Donald Trump emerged from the Alaska summit in the commanding position in talks about a potential peace agreement with Ukraine. He controls leverage through the ability to enforce or escalate sanctions and through influence over a possible $90 billion U.S. military aid package to Ukraine. Those two levers could change negotiations’ dynamics very quickly. Vladimir Putin’s public displays of toughness are largely performative and do not represent decisive bargaining power. The choice to deploy sanctions or to affect congressional action on military aid places strategic cards with Trump, who could decide whether to use that leverage in the coming days.
You know, there are a lot of people talking about who has cards, who's not playing cards it's Donald Trump, Scarborough said. Donald Trump has the cards. He has the cards with, first of all, with sanctions. He can just say, Hey, Lindsey [Graham], go ahead. Let's pass the sanctions bill and let's grind him down.' And the second thing is they were talking about a possible $90 billion military aid bill to Ukraine. Those are two things that would change the dynamics very quickly.
Scarborough added that Putin's efforts to show power over Trump are all for show. Vladimir Putin can huff and puff and say he's gonna blow the house down all he wants, Scarborough said. He's not holding the cards. Donald Trump's holding the cards right now. It'll be very interesting to see if he'll play them over the next 10 days.
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