Hold My Beer, Neville Chamberlain

The U.S. “peace talks” with Russia over Ukraine, which include neither Ukraine nor any of our allies, is an upside down horror show.

Photo of Trump and Putin from 2019, Susan Walsh, AP

In school when we studied World War II and its causes, we all learned about what “appeasement” looked like, and why we should avoid it.

When Germany annexed the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia in 1938, Britain’s Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain met with Germany’s Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and secured what he infamously called “Peace in Our Times” because Hitler promised not to invade the rest of that country.

We all know how that went. Hitler smelled weakness, reneged on his promise, seized the rest of Czechoslovakia, and then the following year marched into Poland, setting off World War II. (Some historians have noted that, in fairness, Chamberlain knew England was not prepared to go to war in 1938 and was buying as much time as he could.)

It’s hard to wrap our heads around, but Trump’s so-called “peace talks” with Russia over Ukraine, where Ukraine isn’t even invited to the table, are far worse than how most have judged Chamberlain’s actions.

I can’t believe I’m going to start a bunch of sections with the words “At least Neville Chamberlain…” but here we are.

Blaming Ukraine for the war

At least Neville Chamberlain understood that Hitler was dangerous and that the people of Czechoslovakia were in grave peril. When he allowed Hitler to triumph in the Sudentenland without political cost, at least he believed he was securing a better future for the rest of the Czech people. He understood that they had been invaded by a hostile force, and his sympathies lay with them.

Not so Trump. The current White House occupant is actively trying to rewrite history by (checks notes) blaming Ukraine for the war and for (checks notes again) not achieving peace sooner. At a press conference at Mar-a-Lago yesterday while speaking about Ukraine, Trump actually said, “You should have never started it” and “You’ve been there for three years. You should have ended it three years ago.”

It was an Orwellian record scratch moment. Everyone watching the news in February of 2022 saw those Russian tanks roll across the border unprovoked.

It’s important to note that Trump is repeating Russian propaganda. Putin himself has also falsely claimed that Ukraine began the war. “It was they who started the war in 2014. Our goal is to stop this war. And we did not start this war in 2022,” Putin told none other than Tucker Carlson in 2024.

I wonder where Trump is getting these cockamamie ideas?

A visibly distressed President Zelenskyy of Ukraine, who is fast losing patience with the United States, remarked that Trump is in a “disinformation bubble.”

That’s putting it as politely as humanly possible. Let’s keep the historical record crystal clear. It was Russia that invaded its peaceful neighbor in February of 2022 after annexing Crimea in 2014 and conducting a proxy war for years inside Ukraine.

Trump’s shameful statement is akin to blaming a rape victim for how they dressed.

Ceding territory up front

At least Neville Chamberlain was deeply troubled over Germany’s territorial ambitions. Chamberlain didn’t have the benefit of, well, a Neville Chamberlain to understand that receiving assurances from a dictator that he didn’t have further territorial ambitions wasn’t worth a thing. But at least Chamberlain sought and received some kind of concession from Hitler after meeting with him, worthless as that promise turned out to be.

By contrast, Trump and his cabinet went out of their way to ensure Russia would be getting everything it wants from a peace deal even before talks had begun. When former Fox & Friends host and now allegedly sober U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth went before our NATO allies earlier this month, he told the shocked gathering, “We want, like you, a sovereign and prosperous Ukraine. But we must start by recognizing that returning to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective.”

Hegseth has no experience as an international negotiator. Taking Russia’s territorial gains off the table before “peace talks” had even started removed any leverage for a better deal. Within a day, Hegseth had to walk back his statements saying he had had no authority to issue them.

It didn’t matter. Trump himself later told reporters, when asked about Ukraine’s admittance to NATO, “I don’t think it’s practical to have it, personally.” Again, this was a concession up front before Russia had promised anything in return. In Trump’s view, “Russia fought for that land in Ukraine and lost a lot of soldiers doing it, so Russia should keep it.”

Even Chamberlain would have been appalled.

