Europe vs Trump: ‘There is something else going on here’
European leaders will meet Donald Trump in the Oval Office to discuss the next steps in the Russia / Ukraine war, following his meeting with Vladimir Putin on Friday. What comes next, and is this the first step to peace?
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In brief…
- Donald Trump appeared to change his plans for peace in Ukraine after a meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska, and will now meet with Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders in the Oval Office.
- The News Agents believe Trump will relish the attention of hosting some of the most important politicians in the world, but doubt a ceasefire is on the horizon.
- However, they say the speed with which he has gathered the European leaders suggests a major development in the situation.
What’s the story?
What would make leaders of the UK, Italy, France, Germany, the heads of NATO and the EU drop everything to fly to Washington DC?
Something big, that’s for sure.
But will it be something as big as the end of the war in Ukraine? That’s what these world leaders – and most of the world – will be hoping for.
On Friday, Donald Trump met with Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, Alaska, to discuss bringing about the end of his illegal invasion of Ukraine, which has been waged since February 2022.
Despite Putin being the aggressor in the conflict, and every other Russian region since becoming president in 2012, the pair sat in front of a slogan which read ‘pursuing peace’ as they discussed, in private, methods for ending the invasion.
Putin wants the Donbas region for its rare-earth minerals, and to ensure Ukraine doesn’t join NATO and gain the military protection that would bring.
Going into the meeting, Trump said he wanted to secure a ceasefire, and threatened more extreme sanctions on Russia if it did not comply.
All that changed after two and a half hours alone with Putin, after welcoming his Russian counterpart with a round of applause and a red carpet.
“There was a really substantive evolution in American policy,” says Lewis Goodall.
“Until now, Trump's position has been to have a ceasefire, then sort out the rest of the details later. That was Ukraine's position. That's been Europe's position. That's no longer Trump's position.
“Trump's position is now Putin's position – there's no point in having a ceasefire until we can ‘address the root causes of the war’”.
Even Boris Johnson, a long-time Trump cheerleader, has criticised the Putin talk, describing it as "the most vomit inducing episode in all the tawdry history of international diplomacy".
Trump described the meeting as a “10 out of 10”.
What happens now?
Trump will now meet with Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House Oval Office, followed by a meeting with Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron, Georgia Meloni, Friedrich Merz.
They will discuss the outcome of the Putin meeting, and next steps in the Russia / Ukraine war.
And no matter what happens in the Oval Office this time, surely nothing can be worse than the last time Zelensky sat down with Trump.
Jon says it's unlikely Trump will agree to a ceasefire, – if he does, such a shift from his stance after the Putin meeting on Friday will simply show the president "doesn't know what he's doing".
Jon Sopel believes the invitation to the White House was extended to the European leaders to act as a "chaperone" for Zelensky, to make sure there is no round-two of a Trump / Zelensky showdown.
"They're going to be there as supplicants," Jon says.
"They're going to be saying: 'Please, Mr. President, if only you could do this for us, that would be marvellous. You're the man. You're the guy. We'll all nominate you for the Nobel Peace Prize, but please do the right thing at this critical moment'."
The goal for the Europe leaders will be, he adds, to convince Trump that he is needed on their side now more than ever, and that Russia is the "menace and the threat", not Ukraine.
But with some of the most powerful people in the world downing tools at such short notice after being summoned to the US, Lewis says there must be more to the meeting than chaperoning Zelensky, and massaging Trump's ego.
"If Trump wants to have a go at Zelensky again, he'll do it – there's something else going on here," he says.
"Either it's just the gravity of the moment, or something else that's been said by Trump or Zelensky, that makes them feel that they all need to clear their diaries in the middle of August, in the middle of summer, and descend en-masse.
"This has happened in a way that they would only normally do for a long planned summit event years in the making, not 48 hours."