Retired Army Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer told Newsmax that President Donald Trump’s leverage against Russia to end its conflict with Ukraine is dwindling.
Shaffer told “The Chris Salcedo Show” that convincing Russian President Vladimir Putin to take his winnings and call it finished is getting more difficult. “The win in the war is the issue,” he said. “They’re actually gaining ground right now.”
“It’s hard to convince someone, when they’re holding a straight flush, that when the guy thinks you’re holding a pair of twos, that he needs to put his hand down,” he said in poker terms.
Shaffer said the key issue facing Trump when trying to get a peace deal of some sort from Putin is that Russian forces keep winning on the battlefield well inside Ukraine’s borders.
“Right now, as we speak, Petrovsk, one of the other key centers for the Ukrainians to hold, is about to fall. And there’s no indication the Russians are wanting to stop at this point,” he said.
Trump has threatened to impose secondary sanctions against nations that are involved in trade with Russia by next week if no peace agreement is in place. He recently cut that back from an earlier announced 50-day timeline for sanctions, indicating he was tired of waiting.
Trump has pointed to India, a major buyer of Russian energy and goods, as a country that will suffer from new sanctions. He posted on Truth Social, Thursday, that, “I don’t care what India does with Russia. They can take their dead economies down together, for all I care. We have done very little business with India, their Tariffs are too high, among the highest in the World.”
Shaffer said the energy picture is key to the situation. “And at this point, while he’s threatening [India] and China with some sort of sanction regarding this, the bottom line is those countries can’t live without oil.”
He believes India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, will be left in a tough spot with new sanctions. “President Trump is asking for a lot from Modi to say, Hey, just stop buying Russian oil. They’ve got to fuel their economy. Their economy is being challenged. So this is a lose-lose for them.”
Shaffer said Trump’s goal is laudable, but his approach could use a change in course. “President Trump’s instincts are correct. His application of techniques, eh, I think he needs to get some better advisors to help him do that right now.”
Both Putin and Trump have been ramping up their public rhetoric and posturing as the new sanctions date closes in. Putin’s government has warned of new sophisticated missiles going into service, while Trump ordered two nuclear weapons-equipped Navy submarines into closer proximity to Russia.
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