Fmr. U.S. Amb. To Russia: Trump Continues This Mistake of Making Threats and ‘Not following Through’

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
WITT: “And also his lack of adherence to timelines. Right. Because that Friday deadline that he set for Russia to agree to a cease fire or then face new economic sanctions that came and went instead. To your point, Trump has handed Moscow a diplomatic win. He’s agreed to meet face to face with Putin. Does a one on one. Michael, does a meeting like that put Putin in the driver’s seat? Trump has recently shown, yes, frustration with Putin, but why does he not act as forcefully toward him as he does toward does toward almost anyone else?”

McFaul: “Yeah, countries like India and Brazil, by the way, he’s tougher on than with his tariffs. I’d say two things. One, I just think the president continues to make this mistake of making threats and then not following through. One of my mentors here at Stanford was George Shultz, the secretary of state for Ronald Reagan. And he used to always tell this story when he was a young soldier, a marine joining up to fight in world war two. His sergeant gave him a gun and he said, never point this gun at somebody unless you’re willing to shoot it. And this is just the exact opposite of that. Threats, threats, threats. And then he backs away. That deadline came and passed and nothing happened. And Putin notices that. But second to the other point you made, it is always a gift to any leader in the world to sit down with the president of the United States of America. When I worked for President Obama and planned summits with Russian leaders and other countries, we always knew that this was something we were giving them and we expected something in return. And what I think is wrong about this sequencing is I just I worry that Putin will get the gift. He’ll get the gift of sitting next to the United States president in the United States of America, by the way, in Alaska, a former a part of the former Russian empire, by the way, that some Russian nationalists still think that they need back. They should have got back, that we hoodwinked them. Just an odd choice, in my view. But I hope the president and his team are thinking very hard about that question right now, because they’ve already given the gift. It’s already there. Putin already wins just by showing up. This president always talks about being transactional. What are we, the American people, getting in return? What are our European allies getting? And what are our European, our Ukrainian partners getting in return? That’s the big unanswered question today.”