By Peter Brown
Watching the press conference between President Trump and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was not just uncomfortable – it was disqualifying.
It wasn’t merely that it was awkward, or chaotic, or diplomatically embarrassing. It was that it stripped away a long-standing assumption most of the world still clings to: that when wars need ending, the United States is the natural broker of peace.
After what we saw, that assumption no longer holds.
For decades, America has positioned itself – and been accepted – as the indispensable mediator in global conflicts. From the Middle East to the Balkans, from Asia to Latin America, when negotiations stalled or violence escalated, eyes turned to Washington. This was rarely because the US was neutral, wise, or morally superior. It was because it was powerful.
Peace deals are not secured by goodwill alone. They are enforced by leverage. The United States could apply military pressure, withhold or provide aid, impose sanctions, unlock trade, and marshal alliances. It could make failure costly and compromise rewarding. That power made it the default broker – not virtue.
But power only works as diplomacy when it is disciplined.
What we witnessed in that press conference was not disciplined power. It was something else entirely.
The problem was not simply tone. It was visible partiality. When the leader of the world’s most powerful country appears to indulge or echo the framing of an aggressor – while hosting the president of an invaded nation – neutrality is not just absent, it is inverted. A mediator cannot lean towards the arsonist while lecturing the homeowner on fire safety.
This matters because the United States has never truly been neutral in peace negotiations. It has always had favourites, allies, and strategic interests. It favoured Israel in Middle East talks, South Korea on the peninsula, Saudi Arabia in Yemen, and friendly governments over insurgent movements elsewhere. The difference, historically, was that Washington still maintained the appearance of rules-based leadership. It spoke the language of international law, sovereignty, and deterrence – even when it bent those rules itself.
Under Trump, that pretence has collapsed.
Foreign policy is no longer institutional or strategic; it is personalised, transactional, and grievance-driven. Peace is treated not as a moral or legal outcome, but as a “deal” to be claimed, branded, or leveraged for personal or political advantage. That destroys trust. You cannot broker peace if one party believes the mediator is negotiating for himself.
In that context, Ukraine has every reason to doubt America’s suitability as an intermediary. So do America’s allies. So does anyone watching from outside the room.
The obvious question follows: if not the United States, then who?
There is no shortage of more competent, sober, and even-handed leaders and governments. But competence alone does not end wars. The United Nations is constrained by vetoes and lacks enforcement power. The European Union is internally divided and slow to act militarily. Countries like Norway and Switzerland are respected mediators, but they cannot compel outcomes. China has leverage, but its interests are opaque and its version of order is no less self-serving. Turkey can convene talks, but its credibility is inconsistent.
In other words, many actors are better behaved than the US – but few are feared and funded enough to force compromise.
This is the bind the world now finds itself in.
The United States has historically brokered peace not because it was trusted by all sides, but because it was strong enough to impose consequences and restrained enough to pretend it cared about rules. Yesterday’s spectacle showed that restraint is gone. What remains is raw power without credibility – and that is not a tool of peace, but a source of instability.
If the world begins to look elsewhere for mediation, it will not be because something better has emerged. It will be because Washington has made itself too erratic, too partisan, and too compromised to rely upon.
The danger is not that America will be replaced as a broker. The danger is that it won’t be replaced at all.
A world without a credible mediator does not become fairer. It becomes colder. Conflicts freeze rather than resolve. Wars drag on at lower intensity, killing fewer people per day but for far longer. International law weakens not with a bang, but with exhaustion.
That press conference may come to be seen as a turning point – not just in US–Ukraine relations, but in how the world views American leadership. Once the mask slips, power alone is no longer enough. And once trust is lost, it is painfully hard to recover.
The United States once brokered peace because it could. After yesterday, it may no longer be able to – and the consequences of that should worry all of us.
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It is so. I am so sorry that Australia is so firmly attached to the Yankee rectum. They are not our friends or allies.
Even for dimwits, say, like Ms. CASH, Trump betrays himself and appears, clearly, as a dimwit, untrained, uncouth, undisciplined, undereducated. Diplomacy, negotiation, discussion, compromise, social superiority in skilled dialogue, is just too Talleyrand, Metternich, Disraeli and Bismarckian for an oafish felon.
We could be moving into an era where there is global recognition that warfare is no longer financially viable, and the weapons makers consider closing their doors.
Be honest, the cost these days for a modest guided missile is getting to be more that 12 months salary! Sending them into folk crouched in tents makes negative profit.
War is not going to be kept alive by the peasants, and maybe the focus will shift to the less important business of saving this planet for the next generation?
“Washington has made itself too erratic, too partisan, and too compromised”.
Almost there.
“Too Corrupted” nails it I think. And I’m talking about the filthy, black, stinking ooze now coursing through America’s veins – courtesy of Trump, the Typhoid Mary of Corruption.
The mere fact that Trump cannot bring his influence to bear on Putin to agree to a ceasefire does not auger well for a peace deal.
It is impossible to consider these as peace negotiations when Putin cannot be brought to the table and he refuses the very fundamental necessity of an immediate ceasefire so that meaningful peace negotiations can take place.
