Rubio Says U.S. May Quit Ukraine Cease-Fire Talks

Threat to Move On Is Latest Gift to Putin's Cause

Author

Matt Davis
April 19, 2025

Morning. What do you notice about this image?

It’s a sausage party! (Or should that be saucisson? It was in Paris, after all…)

Today’s lead story is about how the Trump administration has failed to deliver on the president’s campaign promise to end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours. In fact…

“If it is not possible to end the war in Ukraine, we need to move on,” Mr. Rubio told reporters a day after meeting with President Emmanuel Macron of France, adding that the Trump administration would decide “in a matter of days whether or not this is doable in the next few weeks.”

The remarks are sure to worry Ukraine, which relies extensively on U.S. military support. Mr. Trump on Friday made veiled reference to at least one of the parties, and I’m going to guess it’s Russia. But you never know with Trump. He could be talking about his grandmother.

“If for some reason one of the two parties makes it very difficult, we’re just going to say you’re foolish, you’re fools, you’re horrible people, and we’re just going to take a pass,” Mr. Trump said from the Oval Office. “But hopefully we won’t have to do that.”

Hopefully not! Of course, this doesn’t really position the U.S. as a leader in global affairs. But I’m not sure any of us is under any illusions about that any more. Meanwhile 2,500 soldiers are dying each week. And here, of course, is a more important truth:

Mykhailo Samus, the director of the New Geopolitics Research Network in Kyiv, said that an American exit from peace talks would mean an open acknowledgment of Mr. Trump’s “powerlessness regarding the Russia-Ukraine war.”

Essentially Mr. Trump is impotent. He may be inclined to sexually abuse women in the changing rooms at Bergdorf Goodman, and then defame them over the issue, to attempt to prove otherwise. He may send too many men to broker peace. But on the global stage he can’t get it up. That’s the point.

My favorite part of the article is the correction. It’s extraordinary:

Lol.

There’s also an analysis piece by David Sanger, who asks whether the U.S. is washing its hands of the conflict, or of Ukraine itself.

Whatever Mr. Rubio’s meaning, his words were the latest American gift to Mr. Putin’s cause. At every turn since Mr. Trump’s inauguration, he or his top national security aides have issued statements that played to Russia’s advantage: taking NATO membership for Ukraine off the table, repeatedly declaring that Ukraine would have to give up territory and even blaming Ukraine for the invasion itself.

And that’s not strength, is it? 98% of Trump voters may stand by their choice to vote for the guy but I’m more inclined to support the recent swathe of AI-generated memes on the U.S.-Russia relationship, frankly.

Why is this a disaster? Well, I suppose it’s the whole killing Ukrainians thing.

“This is exactly what Putin wants,” said Fiona Hill, the Putin biographer who led the Russia and Europe section of the National Security Council during Mr. Trump’s first term, before quitting and testifying against him in his first impeachment inquiry.

Mr. Trump’s “priority is to be able to deal directly with Russia, to put Ukraine to one side and proceed with business and other deals with Russia,” Ms. Hill said. “That is the trajectory we are on, and it’s the trajectory that Trump has always wanted to be on. He’s been very consistent on this.”

The really amusing part of all this is that even if Trump rolls over completely and tells Mr. Putin he can “absorb” Ukraine, as suggested by some of his envoys recently, Mr. Putin wouldn’t accept that either, because he wants to be at war with the territory to bolster his relationships across Asia:

“Even if Trump’s overtures to Putin yield a superficial thaw in the U.S.-Russian relationship, Putin’s fundamental mistrust of the West will make a genuine reconciliation impossible,” Alexander Gabuev, the director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, wrote this week in Foreign Affairs. “He cannot be sure that Trump will successfully push Europe to restore ties with Russia, and he knows that, in 2028, a new U.S. administration may simply make another policy U-turn.”

What a completely shameful farce this all is.

Say, is there a story on the front page that might make me feel better?

Oh, sure. You can read Robert E. McGinnis’s obituary. He drew filthy posters for Bond films, like this:

Subtlety was his forte.

Thanks for letting me read the newspaper so that you don’t have to!

Matt Davis lives in Manhattan with his wife and kid.

Standard disclaimer: I read the top story in the New York Times every morning so that you don’t have to. If you were forwarded this, you can subscribe here. I’m also doing a five-minute video version of this, each weekday morning at around 9 a.m. (depending on how long it takes me to read the newspaper). If you’d like to follow me on LinkedIn (you can always watch the recording later). If you subscribe to my Youtube channel it’ll also send you a notification when I’m “going live.”