Berlin, Germany (Weltexpress). With a letter, Trump has forced European governments into a corner, leaving EU elites with a choice between a rock and a hard place.
Thanks to his willingness to engage in direct talks with the Russian side, Trump finally understood that his original demand for an unconditional ceasefire in Ukraine made no sense as long as the causes of the conflict had not first been resolved in negotiations. To the horror of the warmongers in the US Congress and the EU, Trump had thus largely aligned himself with the Russian position.
However, the Anglo-American and EU hawks have not given up. They have been trying all sorts of tricks to pin Trump down on his earlier statements, or to bring him back into line with manipulated reports or even ‘false flags’ – such as the recent fake, allegedly Russian drone attack against Poland. The aim is to implement the plans hatched by the EU/NATO to intervene in the Ukraine conflict with military contingents from NATO countries as part of an ‘alliance of the willing’. There is no question that in such a case, Russia – as it has repeatedly and credibly assured – will attack and destroy the EU/NATO invaders.
Without the reassurance (backstop) from the US that it will intervene on the side of the ‘willing’ in an emergency to prevent their destruction, no one from the circle of the “willing” would dare to intervene in Ukraine. However, a US backstop guarantee in the event of intervention by the ‘willing’ would inevitably lead to a direct military clash and war between the US and Russia.
But Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, had already given orders to do everything possible to avoid such a direct US clash with Russia in Ukraine. Trump is even more determined than Biden to avoid any military confrontation between the US and Russian military, especially since his goal is to restore normal intergovernmental relations with Russia.
The fact that the Russians and Americans have already made remarkable progress in this area is evidenced by the surprising presence of the American military attaché in Moscow at the major Russian-Belarusian military manoeuvre ‘Zapad-2025’ currently taking place in Belarus. Trump does not want to let anyone spoil his plans, especially not the European hawks who despise and mock him and his policies anyway, as the current events surrounding the derisive comments about the murder of Trump’s friend and supporter Charlie Kirk demonstrate.
Completely insensitive to the situation, the European hawks and their like-minded Russia-haters in the US Congress continue to try to corner Trump into deciding on a backstop for the ‘coalition of the willing’. The latest attempt in this direction was the grossly exaggerated political staging of unarmed drone dummies over Poland. Far beyond their range of 700 kilometres, they had penetrated up to 300 kilometres into Poland from Ukrainian territory, where they crashed without causing any damage, triggering aggressive hysteria throughout NATO, except in Washington.
The shortest distance from the current Russian-Ukrainian front line to Poland is just over 700 kilometres as the crow flies. In order to penetrate up to 300 kilometres into Poland, the drones in question would have had to be launched hundreds of kilometres beyond the front line on Ukrainian territory. But none of the influential Western politicians and their press prostitutes in the quality media are asking why the Russians would have done something so idiotic in the first place, who would benefit from it, and why there are so many logical contradictions in the official narrative of the alleged Russian drone attack on Poland. Of course, such questions are irrelevant to the EU/NATO hawks, because they believe the Russians are capable of anything, even the craziest things, as long as it fits their anti-Russian narrative.
EU hawks on the sidelines
But Trump did not fall for the false flag of the ‘Russian drone attack’ on Poland either. The EU hawks are probably further away today than ever before from Trump’s hoped-for guarantee of an American backstop for the ‘alliance of the willing’.
After weeks, perhaps even months, of waiting to see what Trump’s strategy would be to get himself out of the corner he had manoeuvred himself into with his ‘ceasefire ultimatum,’ we finally have the answer since 13 September. In what seems like a stroke of genius, Trump appears to have not only outmanoeuvred the EU hawks, but also pulled the rug out from under his anti-Russian critics in Congress.
Trump has forced Europe’s hand by making his actions regarding Ukraine dependent on Europe’s decision, but the EU elites can only choose between a rock and a hard place, and their best option is to do nothing.
According to Trump’s written position, Europe must either completely stop its ‘indirect’ purchases of Russian ‘shadow oil’ via India and other middlemen and at the same time impose ‘hellish tariffs’ on imports from China – which would bring about the complete collapse of Europe’s already crumbling economy. However, if Europe refuses to do so, Trump will maintain the status quo of providing the absolute minimum of support to Ukraine and essentially give Russia carte blanche to finish off Ukraine. But even that would be just as politically disastrous for the EU elites and warmongers as the first option.
