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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
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Rafael Behr

Trump isn’t a reliable ally – but Nato dollars can be more persuasive than Putin’s propaganda

Mark Rutte, Donald Trump, JD Vance, Marco Rubio and Pete Hegseth
Donald Trump and the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, left, in the Oval Office of the White House, 14 July 2025. Photograph: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Before Donald Trump was a politician he was a property tycoon. Naturally, he thought he could fix the Ukraine war with a real-estate deal. In exchange for a ceasefire, Vladimir Putin would get to keep territory he had already seized.

But before Putin was a politician he was a KGB agent who mourned the collapse of the Soviet Union. His idea of a fair solution begins with Ukraine’s total submission to an imperial Russian motherland.

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