One issue that President Trump has been especially well-positioned to make progress on is ending the war between Ukraine and Russia and improving the U.S. relationship with Russia. The recent agreement to swap prisoners, which brought home Marc Fogel, and planning for a Trump-Putin summit seems already shows that a rapprochement with Russia is in the works.

After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, President Joe Biden understandably didn’t want to acquiesce to that violation of international law; thus, U.S. (and European) relations with Russia plummeted, including the imposition of stringent economic sanctions that have strained the Russian economy but predictably have not caused it to withdrawal its forces from Ukraine.

However, Biden made a huge mistake by not trying to better relations with China, thus making it more likely that China would pressure Russia on Ukraine instead of providing technology for the war and buying Russian oil. Also, an attempted rapprochement with China would have avoided what had happened: those two great powers creating an entente of convenience to oppose the United States.

Richard Nixon, the ultimate realist as president, would have turned over in his grave at this development. Despite his corruption at home, the supremely anti-communist Nixon brilliantly capitalized on a falling out between Chinese and Soviet communists by going to China to ease the longstanding hatred between the United States........

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