The liberating move
With this step, Trump has managed – at least for the time being – to free himself from the impasse. He has outmanoeuvred his critics and the neoconservative hawks alike. Trump now has a plausible excuse for not escalating against Russia, because why should the US impose indirect sanctions ‘from hell’ and punitive tariffs on third countries at the request of the Europeans when Europe refuses to meet America halfway? ‘After all, it’s their war now,’ Trump said.
If Europeans were already dismayed by the United States’ moderate, calm and reasonable response to the ‘Russian drone over Poland’ incident, they were probably even more upset and outraged by the letter President Trump sent to all NATO leaders and simultaneously published for the world to see on his social media platform ‘Truth Social’.
Nevertheless, the European media took only brief note of this letter with minimal coverage. Some selectively quoted a few lines from it that fit their narrative, then quickly disposed of the whole thing in the memory hole. This was in stark contrast to the expected outcry over a letter from the US president admonishing his European vassals not to waste his time with their complaints. The ensuing silence in Europe suggests that governments there are unwilling to meet Trump’s demands, as they consider them impossible.
Let us now go through Trump’s letter step by step in German translation. Trump’s spelling is retained, with the use of CAPITAL LETTERS signalling particular significance: ‘I am prepared to impose massive sanctions on Russia as soon as all NATO member states agree to do the same and as soon as all NATO member states STOP BUYING OIL FROM RUSSIA. As you know, NATO’s commitment to VICTORY was well below 100 per cent, and the purchase of Russian oil by some members was shocking.’
This presumably refers not only to Hungary and Slovakia, which continue to buy Russian oil, but also to the majority of EU countries that purchase Russian oil indirectly through intermediaries such as India, which buys Russian crude oil, refines it and then exports it to Europe at a high price. It also affects Turkey, which buys large quantities of Russian oil, refines it and sells it to other European countries – oil that clearly originates from Russia. Trump continues: ‘This significantly weakens YOUR (European) negotiating position and bargaining power vis-à-vis Russia.’
The emphasis on ‘YOUR’ negotiating position – not that of NATO or the US – suggests that he is addressing the negotiating position of individual European countries. He adds: “Anyway, I am ready to do something if you are. Just tell me when. I believe that this, together with NATO as a group – including Turkey, Hungary and Slovakia – by imposing 50 to 100 per cent tariffs on China, which will be completely withdrawn once the WAR between Russia and Ukraine is over, will be very helpful in ending this DEADLY but RIDICULOUS WAR. China has a strong grip and even Russia under its thumb, and these powerful tariffs will break that grip.‘
This points to a larger goal: using tariffs against Russia, China and other BRICS countries to disrupt their alliances. Trump recently referred to a photo of Putin, Modi and Xi and commented that the US had ’lost India and Russia to sinister China”. His advisers are apparently labouring under the misapprehension that Western tariffs against China could weaken relations between China and Russia. He continues: ‘This is not TRUMP’S WAR. It would never have started if I had been president. It is Biden’s and Zelensky’s war.’
It is noteworthy here that Trump did not refer to the conflict as ‘Putin’s war,’ but instead blamed Biden and Zelensky.
“I am only here to stop it (the war) and save thousands of Russian and Ukrainian lives – 7,118 lives were lost last week alone. Crazy. If NATO does what I say, the war will be over quickly and all those lives will be saved. If not, you are just wasting my time and the time, energy and money of the United States. Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
Signed, Donald Trump, President of the United States.
The sentence that probably provoked the strongest reactions in European government circles is: ‘If not, you are just wasting my time and the time, energy and money of the United States.’ In other words, Trump’s message to Europe is something like this: “If you want me to impose massive secondary sanctions and tariffs on China, India, other BRICS countries and Russia, I am ready to do so, but you must also take action. You must stop buying Russian oil and Russian liquefied natural gas.”
With this letter, Trump has – at least for the time being – managed to extricate himself from the impasse into which European warmongers and neoconservative US hawks in Congress had manoeuvred him. If they now want to push Trump to escalate against Russia again, Trump has a plausible explanation ready for them: ‘Why should we Americans impose such sanctions in favour of the Europeans when the Europeans refuse to meet us halfway? After all, it’s their war.’
Admittedly, this is a strong manoeuvre by Trump. It may even last! A screenshot of the Trump letter follows:
