Trump’s Ukraine Plan Could Rewrite the Global Map

Peace plan pressure on Ukraine puts war gains at risk. The Wall Street Journal reports the US Is pressing Ukraine to accept a peace plan that could force Kiev to surrender key defensive territory to Russia. President Trump told Politico that Zelensky is going to have to get on the ball and insisted Ukraine is losing while dismissing European leaders as weak. The the proposal's most controversial element is a demand that Ukraine give up a fortified fortress belt zone, a move Zelensky says he cannot accept. He is, however, open to holding delayed elections if allies help voters under attack participate safely. Negotiations now hinge on territorial concessions, NATO's future role, the fate of frozen Russian assets, and whether security guarantees could actually deter Russia from. From resuming the war. Okay, what's the real message here? History will absolutely condemn what this Trump administration is doing, siding with Russia. Ukraine is a part of the West. They are a part of our allies. They are a democracy of sorts. And to see thugs, to see a dictator attacking a sovereign state and the United States siding not with our Western allies, not with Europe, but with a dictator, is going to go down as an ignominious, shameful moment for America. Let's dig a little bit deeper here. You know, Ukraine is being urged to surrender land to achieve peace. Now, this is exactly what Neville Chamberlain suggested others do for Hitler. That didn't turn out too well. And Trump is again and again and again siding with Putin. He spends all of his time attacking Europe as weak, old, out of it, bad people, essentially. And he never seems to say anything but praise for Putin. Now, I realize it's an article of faith among those on the right who think anytime someone mentions Trump and Russia, it's instantly suspicious. It's instantly something you can write off as a scam of fraud, because there was never conclusive evidence of a meeting where Trump was paid off or where there was some sort of pee tape and Putin said, I've got this to extort you. You have to do whatever I say because there's not that smoking gun. Somehow it's seen as suspicious to ever talk about the fact that Trump is the first president in the history of the United States to consistently side with a communist authoritarian dictator, essentially, and against democratic allies. It's never happened before. There's simply no ideological rationale. Whether you consider yourself a centrist, far right, far left. There's really no ideological rationale for doing this, and it's a huge, huge problem for the entire world. The irony, of course, is Trump fashions himself as some sort of realist, some great deal maker, someone who's good at business? This is horrible for business. When you look at the last 70 years around the world, it is the most prosperous 70 year period in the last 200,000 years. When you look at human beings, certainly for the last couple of 200,000 years, but certainly the last 2,000 years, the average amount of growth in any year or decade was minimal. I mean, certainly until the Industrial Revolution a couple of hundred years ago, things were flat. People were basically subsistence farmers, couldn't send things around the world, there was very little trade. And at any given point, starvation was a possibility. 70% of humanity experienced starvation at some point in their life. It was, life was grim, basically. And then things really, I mean, things got a lot better when the Industrial Revolution hit, but things got dramatically better about 70 years ago. World War II ended and the United States said, okay, we're going to write new rules for the world. And the rules are one country can't just gobble up another one because if you do, you're messing with us. And that applies to you attacking ships, going from one place to another. That applies to you attacking another country and trying to. Was it perfect? No. Was the United States sometimes hypocritical? Yes. But by and large there was a framework for the world that created the, the most dramatic productivity increases in the history of the world. We went from a world where about 70% were living under poverty line to now we're less than 10% of the world is living below official poverty lines. We've seen massive, massive increases of wealth, of prosperity around the world, in part because the United States role of saying there's going to be order in the world. Can't just take over another country because you want to. And now Trump is sending a very clear cut message, hey, take over another country if you want to. And not only will we not condemn you, we'll say, oh, you're cool and tough. And you other countries, you're kind of weak over here. You're pathetic, you're losers. Because you let in immigrants, you let in migrants. That's essentially what he's been saying to Europe. And the real problem is this could destroy the golden goose. It really could. Our entire worldwide economy is so intertwined and it's so dependent on people from every country being able to ship and sell their products, their services all over the world, knowing if something gets on a boat, it's going to get to where it is. I'm going to start a business today in this building, in this land that I own. It's not going to be taken over by someone else tomorrow. And the Trump administration is saying, no, doesn't matter. We're going to support thugs, because if there's some thug who says, I'm a great guy, he's my guy. And if you believe in democracy, if you believe in pluralism, if you believe in an open society, well, you're a bunch of losers, and we're not going to support you any longer. So this is. This is truly bizarre. Now, it's interesting to me that there are so many conservatives out there. I've been listening to Ben Shapiro, who called, according to many rating services, as the number one podcast in the world now or in the US for news. He is someone seen as a devout conservative, by no means a Democrat or a supporter of Democratic candidates. But I've listened to his show the last couple of days, and it's fascinating. He does nothing but attack Trump administration policies, but he never mentions Trump by name. It's, on the one hand, incredibly clear analysis of what's going on, destroying the worldwide system of capitalism, worldwide system of globalization that has made me and so many others rich. And he understands this, and yet he's not willing to call out Trump by name. He acts like there's just some, you know, force controlling the administration. Donald Trump is an unwitting victim of it somehow, and I guess he feels like he has to do that because he criticizes Trump. Trump will criticize him. He'll lose all of his support. But it is amazing to me to see these conservative commentators twisting themselves in knots because, A, they hate these tariffs, B, they're no fans of Russia. They might not love every aspect of Europe and some of its more liberal democracies, but they certainly do not favor Russia just taking over Ukraine because they want it, and yet they're afraid to call out Trump. So I'm here today for you as a sane, sensible, centrist capitalist. I believe in capitalism. You might not want to believe that. That's okay with, but I see it as a huge, huge attack on capital for one dictator. For Putin to just say, oh, I want to take over a large piece, a large hunk of another country, it kind of destroys the whole notion of capitalism. So you don't have to be a part of the left to say there's a problem with that. And I do think there's a problem with that. So. So I'll call it like I see it. If I have to attack by name the former Vice President, Kamala Harris, I'll do so. Although why anyone would care about her anymore, I don't really know. But if I have to criticize by name the current president of the United States, Donald Trump and his policies, I'll do that, too. I'm not going to try to play cutesy little games with you where no one on my side can ever be attacked. But I can rip apart anyone on the other side because that is what's happening among the conservative commentariat and servative brocasters. They somehow think that all this bad stuff, these tariffs, like who's doing this? Where'd this idea come came from Trump? Where did this idea come from that we're going to side with Russia and be against a democratic ally, a European ally like Ukraine? Who's pushing this from outer space? Well, it's coming from Trump. Haul a spade, a spade, folks, I'm willing to do it here without playing favorites, without trying to give you partisan spin. That's what I'm about.