US President Donald Trump promised to achieve peace in Ukraine in 24 hours. Then he rectified, and adjusted to some 100 days. To this day, the agreement has not arrived and Trump admits that “It’s harder than I thought“. In the ‘Ukraine Diary’ podcast, Alana Moceriprofessor of international relations at IE University, explains that we must remember Trump is a businessman. “He is used to saying what he wants and that the people in his companies do it. But in the world of international relations is much more difficult“.
Trump boasted about his relationship with Putinbut as Moceri explains, this is not business. “Putin does whatever he wants. Trump thought that with that relationship they would be able to negotiate something. But they are not negotiating the sale of a building. This is a sovereign country.”
Trump, impossible to predict
“Someone has said that Trump’s mind It’s like chasing a squirrel through the garden“recalls Moceri, who agrees with analysts on the difficulties of analyzing the American president’s movements. “There is no doctrine, there is no plan, it’s what comes out of his head at any moment. “He doesn’t follow some values and beliefs, which we use to predict what he’s going to do.” So, it’s hard to guess what his interests might be for Ukraine. “He wants to solve that and reach a peace deal so he can show off.”
In this last year we have seen the show in the White House when he called the Ukrainian president “ungrateful,” and also a moment of confidence in the Vatican. “There are moments when he has treated Zelensky terribly and others when they seem like old friends. That’s Trump.” Although he believes that at this moment, relations are better after their meeting at Mar-a-Lago. “He said that a friend of his had married a Ukrainian woman and put her on the phone. Things that are surrealists in the international relationswe are talking about a war. That’s what these leaders seem to have to do with Trump, find a way to connect with him personally. It is precisely what Trump imagined he would be able to do with Putin. It’s a negotiation tactic, we negotiate better with people we like,” he explains.
Putin and Trump, far from being friends
Last August Trump received Vladimir Putin in Alaska. “It was nothing more than a show. Trump thinks he has a special relationship with Putin, but we all know that Putin has no friends in the international world, he is a cold man and he only thinks about his challenges for his country.”
In fact, Moceri believes Trump has realized this year that Putin is toying with him. “That may help Zelensky’s cause,” he says. The situation is complicated, and the personalities of the leaders who manage it make the situation worse, “they have enormous egos,” he points out.
Those who lose, in the end, are the Ukrainians and the Russians. “As always, the leaders do not suffer, it is the people who are on the streets every day fighting for their lives,” he concludes.
‘Ukraine Diary’ is a podcast in which you will find the necessary context to understand what is happening in the war after the Russian invasion. In each edition we hear from analysts, military personnel, journalists, humanitarian workers and Ukrainian and Russian citizens who suffer this conflict firsthand.
