Mike's Minute: Donald Trump has common sense on his side

You can argue until you are blue in the face as to whether what happened at the White House on Saturday was bullying, or unfair, but what the U.S President has on his side is common sense and military power. As Zelenskyy slunk off to Downing Street for a hug with Keir Starmer and today's meeting with King Charles, what few in Europe seem to understand is that saying you back Ukraine doesn’t win a war, or come close to it. Without America, this thing is over, and fast. Mark Rutte gets that, hence his plea to Zelenskyy to repair the damage. Norway promised more resource, or at least said they would ask their Parliament. The UK announced another 2.5 billion pound loan. But for what? This thing is three years old and is going nowhere, at best with America fully on board it is a stalemate. It is, as so many have put it now, a meat grinder and Russia has more meat to grind. What was on display in Washington was a simple reality of the Trump administration - they are not interested in war, they are interested in deals. A mineral agreement sees the Americans on the ground in Ukraine. No one is rolling over American interests militarily in Ukraine. Trump is also right in saying a ceasefire is pretty much instant and it's at that point you start working on the “what next“. All the photo opportunities and love-ins that Zelenskyy appears to revel in doesn’t get you an inch of your country back and it doesn’t give you any advantage over the Russians. NATO are incapable of beating Russia without American buy-in. That buy-in is over. Trump keeps it simple - Zelensky has no cards and, to a lesser degree, Europe only has limited cards. It is why America is America. Without them we are done. Where I think Trump is most right is he appears the only one interested in actually getting this thing sorted. The Europeans talk about peace, but peace as a result of victory. There will be no victory. Three years of the war shows us this. The only victory is Russia's if America bails.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.