The tone has changed totally. It’s a remarkable turnaround from the Oval Office meltdown to the perfect phone call.
President Trump is wholly transactional. His desire for give and take far outweighs any ideological instincts. He has no particular alignment to Ukraine or, for that matter, to Russia.
He just wants a deal. Peace would stop the killing as he has said repeatedly. It would also allow for deals which can benefit America: recouping the taxpayer money spent on Ukraine and reconnecting the American economy with Russia.
But trumping all that is his legacy and his image. He wants to be seen as the peacemaker president.
Since the Oval Office moment, Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy seems now to have recognised all that.
Ukraine’s approach towards Trump has changed. Zelenskyy is now playing his game: transactionalism.
The minerals deal hasn’t dissolved. The indications I am getting is that it’s essentially been upgraded and broadened to a wider scope: fuller economic cooperation.
Zelenskyy needs to encourage America deep into his country economically. Has he bought into the idea that a US economic footprint amounts to a key part of a security guarantee?
Read more:
A timeline of Trump and Zelenskyy’s relationship
What could be the future of Ukraine?
Sky’s correspondents react to Trump-Putin phone call
The old adage is: “If you are not at the table, you are on the menu.” That’s too true with President Trump.
Zelenskyy now feels like he’s at the table and I am told he doesn’t feel coerced.
The challenges remain huge though: he doesn’t trust Putin. That’s what he tried to tell President Trump in the Oval Office. The performance that day proved to him that Trump is inclined to trust Putin.
Zelenskyy must use transactionalism to draw an impatient Trump in.
President Trump is in a hurry for a deal. He’s inclined to accept wholly disingenuous commitments from Russia, or as one source put it to me: “Trump has a high tolerance for bullsh*t…”
That’s the jeopardy for Zelenskyy.
