Donald Trump has regularly boasted that his deal-making prowess and special relationship with Vladimir Putin meant he would resolve the war in Ukraine quickly.

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So, what was his cunning plan, his unique insight? Basically, it amounts to surrender. Abject and dishonourable.

In one of history's more craven capitulations, Trump's stripe has turned out to be yellow rather than golden.

First though, he would extract a US$500 billion price for military support already supplied, via American rights to Ukraine's lucrative mineral estate.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who had bravely foregone a US offer of safe passage when the Russians invaded, initially resisted this plunder, declaring he wanted to save his country, not sell it.

But of course, the Ukrainian leader faced what The Godfather's Don Vito Corleone called "an offer he can't refuse".

Trump's cloying accommodation of Vladimir Putin comes dressed in an obviously counterfeit American pacifism. He simply wants to end the "fighting" his supporters insist. This, in turn, relies on an absurd equivalence between resisting military subjugation (every nation's right) and invading a neighbour (an international crime).

On his path to peace, America's master negotiator has repeatedly buoyed the Kremlin with moves that have weakened Ukraine, legitimised an aggressive pariah state, and handed Moscow possibly its greatest morale boost since the fall of Saigon (50 years ago next month).

These include withdrawing Ukraine's strongest negotiating position - the threat of American military might; pausing US military supply shipments; and freezing US intel used to detect Russian troop movements.

From experience, I can attest that outlining these points on social media invites an avalanche of Trump-Putin cultists who willfully ignore who started the war and claim all support for Ukraine amounts to being "pro-killing" and in favour of "endless war".

The gun........

© Canberra Times