The Trump administration's latest pivot in its efforts to end Russia's war in Ukraine unsettled a war expert, who argued in a new Substack essay published on Sunday that the move exposes the administration's strategy as a "con."
Last week, the administration released a 28-point peace plan for the war in Ukraine, which experts noted seemed to have been authored by Russian authorities. The plan calls for Ukraine to drastically scale down its military, give up land occupied by Russian forces, and destroy its long-range missiles.
Phillips P. O'Brien, a professor of strategic studies at the University of St. Andrew, argued in a new Substack essay that the deal shows the Trump administration is a "mouthpiece" for the Russian government.
"Not only has the Trump administration ended its 'Long Con'...the con being that Trump and his acolytes were actually honest brokers and wanted to work with Putin and might hammer Russia," O'Brien argued. "It has even gone further. The Trump administration is now a mouthpiece for Russian demands and an agent to have Russian wishes met."
He also argued that the Trump administration can no longer be considered "honest brokers or even supporters of Ukraine."
"The idea that Trump and his administration could be honest brokers or even supporters of Ukraine was a con," he wrote. "They changed tack when their first strategy of bullying Ukraine blew up in their faces. Since then, they have bided their time, done a great deal of playacting, but were always going to return to what they were—Putin supporters because of Trump’s basic wishes to work with the Russian dictator."
"The reality that the administration seems happy to take text directly from Russian documents and pass that on as official US positions, I hope, ends any debate over this," he added.