment of candor did not last long. According to the New York Times, it took less than a day after Rubio’s meeting with Senators for him to change his mind- he now says the deal is America’s, not Russia’s and he flew off to Europe to assure a jittery continent. It’s not working.
France’s Le Monde reports that, Rubio, “told journalists in a small, overheated room at the US Permanent Representation in Geneva on the evening of Sunday 23 November, the discussions to find a way out of the war in Ukraine, which Russia unleashed almost four years ago, “have really accelerated in the last 96 hours”, although “a series of questions” remain to be clarified, he acknowledged in reference to the Trump plan unveiled a few days earlier.”
The article goes on to report that “the Trump administration’s chief diplomat has just met in turn with Ukrainian and European negotiators, accompanied by the US president’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and the Secretary of the Army, Daniel Driscoll. With one objective, still far from being achieved: to soothe the shock caused in Kiev and in European capitals by the latest proposals of the Trump administration, concocted behind the backs of its continental allies, but in close consultation with the Kremlin’s emissaries.”
Individual Europeans I’ve spoken to are shocked and afraid. A German couple told me that they worry about A.f.D. — the country’s right-wing party. They see all of this as a movement by a globalist authoritarian movement to end democracy. As the United States starts to do Russia’s bidding, they worry that democracy will fall everywhere.
Edwin Eisendrath hosts “The Big Picture” on WCPT820 AM/ Heartland Signal. [ [link removed] ] He’s the former CEO of the Chicago Sun-Times, a long-time management consultant, a former Chicago Alderman, HUD Regional Administrator and teacher in Chicago’s public schools. You can follow him on BlueSky at eisendrath.net [ [link removed] ] and Substack at “It’s the Democracy, Stupid.” [ [link removed] ] Read the original column here [ [link removed] ].
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