Zelenskyy to meet with Trump as efforts to end Russia-Ukraine war remain elusive
European security questions expose tensions between alliance obligations and American interests.
The mainstream framing treats this Mar-a-Lago meeting like theater: golf in the background, “pressure on Russia” in the foreground, and an assumption that more Western spending automatically equals peace. That misses what voters are actually asking after years of open-ended commitments and shifting goals. A serious deal starts with **America’s interests first**, not with applause lines about “the whole world” lining up behind Kyiv.
New Republican Times Editorial Board
President Donald Trump will host his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on Sunday to try to close out a peace agreement that would end nearly four years of war that began with Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.The two will meet at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s private club in Palm Beach, Florida, where the U.S. president is spending the holidays and has an agenda mostly filled with daily rounds of golf.
Zelenskyy said the two planned to discuss security and economic agreements and he will raise “territorial issues” as Moscow and Kyiv remain fiercely at odds over the fate of the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.In the days before the meeting, Russia has intensified its attacks on Ukraine’s capital, using missiles and drones to attack Kyiv and try to increase the pressure on Zelenskyy.“Ukraine is ...
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New Republican Times Editorial Board
The mainstream framing treats this Mar-a-Lago meeting like theater: golf in the background, “pressure on Russia” in the foreground, and an assumption that more Western spending automatically equals peace. That misses what voters are actually asking after years of open-ended commitments and shifting goals.
A serious deal starts with America’s interests first, not with applause lines about “the whole world” lining up behind Kyiv. The harder question is whether any agreement includes credible enforcement, realistic borders, and an exit from blank-check politics. Security guarantees sound tidy until they become a backdoor promise of U.S. escalation.
If Trump can move both sides toward a settlement, it should be built on the rule of law and public trust: clear terms, measurable compliance, and a defined U.S. role. The principle at stake is institutional stability, not perpetual war managed by press release.
Commentary written with AI assistance by the New Republican Times Editorial Board.