Trump should give Putin a gift in Alaska – then an order

Donald Trump calls himself the world’s greatest deal-maker.

From real estate to reality TV and now the White House, he has built his brand on the idea that he can walk into any room, size up the other guy, and walk out with the better end of the bargain.

This week in Alaska, home of the shortest border between the US and Russia, when Trump meets with Vladimir Putin to discuss the future of Ukraine, he will have the chance of a lifetime to prove it.

And there should be no sweetheart deal. No favourable terms. Just one order: get the hell out of Ukraine.

You’d be forgiven for expecting something more diplomatic, more nuanced, from me, a senior political advisor of over a decade, perhaps a smarter idea, a more strategic approach.

But here’s the truth: There isn’t one. There is no give-and-take. And anyone who tries to tell you there is, isn’t being truthful about what it takes to end this war.

Winning – or even negotiating – can only come from a place of strength.

It’s that simple, and there is no mistake here. Putin’s war in Ukraine is not a misunderstanding or a border dispute.

No, it is a deliberate, aggressive, and illegal bombing of civilian homes, abducting children to ‘re-educate’ them and flattening entire cities.

It is what happens when a dictator in the Kremlin believes the rules do not apply to him.

So let’s keep it simple this time – tell this despot, in front of the world’s cameras: get out of Ukraine, now.

Okay, let’s be strategic about how this happens. Yes, I appreciate that Putin will need to leave the room feeling like he’s won something – autocrats always do.

He can’t be seen to have been humiliated, even as it’s made clear he cannot hope to triumph against Ukraine and its allies.

So, let him ‘sell’ his victory to Russia – that’s fine, even wise – but what he gets must be symbolic, meaningless, and worth less than the paper it’s printed on.

If there’s one thing no one can deny, it’s Trump’s knack for exactly that.

His career has been built on grand symbolic gestures that mean less than they appear – from gold-plated hotel lobbies to a golden statue signed by Apple CEO Tim Cook to staged ribbon-cuttings for projects that never materialised.

The man knows how to package theatre as substance, so handing Putin a hollow ‘victory’ should be easy.

Let him save face, but not gains.

Work up a joint statement about ‘future cooperation’ or ‘peaceful dialogue’. Offer him a ceremonial title – ‘co-guarantor of peace in Eastern Europe.’

Stage a public signing where Trump and Putin pledge to ‘explore mutual economic opportunities’. Promise to buy Russian oil at some arbitrary future date. Maybe even revive plans for that Trump Tower in Moscow.

Lift some sanctions of no real consequence. Let him keep a meaningless seat at a future summit on global security. Slag off those European leaders together if it makes him feel better.

Frankly, I don’t care. It’s all fine as long as the only thing he takes home in reality is total withdrawal.

But here’s the red line: not a single inch of Ukrainian land goes with him.

Not Donetsk, not Luhansk, not any of it. These are not ‘Russian’ territories – they are illegally occupied Ukrainian regions whose people have lived under siege, violence, and fear for years.

Giving them away, as Trump has appeared to suggest, would not just be betrayal, it would reward the very aggression we must oppose.

Anything else isn’t peace, it’s surrender; betrayal in historic slow motion.

History is littered with examples of attempted appeasement failing. Germany and Poland in 1939. Russia and Crimea in 2014. Seventy-five years apart, but the lesson is the same: Give aggressors an inch and they come for a mile.

You stop occupiers by starving them of every gain, not feeding them.

If Trump wants to walk away with a real win – for himself, for the free world, and most importantly for Ukraine – he will let Putin tell his people whatever he wants. Give him the photo-op and sign the statement.

That ‘victory’ can all be Putin’s. But not the land. Not Ukraine. Not her people. Not now, not ever.

And if he refuses? Escalation.

Sure, increase sanctions, ramp up aid and deepen isolation.

But then, we must do what should have been done on Day One: Strip the Kremlin of its ability to command this war.

That means direct intervention – British boots on the ground in Ukraine, American jets overhead and coordinated European military action to finish the job of defending our ally. .

That’s it. No lectures. No meandering. No more ‘strongly worded statements.’

Dictators don’t stop because they’re persuaded; they stop because they’re defeated – diplomatically or militarily.

Ukrainians know all too well the consequences of brutal aggression.

Over 100,000 of them dead. 20,000 of their children abducted.

On support for President Zelenskyy and his people, the UK can hold its head high. From the first second of Putin’s invasion to this very moment, we have stood unflinchingly at Ukraine’s side, and we will not step away.

But it is past time for the UK, Europe, and the US to help our neighbours strike the final blow.

First, through one final diplomatic push, but if that fails, then Trump, Starmer and Europe must draw a direct line from demand to consequence – and it must be swift, calculated, and utterly terminal to Putin’s imperialist ambitions.

A Ukraine forced into concessions – especially territorial concessions – makes us all infinitely less safe.

It tells strongmen across the world that rules are optional if you have enough tanks and guarantees another war – in Ukraine or elsewhere – within a decade, perhaps even sooner and even closer than we think right now.

This is the greatest test of Donald Trump’s lifetime.

The President’s supporters brag about his toughness. His opponents accuse him of fawning over dictators.

Now he must prove which is true. If we are to believe it’s the former, there is only one deal he will propose and only one deal he will close. The stakes have quite literally never been higher.

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