I Just Can’t
By I have seen two reports coming from British newspapers about the content of Donald Trump’s planned meeting on Friday with Vladimir Putin in Aleyska, or maybe Russia. I will not link to them, because I would prefer not to think they have any accuracy, but with Trump one never knows.
One is that the West Bank in Israel will be proposed as a model for the Russian-claimed territories . Because that’s been so wildly successful. To be honest, I can’t even see how it fits.
The other is that Trump will offer Putin the opportunity to develop mineral resources in Alaska. Which he doesn’t seem to have consulted with Alaskans about, but that’s consistent with not consulting with Volodymyr Zelensky about the “land swaps” he keeps talking about.
It’s not possible to rule out either of these, because Trump’s sole negotiator and golfing buddy, Steve Witkoff, who flies with neither notetaker nor interpreter, has already gotten a bunch of stuff wrong. And Trump has said that he will meet one on one with Putin in Aleyska, or maybe Russia, as he did in his wildly successful meeting in Helsinki in 2018.