This Is Not Appeasement, It Is Worse

Calling Donald Trump A New Neville Chamberlain Is Unfair To Chamberlain

Hello All,

A little historical reflection today on what we are seeing play out in real time in front of our eyes. Basically, Trump and Putin seem very much to be acting in tandem to align policies on Ukraine and reach a US-Russian agreement on the way ahead.

In the last few days, the US has made concession after concession to Russia before any formal negotiations have even started. Trump has said that Putin should be allowed back into the G7, Defense Secretary Hegseth has said Ukraine should be kept out of NATO and the US forces will not provide any security guarantees for Ukraine. The US has also made it clear that Russia will be allowed to keep most/all of the Ukrainian lands it has seized, while at the same time making no new promises of aid to Ukraine.

In other words—Trump is helping Putin—at exactly the time Putin needs it most. If you have not noticed (will write more about this in the weekend update), the Russian army is really struggling right now. Its advances are slowing and its losses are extremely high. In fact, what Trump seems to be doing is offering a hand of friendship and support to Putin, when the Russian dictator and war criminal most needs it.