Moreover, the U.S. is making these concessions, on behalf of a party not even at the table, with absolutely no guarantees that Russia won’t invade again at a later date and seize what it failed to take this time. Without additional security guarantees, the peace deal is only as good as Russia’s word. Which is to say, it is worth nothing at all.

Did Secretary of State Marco Rubio simply forget his own dire warning in 2022, when he tweeted that Russia’s aim, short of capturing Kyiv, was about “destroying as much of [Ukraine’s defense forces] as possible” so he could offer a “cease fire that imposes neutrality” on Ukraine while Russia keeps Crimea and the Donbas?

Because that is the exact deal he is agreeing to today. I wonder what changed?

Let’s be clear once again. This “deal” is akin to the police sending a rape victim back to her rapist’s basement and trusting him to treat her well.

A new axis of evil?

At least Neville Chamberlain understood that the Nazis and Hitler presented an existential threat to democratic values and society.

Not so Trump and his cabinet.

Something new and truly horrifying emerged from the talks between Russian and U.S. representatives in Saudi Arabia. Rather than negotiate at arm’s length with Russia as an invading and aggressive enemy of the West, Trump apparently has instructed his team to treat Russia as if it’s a partner of the U.S.

Trump has not uttered a single word of condemnation for what Russia has done in Ukraine over these past three years. Instead, in Riyadh, his team, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, extended an invitation for Russia to rejoin the international community and become one of America’s best friends.

As the New York Times reported,

“Mr. Rubio met with Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, and talked up “the incredible opportunities that exist to partner with the Russians” if they could simply dispose of the Ukraine war.

This presumably includes the lifting of sanctions that have crippled the Russian economy and hindered its ability to wage the war.

Foreign policy experts are dumbfounded. Again, as the Times reported,

“We should be talking to them in the same way that we talked to Soviet leaders throughout the Cold War,” said Celeste A. Wallander, who dealt with Russia and Ukraine issues as assistant secretary of defense under President Joseph R. Biden Jr. “Which is you don’t trust them.”

“When you do negotiations,” she continued, “you do them with the presumption that they will violate them. You try to find overlapping interests, but recognize that our interests are fundamentally in conflict and we’re trying to manage a dangerous adversary, not become best friends.”

Traditional conservatives are also appalled. “It’s a disgraceful reversal of 80 years of American foreign policy,” said Kori Schake, a former national security aide to President George W. Bush. “Throughout the Cold War, the U.S. refused to legitimate Soviet conquest of the Baltic States, and it gave heart to people fighting for their freedom,” she continued. “Now we’re legitimating aggression to create spheres of influence. Every American president of the last 80 years would oppose President Trump’s statement.”

Our European allies have yet to pick their jaws up off the floor. They met in emergency session following the administration’s earlier statements, and now see the writing on the wall. “Some of the most shameful comments uttered by a president in my lifetime,” wrote Ian Bond, deputy director of the Center for European Reform in London, capturing European leaders’ sentiment. “Trump is siding with the aggressor, blaming the victim. In the Kremlin they must be jumping for joy.”

To rub proverbial salt in a three-year wound, Trump also demanded that Ukraine turn over fifty percent of its revenue from its vast natural resources, including oil, gas and mineral deposits, to repay America for its support during the war. This imposition, rudely handed as a contract unceremoniously to President Zelenskyy, would cripple the Ukrainian economy and turn it into little more than a vassal state of the U.S.

As news emerged from this first round of “peace talks,” European leaders were reeling in shock. Not only did the talks plainly indicate that the U.S. would simply turn its back on Ukraine, they suggested that Europe itself was on its own now. Through Trump’s capitulation, Russia has been essentially greenlit to invade other nations on its borders. Worse still, the U.S. has not only abdicated its role as the leader of the Free World, it is now in actual cahoots with the very enemies of freedom and democracy.

History, if we still get to learn the truth from it years from now, will look with horror upon these complicit, dangerous moves by Trump and his cronies. Europe knows it will need to step up now that the U.S. has stepped not only back but apparently over to Russia’s side. Let us hope that our (former?) allies can hold the line against Putin as the U.S. dumpster fire spreads to its foreign policy and puts the entirety of the world at grave risk.