Official Europe is anxious and apprehensive about Friday’s summit in Alaska between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. Perhaps their worst fears will finally be realised, and Trump will force Volodymyr Zelensky to sign a deal that imperils Ukraine’s existence.
But perhaps not. It’s worth recalling that this is not the first time that Trump brokered an unprecedented summit with the world expecting him get suckered by or sign a bad deal with a tyrant.
That summit – with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un in Hanoi in 2019 – did not turn out the way the global elites expected.
Kim did offer Trump a bad deal, purportedly promising to only stop some of the nation’s nuclear programme in exchange for America lifting its crushing economic sanctions. That’s the deal most elites thought Trump would take in his pursuit of plaudits and a Nobel Peace Prize.
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