Veteran broadcaster Chuck Todd painted President Trump’s diplomacy as a belief “in the rules of the jungle” as Trump ups pressure on Russia and Ukraine to end the more than three-year war in Eastern Europe.
“Donald Trump believes in the rules of the jungle, the bigger are in charge, the smaller have to — even if you’re — even if you have the moral ground, doesn’t matter, you don’t have the strength here,” Todd said Tuesday on CNN’s “The Arena” with host Dana Bash.
“So, this is a case where I think this is why some people — while we all may — people may have mistaken his support of Russia in some sort of nefarious way when it’s — he just views it as well, ‘Russia and China are the big people, and we have to deal with them differently than you do the others,’ which doesn’t sit well with people that believe in constitutional republics,” the former “Meet the Press” host said.
His comments come days after Trump met with the Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky separately. On Friday, he traveled to Alaska for his first face-to-face meeting with Putin since his first term in office. While few details were revealed about the conversation, Trump said the two made “progress” in their talks, but no deal was reached.
On Monday, he welcomed Zelensky and European leaders to the White House, where they discussed potential security guarantees. The Ukrainian leader said earlier this week that they discussed “many issues” at the meeting and touted “important negotiations” that were taking place.
Russia said Wednesday any talks around potential Western security guarantees for Ukraine as part of a wider peace deal to end the war are a “road to nowhere” unless they are a part of the discussions.
“We cannot agree with the fact that it is now proposed to resolve collective security issues without the Russian Federation. This will not work,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said during a press conference.
“We have already explained more than once that Russia does not overstate its interests, but we will ensure our legitimate interests firmly and harshly,” he added.
While a trilateral meeting between Zelensky, Putin and Trump has been floated, the president said the other two should meet first.
The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.
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