Who is the Trump whisperer who successfully suggested a change of course to the President? Knowledgeable sources say it is not Elon Musk. Whoever he is, in substance the Trump whisperer has pushed a policy course that confers immense strategic and other benefits to China.
CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping must be heaving a sigh of relief. His nightmare scenario of a rapprochement between the US and Russia under Presidents Trump and Putin suddenly appears to be as improbable as such a reconciliation was under Joe Biden when he was President of the US. In a space of less than a week, Trump appears to have shifted 180 degrees from his stance that the Russian Federation and the US need to be friends of each other in the era of Cold War 2.0 between the US and China. The Trump proposal for a 30-day unconditional ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia, accompanied by as copious a flow of US intel and weapons to Ukraine as was the case under Biden, aligns entirely with the interest of Zelenskyy in such a pause but not in the slightest of Putin. Were the Kremlin to agree to such a call from the White House, the Russian side would cease offensive operations when they are on the offensive across all fronts in the Russia-Ukraine war in a way that makes the collapse of Ukrainian forces on several fronts, imminent. President Zelenskyy is desperate for such a temporary and unconditional cessation of hostilities. Now that US weapons, including missiles and warheads, are joining whatever supplies of lethal equipment France, Germany and the UK scrounge together in order to keep the conflict aflame, President Zelenskyy would once again be able to resume the fusillade of attacks after a needed respite on Russia, including on the territories that have been incorporated into the Russian Federation in 2022. It may be mentioned that the Russian nuclear doctrine is explicit that any attack on the territory of Russia could be met with the full panoply of Russian weapons, including nuclear. Add European “peacekeepers” into the conflict in an already toxic brew, and the ingredients are all present for what Candidate Trump and later President Trump warned was going to be World War III. What voters for peace who chose Trump over Biden think about such a volte face is unknown, but is unlikely to be favourable. By once again resuming lethal arms supplies to Ukraine and implicitly sanctioning their use inside what Russia considers to be its territory, the US has joined with France, the UK and other countries who have since 2022 followed the policy which Trump is presently advocating. By such a shift in direction, Trump is making the US as much a co-combatant in the Ukraine war as the UK and France already are. Other countries, including friends and partners of either or both the US and the EU, such as India, would be hoping that the present kinetic conflict does not become a nuclear showdown.
The potential consequences of the reversal of policy by Trump on Ukraine must be clear to his chosen security choices, for the only Great Power gainer would be China. Up in a puff of battlefield smoke will go prospects for an early and lasting cessation of hostilities between NATO and the Russian Federation or a reconciliation with the US. The nightmare scenario for China of such a detente between Washington and Moscow would enter the realm of the improbable, if not yet impossible. Who is the Trump whisperer who successfully suggested such a change of course to the President? Informed sources say it is not Elon Musk. Whoever he is, in substance the Trump whisperer has pushed a policy course which confers immense strategic and other benefits to China, which has for long engaged in an open confrontation with US, the latter being the country that has long been the pre-eminent power on the world stage. The tragedy is that the strategy of Donald Trump concerning Moscow, which he had held on to for decades, had the capacity to ensure a close to a conflict that has caused severe damage across the world. During the previous century, Europe held the doubtful distinction of having leaders in key countries who wilfully, as in the case of Adolf Hitler, or who inadvertently, sleepwalked into causing conflagrations of an unprecedented scale during 1939-45 and 2014-17 respectively. It would appear that some of the leaders in Europe are intent on repeating that dismal history not deliberately, but once more sleepwalking into another unprecedented conflagration by serially testing the limits of Russian patience, or what mainstream media in those countries scorn as “bluffing by Putin”. Those in leadership positions in the EU appear to be sleepwalking towards a kinetic showdown with Russia, The populace in the countries they lead are wiser, for increasingly they are turning to political parties opposed to continuing a war in that is already devastating to their country. In Germany, the results of the Bundestag elections were a wakeup call that Merz once sworn in as Chancellor would do well to heed. Deaf to such voices in their intoxication with the war, the Trump reversal of policy towards Ukraine has been welcomed by practically all boosters of the war in the EU. When those who dislike Trump start singing his praises, the time has come for him to worry. The chorus of approval and support from EU cheerleaders of the war who have never been fans of Trump are voices that the President of the US would do well to heed in reverse. Besides of course, identifying and isolating the whisperer who urged so clear such a volte face in Ukraine policy to him, advice that for now at least he appears to have followed. Given his shrewdness, it is very probable that President Trump will understand the trap into which he has been led by the unknown whisperer who peddles a line that plays into the hand of CCP General Secretary Xi. The US President needs to go back to his original policy of refusing to allow the US to stumble into a kinetic conflict with Russia over Ukraine. If anything could dissuade the remaining cheerleaders of the Ukraine war in the EU from following a path that seems on course to lead to a direct war between them and Russia, it would be a decision by President Trump that the US wants no part in such a war.