When I see Netanyahu leaving the Whitehouse grinning like a Cheshire cat after ‘good old boy’ talks with Trump, I have to say, ‘it’s all over for a Palestinian state’. Let’s remind ourselves where we should be up to on Gaza by now:
“Gaza will be governed under the temporary transitional governance of a technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee, responsible for delivering the day-to-day running of public services and municipalities for the people in Gaza. This committee will be made up of qualified Palestinians and international experts, with oversight and supervision by a new international transitional body, the “Board of Peace,” which will be headed and chaired by President Donald J. Trump, with other members and heads of state to be announced, including Former Prime Minister Tony Blair. This body will set the framework and handle the funding for the redevelopment of Gaza until such time as the Palestinian Authority has completed its reform programme, as outlined in various proposals, including President Trump’s peace plan in 2020 and the Saudi-French proposal, and can securely and effectively take back control of Gaza. This body will call on best international standards to create modern and efficient governance that serves the people of Gaza and is conducive to attracting investment.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c70155nked7o
NB: Tony Blair has already been dismissed as potential head of the Board of Peace with no other candidate so far proposed
“America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests.” — Henry Kissinger, war criminal.
That press conference was cringeworthy. I haven’t felt this embarrassed for someone since Fred Flinstone in a cartoon from 1964.
The ghost of Kissinger is starting to get a pretty fair run over the last month or so.
Dr Strangelove must be rattling his bones with glee at East Europe, Palestine etc.
Back to the topic.
Douglas Pritchard set of a memory from only the last couple of days:
A squalid tent city ina a rained-out bog, and some skinny kid out in the rain and probably vulnrable.
Under Trump, the international standing of the US has plummeted.
Putin had already proved to be a corrupt, brutal, expansionist fascist.
Trump has only emboldened him.
A complete debacle
Considering that the US has been the instigator of so much warring over the past 80 years would it be such a bad thing for their power to be cut back?
I understand that warring nations need to have a strong mediator for both sides to see the futility of their conflicts and the benefits of finding common ground and peace for their people and their country’s. But it needs to be a mediator that is there to benefit the victims of war, and that is not the US whose main interest has been instigating and prolonging wars for its own benefit, not the benefit of the average American, or the world in general, but for the benefit of the wealthy and what is known as the military industrial complex.
Donald Trump may well be doing the world a favour in his own strange and irrational way by alienating those that thought they were allies, and by reducing the influence that US has and making the rest of the world start to act like adults instead of running to “daddy” each time they feel threatened.
Whether they like it or not the Ukraine is part of the European mainland, the other European nation states need to decide whether then want a Russian Ukraine or not, and if not, to do what needs to be done to bring an end to the Russian invasion of Ukrainian territories and bring peace to Europe.
It should be glaringly obvious that relying on the US to broker an equitable peace between the Ukraine and Russia is a fools errand, trump is in the thrall of Putin, and if he can possibly do it he will turn the US into a Russian type state with him at the head of it in perpetuity.
Kissinger told the world decades ago where the US stands and nothing has changed, if anything it has become more insular and self interested. It has always been thus but with trump the mask has come off and the intent of the US is plain to be seen by all.
And if anyone thinks that the democrats could turn the US ship of state around at the 2026 mid term elections or even the 2028 presidential elections, I would suggest that they are sadly mistaken. The democrats are a softer version of the republicans, they have no more answers than the republicans have and as much chance of make major changes in the short term as the republicans have of introducing an equitable society for Americans.
A timely lesson for all the world’s leaders that allowing one country to become so powerful and depending on its largesse is a recipe for dictatorship.
Wow. What a dreadful performance by Trump.
Disgusting, and as bad has been the implicit support for Putin &/or confected opposition to Ukraine, US, EU and NATO since his invasions from too many nasty Anglo narcissists.
The latter by both the white Christian right and the old faux anti-imperialist ‘tankie’ left; too easy for Australians to be low empathy like Americans due to ignorance…..and no media to inform except about US and UK, hence, figures quietly supported by oligarchs are followed by the left?
Prime example is American faux geopolitical expert Mearsheimer supported by Charles Koch Foundation and Putin’s Valdai Club, but platformed like Sachs, by one local indie media outlet….and cited elsewhere by the ‘tankie left’; too easy…
Europe is different, views the Anglo left as conservative and out of touch, while always suspected the frenemies or the three amigos in Putin, Netanyahu and Trump regimes as complicit.
October 7 was manna from heaven for these corrupt cowboys, giving Putin a breather vs Ukraine, keeping Netanyahu out of court and Trump watched as everyone blamed Biden, Harris, universities & students (voter suppression inc liberal Jews), stymying Harris’ electoral chances.
Frustrating watching the same old right and left avoiding scrutiny on eg. the right’s pro-Putin allies offshore inc Fox News etc. or how some high profile pro-Palestine supporters are also pro-Putin*?
Finally, it’s embarrassing watching our RW MSM inc ABC grovel around offshore Anglo public figures, but indie media does too by platforming ‘tankies’ who lack credibility elsewhere?
*Won’t mention names, but one was constantly messaging in media vs Ukraine (& US) post Feb ’22, then Oct 7 stopped, then quickly switched focus to Palestine; while furiously deleting previous anti-Ukraine social media posts…..
Seems to be a hierarchy of care or empathy that precludes attention to all offshore conflicts locally eg. Myanmar, Sudan, West Sahara etc versus easily accessible Anglo media content, therefore it’s news?
I am wondering what if any link there is between Israel refusing to consider helping Ukraine when Russia invaded, the US and others ignoring the Budapest agreement, and then the incomprehensible Israel attack on Gaza, and the privileged place Putin has in Trumps America.