This could well be a foretaste of German and European foreign policy in the near future. As in Afghanistan, Trump could present the Europeans with a fait accompli by trying to negotiate a “deal” with Moscow and Kiev over their heads. This is unlikely to be possible in 24 hours, as Trump promised with his usual grandiosity during the election campaign.
But perhaps the situation in and for Ukraine is changing so quickly that the next federal government will have to take up its work under changed conditions. It is unlikely that other Europeans would step in. Even in the Biden years, when there was broad agreement across the Atlantic, there was a lack of weapons and money in Europe. And politically, not only Germany is weakened, but also France.
However, Trump would first have to persuade the two warring parties to move away from their maximum positions. What's interesting is the phone call he allegedly had with Putin (which the Kremlin denies). If Trump had actually referred to the American troop presence in Europe, then that would be an astonishing recognition of the geopolitical reality by his standards. In his first term in office he wanted to significantly reduce the size of these troops.
