One of Donald Trump’s foreign policy campaign promises was to bring an end to the Russia-Ukraine war. This is President Trump’s fifth day, and he is already trying to get both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian dictator Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table.

Trump has made very public threats toward Russia in a strongman display to get Putin to play ball. He’s threatening tariffs and sanctions on anything Russia sells to the United States. Other allies will join in to form a wall crippling the Russian economy.

But Trump has another weapon in his arsenal: “drill, baby, drill.” He wants to make America energy independent once again, just like it was when his first term ended four years ago, by tapping into our country’s rich oil and natural gas reserves. In doing so, he can simultaneously cut Russia off at the knees. The U.S. also has the resources to supply our allies in Europe with oil and liberate them from their reliance on Russia.

Trump made his intentions known in a post on Truth Social:

I’m not looking to hurt Russia. I love the Russian people, and always had a very good relationship with President Putin — and this despite the Radical Left’s Russia, Russia, Russia HOAX. We must never forget that Russia helped us win the Second World War, losing almost 60,000,000 lives in the process. All of that being said, I’m going to do Russia, whose Economy is failing, and President Putin, a very big FAVOR. Settle now, and STOP this ridiculous War! IT’S ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE. If we don’t make a “deal,” and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other participating countries. Let’s get this war, which never would have started if I were President, over with! We can do it the easy way, or the hard way — and the easy way is always better. It’s time to “MAKE A DEAL.” NO MORE LIVES SHOULD BE LOST!!!

While taking to social media to facilitate foreign policy maneuvers might seem lackadaisical, it’s a form of Trumpian posturing that’s far more effective than any of former President Joe Biden’s “don'ts.”

Trump is not afraid to turn the screws on Russia to bring this war to an end. However, the plans that have been circulating among the media involve giving Moscow everything it wants. Trump has empowered retired Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg to get negotiations moving. Kellogg was the main author of this “peace through surrender” plan. Surprisingly, Kellogg is not very popular with Russian operatives, who are calling his plan “gingerbread and whips.”

According to National Review’s Noah Rothman, “Kellogg proposed a peace plan in Ukraine that functionally cedes the territory Moscow secured with force, puts the screws to Kyiv, and lends Western legitimacy to the ‘frozen conflict’ in Ukraine that Moscow would invariably thaw at the most advantageous time. The only inducement for Russian leader Vladimir Putin to come to the table is the promise that, if he didn’t, Trump would increase material support for Ukraine.”

This deal also has the added benefit of bringing Ukraine’s Zelensky to heel. Zelensky, as you may recall, indirectly campaigned for Kamala Harris last September. He visited a munitions factory in Scranton, Pennsylvania, to “thank American workers” for building the bullets and guns being used in the proxy war with Russia. The Ukrainian president was flown there in a U.S. Air Force C-17 — our tax dollars at work. Pennsylvania was a crucial swing state in the 2024 presidential election, and Zelensky’s visit was viewed at the time as an illegal use of taxpayer funds. While at the factory, Zelensky stated that he didn’t think Trump could end the war, with the subliminal message being “but Harris can.”

Zelensky is ready to come to the negotiating table. He lost his preferred candidate, and now he needs to do some backtracking. His country has lost land, people, and soldiers to this bloody conflict. If there is a way to exit the conflagration and still keep their sovereignty, Ukraine would be game.

As for Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin, we shall see if he is tempted to negotiate with Trump. Putin also needs to look like he is a strongman leader and not bowing to a superior power in Trump’s U.S. Some Kremlin hardliners are eager to push what they perceive as an advantage by continuing the fight until Ukraine declares it lost the war. Their goal is to make Ukraine a demilitarized neighboring nation — i.e., an easier target for conquest next time around. Putin will likely not agree to any off-ramp that doesn’t let him keep what he and his troops have ceded. It’s the only way he can justify the human cost (some 800,000 casualties) to his people.

Rothman further sums up the reality of this war for Russia and its global power and economic influence: “Russia has been severely weakened by its avaricious war. So, too, are its allies. The Iranian regime is in arguably the most parlous position it has occupied since the 1980s. Its vassal in Damascus is deposed, and its 99-year lease on the Mediterranean port at Tartus is no more. Everywhere, it seems, the Russians are coming home. But not yet in Ukraine.”

In many ways, the U.S.‘s involvement in the Russia-Ukraine war has helped waste the Russians’ resources and caused them to retrench, and that retrenchment prompted Iran to implode. However, Russia and Iran aren’t the only parties in the axis of evil. There is still China, sitting like a spider in its web, waiting subtly to undermine American global hegemony. China and Russia were pushed very tightly together due to this war. Russia gives China cheap energy, and China finances Russia’s war of imperialism. Putin has a choice: continue to let China use the Russians as a shield, taking the West’s hits while the ChiComs sit back and watch, or negotiate a deal with Trump and live to fight another day.

While resolving the Russia-Ukraine war is currently in its posturing phase, there is great hope that President Trump, the great negotiator, will pull off a peace agreement between the two countries. As always, it will be very interesting to see how all this plays out.