Trump says he’s trying to entice Russia to negotiate.
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he → say → Russia
It doesn’t appear to be working
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It → appear → ?
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- Instead of supporting Ukraine, the victim of a foreign military invasion, Trump been pressing the Zelensky to accept Putin’s demands for territory.
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Trump → click → territory
Trump said he was trying to entice the Russian leader to negotiate by giving him preemptive rewards.
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he → say → rewards
At first glance, President Trump’s decision to relax U.S. sanctions on Russia despite its continuing invasion of Ukraine was a dramatic break from principles that guided American foreign policy for most of a century.
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that → relax → century
Since the end of World War II, U.S.-Russian relations have oscillated between hostility and friendship, but one element was consistent: When Russia tried to take over one if its neighbors, the United States pushed back.
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States → oscillate → one
This time, though, the United States appeared to favor the aggressor, not the victim.
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States → appear → aggressor
“The Trump administration has abandoned any pretense of being an honest broker,” Richard N. Haass, a former senior State Department official under then-President George W. Bush, wrote last week.
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Haass → abandon → Bush
“It has gone all in on Russia’s side.”
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It → go → side
The break from long-standing tradition was real, but it should not have been entirely surprising.
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it → stand → tradition
Trump has long expressed admiration for Russia’s autocratic leader, Vladimir Putin — part of a syndrome one of his former aides, Fiona Hill, has called “autocrat envy.
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one → express → aides
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“He wants to rule like them,” she said, referring to the president’s bromances with Putin, China’s Xi Jinping and other strongmen.
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she → want → Putin
Trump’s push to end the war that has raged since 2022 comes as midterm elections could give Democrats control of Congress, expanding their oversight powers.
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elections → end → powers
Meanwhile, Trump often expresses disdain for democratically elected leaders of smaller countries, and he reserves a special loathing for the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky.
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he → express → Ukraine
He has repeatedly said Zelensky was foolish to resist Russia’s 2022 invasion because, in his view, the larger country is almost certain to win the war.
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country → say → war
“Russia is a massive country,” he said this month.
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he → say → ?
“Even if it loses a million soldiers, it still has a million more.
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it → lose → more
Ukraine doesn’t have that kind of manpower.”
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Ukraine → have → manpower
Moreover, Trump has long believed U.S. companies could reap an economic bonanza from Russia’s resource-rich economy.
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companies → believe → economy
As a real estate magnate, he spent 30 years seeking deals in Moscow; in 2008, his son Donald Jr. said Russians had provided the Trump Organization “a lot of our assets.”
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Russians → spend → assets
In the short run, the president hopes to boost Republican prospects in next week’s midterm elections by buying diesel fuel from Russia — a move aimed at lowering prices at the cost of bolstering Putin’s war economy.
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president → hop → economy
(It hasn’t worked; the price of diesel has risen slightly since Trump’s decision.)
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price → work → decision
But he has a longer-term goals as well.
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he → have → goals
He has long believed better relations between the United States and Russia would be good for both countries, no matter who’s in power in Moscow.
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who → believe → Moscow
And he has long yearned openly for a Nobel Peace Prize — and one way might be to arrange a durable ceasefire in Ukraine.
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way → yearn → Ukraine
All those factors have led Trump to overturn two major elements of traditional U.S. foreign policy.
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factors → lead → policy
Instead of supporting Ukraine, the victim of a foreign military invasion, he’s been pressing the Zelensky to accept Putin’s demands for territory.
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he → support → territory
“President Trump still wants a personal relationship with Putin, and he wants to change the nature of the bilateral U.S.-Russian relationship.
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he → want → relationship
So what President Trump is trying to do is get Ukraine out of the way. ...
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Ukraine → try → way
President Trump wants Zelensky to capitulate,” Hill said.
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Hill → want → ?
“Zelensky has to want to settle this war, and if he doesn’t, I think it’s going to be a very bad thing,” Trump said last week.
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Trump → have → war
As he issued that advice, Ukraine’s army was experiencing interruptions with three forms of U.S. military help: Starlink, the communications system it uses to guide its anti-drone missiles; U.S.-provided early radar warnings of Russian missile attacks; and supplies of Patriot anti-missile weapons.
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it → issue → weapons
U.S. officials claimed the three incidents were not deliberate — but to Ukrainians, they felt like a warning.
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they → claim → warning
Meanwhile, instead of putting pressure on Putin through the traditional means of economic sanctions, Trump said he was trying to entice the Russian leader to negotiate by giving him preemptive rewards.
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he → put → rewards
“I am in the process of negotiating Peace in the war between Russia and Ukraine, and don’t want to do anything that will drive, foolishly, Russia away from the bargaining table,” he explained on Truth Social.
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he → negotiate → Social
“Great progress is being made.”
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progress → make → ?
But signs of that progress were hard to find.
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signs → find → progress
In St. Petersburg last week, Trump’s personal envoy, Steve Witkoff, presented Putin with a ceasefire proposal that the Americans negotiated with Ukraine and European countries.
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Americans → present → Ukraine
A top Putin aide dismissed the document, saying it “contained little of real value.”
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it → dismiss → value
Instead, the Russian president offered to increase Russian fertilizer exports to U.S. farmers.
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president → offer → farmers
…and 13 more, not listed.
The Aporia
