When Trump Meets Putin, Whose Ghost Will Follow Him: Teddy Roosevelt’s or Neville Chamberlain’s?

Campaigning for president in 2024, Donald Trump promised to end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours. Yeah, right.

Since then, in the face of repeated failures to end the conflict, Trump asserts the war never would’ve started had he been president. Yeah, right again.

Talk is cheap, as he also keeps repeating that 5,000, er, 7,000 troops a week die in the conflict. If that were the case, Ukraine would probably be completely depopulated of fighting-age men by now.

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Anyway, after the bombast, Trump will finally get to go face to face with Vladimir Putin, with a ceasefire deal the presumed topic. Where this will take place, no one has stated yet, but it appears to be on the calendar for next week.

Regardless of the time or place, however, one of two Trumps may show up: the 24-hour man of peace or the realist who knows he needs to turn the screws tighter on Putin.

I frame this as two ghosts fighting for the man’s ear: That of Neville Chamberlain and “peace for our time,” and that of Teddy Roosevelt, “speak softly amd carry a big stick.”

Now, there’s nothing wrong with peace except when it’s an illusion, as it was with British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and his Munich Pact with Hitler. “Peace for our time” lasted only a few months before World War II broke out.

Teddy Roosevelt faced no world wars, but he and his Rough Riders were quite the force to cope with. And when he finished the Panama Canal and Colombia would not cede territorial control, Roosevelt simply created the nation of Panama through the threat of force.

So, a lot is riding on which ghost gets Trump’s ear. If it’s Neville’s, it will result in a delaying tactic — at best — for Putin, who will only continue his territorial grab later on. If it’s Roosevelt’s, Trump will make clear that the land grab is over once and for all.

If I were a betting man, I’d say Chamberlain wins the day.