Trump Tried to End the War. Putin Humiliated Him Instead.

There’s one thread that quietly connects Biden and Trump—and it’s why this war doesn’t end.

This war is not going to end anytime soon.

That was my reflexive reaction the moment I saw Donald Trump’s self-congratulatory social media post following his two-and-a-half-hour call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. According to Trump, the meeting—during which Putin flatly rejected his ceasefire proposal—“went very well.”

Putin likely walked into that call with a clear plan: smile, nod, and say a firm no. If Ukraine won’t surrender, then he’s not handing Trump anything to brag about on social media. And it looks like he executed that strategy to perfection.

Trump didn’t announce a ceasefire after the call. Instead, he announced that the United States would step back from mediation entirely—and watch the war from the sidelines.

Russia and Ukraine will immediately start negotiations toward a Ceasefire and, more importantly, an END to the War.

Negotiations between Russia and Ukraine will begin immediately.

The Vatican, as represented by the Pope, has stated that it would be very interested in hosting the negotiations. Let the process begin! - Excerpts from Donald Trump’s social media post.

So, who were talking in Istanbul on May 16th? A bunch of ghosts?

And there was a little epiphany, when Trump said “The conditions for that will be negotiated between the two parties, as it can only be, because they know details of a negotiation that nobody else would be aware of”.

They know details of a negotiation that nobody else would be aware of???

Did Donald Trump and his team not know this when they asked Ukraine to surrender Crimea and four regions to Putin in mid April? Of-course they were aware of what they were doing. They were groveling at the Kremlin’s doorstep to end the war and they tried their best to get Ukraine to surrender. But Europe and Ukraine put their foot down and said “FUCK NO.”

April 23, 2025: Zelensky publicly reaffirms Ukraine’s constitutional position on Crimea, citing the original 2018 U.S. declaration. The message is unmistakable—despite backchannel pressure from Trump’s team, Ukraine and its partners are not surrendering.

So Trump’s team ran back to Putin, tried many different angles, tried varied forms of dances. Putin kept saying the same thing: NO.

Hours before the meeting it was becoming clear that the Trump adminstration is moving towards containing the fallout of not being able to bring the war to an end.

Speaking to reporters in Rome, on May 19th, 2025, US Vice President J.D Vance said “I think honestly that President Putin, he doesn’t quite know how to get out of the war. It takes two to tango. I know the president’s willing to do that, but if Russia is not willing to do that, then we’re eventually just going to say, ‘This is not our war”.

That was a rare moment. Truth spilling out into the open from the MAGA ruling class. It does happen here and there. So, when it happens, we need to duly pick it up with both our hands. Can you see the timing of the statement from J.D Vance. Long before the meeting, the MAGA administration sat together, stress tested the scenarios and had this exit route planned. So it is highly likely that Trump tried to get Putin to agree to end the war, and with that not moving anywhere, decided to throw in the towel and started preparing to sheild himself from not being able to end the war.

The MAGA world is now moving from we will end the war in 24 hours, because we are so good at making deals, to ‘This is not our war.’

The Trump administration will gladly bully Ukraine with all sorts of pressure tactics. They'll tell them they have no cards left to play. They’ll cut off intelligence sharing. They’ll ground the Ukrainian Air Force. They’ll immediately halt weapons shipments already approved by Congress. Bro will obsessively stress how critical Starlink is to the battlefield.

But they won’t apply even 10% of that pressure on Vladimir Putin. From the beginning, it’s been an all-carrots approach with Russia—and that hasn’t changed. Not one bit.

The Trump administration has made one thing very clear: domestic optics come first. Trump doesn’t want to take responsibility for seeing this war through. He’s probably realized that ending it would mean getting his feet wet in the Black Sea.

• So much for the strongman.

• So much for the dealmaker.

I wrote before the call that no movement after the Trump-Putin conversation wouldn’t necessarily be a bad outcome. That statement deserves a deeper explanation now.

