Alan W. Dowd
Winning is important to President Donald Trump, and losing is unacceptable—which explains why President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine recently emphasized that “The end of the war should be a victory for Trump, not Putin.”
Policymakers at home and abroad would be wise to frame their positions, proposals, plans and policies as Zelensky has: in terms of victory or defeat for Trump.
Calculus
They should begin by emphasizing for Trump this sobering reality: “The threats the United States faces are the most serious and most challenging the nation has encountered since 1945, and include the potential for near-term major war,” as the bipartisan Commission on the National Defense Strategy recently concluded.
The commission is not exaggerating. Russia is waging a war of extermination and expansion in Eastern Europe; occupies parts of Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova; threatens using nuclear weapons; has transferred nuclear weapons into Belarus; and props up tyrants in Europe, the Americas and Africa. China has absorbed Hong Kong; threatens to annex Taiwan; boasts the world’s largest navy; menaces the Philippines; and is militarizing islands in the South China Sea, tripling its nuclear arsenal and conducting a cyber-siege against the Free World. North Korea is sending ammunition and troops to aid Russia’s war on Ukraine. Iran supplies Moscow with kamikaze-drones, has launched missiles at Israel, and has unleashed its hydra of terror proxies—Hamas, the Houthis, Hezbollah, Kata'ib Hezbollah—against U.S. troops, Free World allies and international shipping.
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