It sure looks like the Trump administration is trying to make a grand bargain. At the same time that President Donald Trump has been pushing hard for a Russian-Ukrainian peace deal, Russia has been carrying messages to Iran on Trump's behalf.
After all, the younger generation of conservative foreign policy thinkers believes the United States is overcommitted to Europe and the Middle East and should focus more on Asia. Trump has nominated the leading intellectual voice of that camp, Elbridge Colby, to be undersecretary of defense of policy, overseeing U.S. military planning worldwide.
Colby, who wrote the first Trump administration's National Defense Strategy, is no anti-establishment peace dove. Chinese media describes him as "a long-time China hawk." At his confirmation hearing on Tuesday, he called for increased military spending.