FDR_Reagan
Platinum Member
- Nov 20, 2023
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Trump surprised a lot of people.
Will he be called the 'Peace through strength' president?
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Turning on Putin would fit Trump’s trend of second-term wins.
Atlantic Council | July 11, 2025 | Frederick Kempe
Excerpt
... In his second term thus far, Trump has defied his critics with several major international wins, and he’s relished the results. His green light for the June 22 US strikes on Iranian nuclear-related targets was a stunning interpretation of what defines “America first.” At the NATO Summit in The Hague days later, he pivoted from years of lambasting European partners to securing a historic agreement to lift Alliance-wide defense and defense-related spending to 5 percent of gross domestic product by 2035, while reaffirming shared security guarantees.
Both the Iran and NATO moves are legacy-defining, peace-through-strength actions. They could transform the geopolitical landscape in the Middle East and Europe in ways that would have eluded either a more cautious or a more reckless president.
The next link in this potential chain of positive disruption should be Russia. There are signs Trump is steering in that direction. It wasn’t too long ago that Trump praised Putin’s peace-making intentions, his smarts, and his strength. Then, this week, Trump said at a cabinet meeting, with media recording every word, “We get a lot of bullshit thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth. He’s very nice all of the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.”
Also this week, Trump reversed a brief pause in weapons shipments to Ukraine, which Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth reportedly okayed without informing the White House. In the cabinet meeting on Tuesday, the US president praised Ukraine’s soldiers, for the first time putting US investments in Kyiv in a more positive light. The Ukrainians, Trump said, “whether you think it’s unfair that we gave all that money or not, they were very brave, because somebody had to operate that stuff. And a lot of people I know wouldn’t be operating it—they wouldn’t have the courage to do it.”
Will he be called the 'Peace through strength' president?
%%%
Turning on Putin would fit Trump’s trend of second-term wins.
Atlantic Council | July 11, 2025 | Frederick Kempe
Excerpt
... In his second term thus far, Trump has defied his critics with several major international wins, and he’s relished the results. His green light for the June 22 US strikes on Iranian nuclear-related targets was a stunning interpretation of what defines “America first.” At the NATO Summit in The Hague days later, he pivoted from years of lambasting European partners to securing a historic agreement to lift Alliance-wide defense and defense-related spending to 5 percent of gross domestic product by 2035, while reaffirming shared security guarantees.
Both the Iran and NATO moves are legacy-defining, peace-through-strength actions. They could transform the geopolitical landscape in the Middle East and Europe in ways that would have eluded either a more cautious or a more reckless president.
The next link in this potential chain of positive disruption should be Russia. There are signs Trump is steering in that direction. It wasn’t too long ago that Trump praised Putin’s peace-making intentions, his smarts, and his strength. Then, this week, Trump said at a cabinet meeting, with media recording every word, “We get a lot of bullshit thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth. He’s very nice all of the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.”
Also this week, Trump reversed a brief pause in weapons shipments to Ukraine, which Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth reportedly okayed without informing the White House. In the cabinet meeting on Tuesday, the US president praised Ukraine’s soldiers, for the first time putting US investments in Kyiv in a more positive light. The Ukrainians, Trump said, “whether you think it’s unfair that we gave all that money or not, they were very brave, because somebody had to operate that stuff. And a lot of people I know wouldn’t be operating it—they wouldn’t have the courage to do it.”
