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Steve Forbes has publicly warned that President Trump’s push for a negotiated settlement with Moscow risks leaving Ukraine a hollowed-out state and could imperil the post‑Cold War order. Forbes, speaking on the Forbes Breaking News platform, explicitly cautioned against any deal that amounts to appeasing Vladimir Putin and compared the danger to the old Munich pattern of compromise that rewarded aggression.
Those warnings come as the White House has visibly shifted from the Biden era’s posture of open-ended military support toward a harder bargain: pressuring Kyiv and Moscow into talks and signaling that American involvement has limits if partners won’t step up. Journalists and officials have reported Mr. Trump urging a quick negotiated end and even publicly suggesting Ukraine must move toward a settlement or risk losing its statehood, a stance that has alarmed many across the political spectrum.
From a conservative, America‑first perspective, the instinct to bring our troops and treasury out of forever wars is not an act of cowardice but of prudence; President Trump campaigned to end costly entanglements and to force allies to shoulder their share. Yet prudence must be paired with strength: negotiating peace is one thing, cutting a deal that rewards a revanchist dictator is another. The record shows Mr. Trump has signaled readiness to negotiate, but the manner and terms matter enormously if American credibility and the safety of our partners are on the line.
Steve Forbes is right to warn about the perils of naive concessions, but the establishment’s reflexive demand for permanent NATO membership or endless cash is equally unwise; real security for Ukraine could be achieved by innovative, ironclad guarantees. Forbes himself suggested multinational permanent bases, a sizable multinational force, and the creative use of frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine’s defenses and reconstruction—proposals that, if enforced, would leave Kyiv independent without dragging NATO into automatic war. Conservatives should embrace tough, enforceable guarantees rather than sentimental blue‑prints that commit America to open‑ended obligations.
That said, any plan that effectively cedes chunks of Ukrainian territory in exchange for temporary quiet is a strategic mistake that hands Putin a trophy and invites further aggression from other authoritarian powers. European leaders and commentators have already voiced alarm that a premature U.S. pullback or an ill‑crafted deal could let Moscow set new rules for Europe, undermining our alliances and emboldening rivals from Beijing to Tehran. If the administration moves toward an agreement, it must be built on terms that deny Putin gain and preserve the principles that keep free nations secure.
The path forward for conservatives is clear: demand a settlement that protects Ukrainian sovereignty, not one that paper‑over Russia’s crimes. That means seizing frozen Russian assets to pay for a strong, multinational security architecture, insisting on permanent, verifiable guarantees, and making clear that America will not underwrite a betrayal of a free people. Patriots want peace, but peace must come from strength and justice — anything less hands the century to authoritarianism and betrays every soldier and taxpayer who has paid the price.