The first—and most immediate—benefit, one that might just save a few neurons in our brains, is this: Steve Witkoff’s pilgrimages to the Kremlin are probably over. No more social media rounds explaining why Ukraine must surrender its land to Russia.

Trump’s team tried everything they could to legitimize Putin’s invasion. Had they succeeded, it would have set a dangerous precedent—a standing green light for Putin to do it all over again. When you recognize the invasion, you validate naked agression with a global stamp.

Then, the next time he wants war, he turns to the Russian people and says: “Remember 2025? I was right. Let’s do it again.”

And yet, if not for French President Emmanuel Macron pulling his weight during that trip to Madagascar in the third week of April, the Trump team would have opened one of the ugliest chapters in modern history. What they wanted to sign off on would have made the Allied betrayal of Czechoslovakia look like a diplomatic footnote.

That infamous moment—Munich, 1938—was when the West handed Hitler the Sudetenland, dismantling Czechoslovakia: the last real line of defense between Nazi Germany and the rest of Europe—without firing a shot. Neville Chamberlain returned to Britain waving a piece of paper and promising “peace for our time.” What he brought back instead was catastrophe on a global scale.

Winston Churchill, standing nearly alone in Parliament, tore Chamberlain’s appeasement to shreds. “You were given the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour, and you will have war.” He wasn’t wrong. Within months, Hitler had rolled into the rest of Czechoslovakia—and Europe was on fire.

Had Macron not drawn a line, Trump’s team would have done the same: legitimized Putin’s land grab, sold it as “pragmatism,” and paved the way for future wars. Appeasement never ends with one concession. It ends with invasion.

So in many ways, I’m relieved the Trump-Vance team is wriggling its way out. Having them in the middle clearly isn’t working.

And here’s the kicker—they know exactly how much economic trouble Putin is in. Trump’s own Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, has said more than once that he has the tools to bring the Russian economy to its knees. He wasn’t bluffing. Add to that the sweeping sanctions package quietly prepared by GOP senators back in early April, and you get the full picture. On their own, those sanctions are strong. But combined with Treasury’s capabilities, they become a financial nuclear strike.

It’s all there. Every lever. Every switch. Just waiting to be pulled. They just won’t use it.

And yesterday, Trump made that perfectly clear. Speaking to reporters, he said he wants to “give peace a chance” and won’t be adding any new sanctions.

Sound familiar?

The Biden administration followed the same playbook—only with a quieter, more calculated execution. They refused to send tanks. They refused F-16s. They slow-dripped ATACMS. They made sure Ukraine never had enough pilots trained in time. Every move was calibrated. Every delay was deliberate.

At every step, they kept Ukraine’s combat power in check—just enough to survive, never enough to win. Why? Because God forbid Ukraine accidentally defeats the Russian imperial army.

Now, Trump knows: if he hits Russia with real sanctions, his economy—the one already dancing on the ledge—could take the final plunge. So he’s doing everything he can to make sure Ukraine doesn’t accidentally defeat the Russian state.

That’s the one thread that’s never broken since February 2022:

The United States is not ready to see Putin defeated. And Putin? He’s not ready to stop until Ukraine is broken—and Europe’s last real line of defense is dismantled. I sincerely hope Europe is reading this clearly. The time has come to take full charge.

The good news? Trump has taken a position: the sidelines.

Let him stay there.

Incompetence can be forgiven. Strategic cowardice cannot.

Just make sure you pay for the weapons—and take immediate delivery. Release the €40 billion Ukraine aid package. Slam the sanctions down hard. And do it without the United States. Because this isn’t just Ukraine’s future. It’s your future. It’s the future of the democratic world.

To expect the MAGA movement to understand the value of democracy is like expecting a dictator to understand the value of truth. It won’t happen.

Tell me in the comments:
Do you think the time has come for Europe to leave the U.S. behind and take full control of its own defense and future? Or should Europe still keep trying to pull America back to the table?

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