Knowles said he was struck by Trump’s comments to French President Emmanuel Macron caught on a hot mic. “We believe that Providence governs all of history, and sometimes it's a little clearer than at other times. But I'm just taken by what President Trump said to Emmanuel Macron… He said, ‘I think Putin wants to do a deal with me,’ as crazy as that sounds.”
He added that the statement reflected both strategic calculation and sincerity. “And I love both sides of that statement, because he's clearly trying to wrangle the Europeans and Zelensky. But he seemed totally sincere. And he said, look, you know, I went there to Alaska, and I think Putin actually wants to do a deal. I know that sounds crazy. The Ukraine war has been going on for 11 years, and we've been in a cold war with a little bit of a break with Russia since the 1940s. But I think he wants to do a deal.”
Knowles went on to assess Trump’s impact on US foreign policy. “And so, you know, if they can wrangle this, if they can really make it happen, Trump will be the greatest geopolitical president of my lifetime, probably, probably even edges out George H.W. Bush, which is a guarantee that he will never, ever get the Nobel Peace Prize.”
Posobiec weighed in on the broader context of Trump’s actions. “Well, and that's exactly what I asked about in the press conference just now, because, you know, people want to take a step back and say, okay, he's done this deal, he's done this deal, he's got this, the Congo, and he's getting Rwanda involved, and all these, you know, far-flung leaders, bring in Azerbaijan and Armenia, the oldest Christian nation, by the way, Armenia, and so many others.
"But what it really constitutes is this idea, the promise that he made, which I believe is in many ways a spiritual promise, to say we are going to end the era of the endless wars. In addition to that, the endless funding by the US taxpayer, it's a total difference of philosophy that the United States isn't going to be this sort of global empire where our job is to go around and sort of demand how every country in the world is going to interact. And instead, we're going to be a good actor. We're going to have these trade deals. We're going to use that economic basis to hopefully, you know, ensue good action from our various compatriots in the world. But it's totally different than using the bayonet, as you just mentioned with George W. Bush.”
Knowles also addressed broader strategic considerations involving China and Russia. “And even, by the way, for the people who don't want to go all the way toward a firmly nationalistic view of US policy and, you know, pulling away from our intervention in the rest of world, even on a purely imperial basis, it would probably be a pretty smart idea for the United States, which has to counter a growing China, to maybe triangulate a little bit and maybe try to split Russia off of China.
"Because the consequence of the Biden policy was to push our two clearest geopolitical adversaries further together. That poses economic dangers, that poses strategic dangers, security dangers. And then also from the reporting, again, we don't totally know what's real at this point, but we're also being told that Putin has agreed to Western security guarantees in Ukraine.”
Knowles concluded with an assessment of critics’ concerns. “So, you know, all of the 'panicans,' as Trump called them, said that any Trump deal is going to threaten American hegemony, threaten the global order, sell out Europe to Putin or whatever. It seems like none of that is coming to pass.
"And if you think, as most Americans seemed to think, that four years under Biden and before the first Trump term, eight years under Obama, had left America weaker and more vulnerable, then I think the only option is to pursue a different course. Trump is doing it and he seems to be having a lot of success with it.”
