Lie down with dogs, you wake up with fleas; lie down with neocons, you wake up with wars, says Daniel McAdams. So goes Trump’s 28-point plan to end the Russia-Ukraine war.
Marco Rubio at the U.N. before a U.N. Security Council Ministerial Meeting on Ukraine, Sept. 23, 2025. (State Department photo, Freddie Everett)
So goes President Trump’s 28 point peace plan to end the Russia/Ukraine war. Revealed at the end of last week, the plan initially received a cautious but cautiously optimistic reception in Moscow.
It was hardly a dramatic tilt toward the Russian position. Many of the plan’s points ranged from the implausible to the bizarre.
For example, the idea that President Donald Trump would be crowned some sort of “peace czar” overseeing the deal, and that Russia would agree to use its seized assets to rebuild Ukraine.
Then there is the one that Russia should accept a demilitarized “buffer” zone taking up a good chunk of Donetsk (which itself would be “de facto” part of Russia but not de jure – and thereby subject to the vicissitudes of Western electoral politics).
And of course, there was the part where the U.S. would share the “profits” from Russia’s paid reconstruction of Ukraine.
Very Trumpian, very weird.
Nevertheless, the flawed plan (in terms of Russian acceptance) dropped like an atom bomb on the U.S. neocons and their European counterparts. Trump’s peace plan was “entirely dictated by Putin,” the U.K. Independent breathlessly tells us.
Yes, that is how propagandistic the western mainstream media really is. And suddenly we are back to Russiagate and accusations the Trump is acting as Putin’s puppet – or at least stenographer.
At the political level, E.U. foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas pretty well summed up the level of delusion among the European elite: “We have not heard of any concessions from Russia. If Russia really wanted peace, it could have agreed to an unconditional ceasefire a long time ago.’”
Kaja Kallas in European Parliament on March 9, 2022, calling for more EU defence, reduced energy dependence on Russia and solidarity with Ukraine. (European Parliament / Flickr / CC BY 2.0)
Yes, Kaja “Sun Tzu” Kallas. Military history teaches us that every army making rapid gains on the battlefield periodically pauses to make concessions to the losing side. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be fair, and not everyone would get a trophy.
President Trump’s demand that Ukraine’s acting president, Zelensky, accept the terms by Thanksgiving or face a cut-off in U.S. military and intelligence assistance put the Europeans and U.S. hawks in panic mode.
It appeared Trump was finally tired of playing Hamlet after the framework he presented in Alaska in August was agreed upon by Russia and then abandoned by Trump himself after receiving an earful from said Europeans and U.S. neocons.
This time, by golly, Trump was finally going to step up and end a conflict nearly a year after he promised to end it 24 hours.
And then Rubio walked in.
The one lesson Trump 2.0 did not learn from Trump 1.0 is that the personnel is the policy, particularly with a president who appears uninterested in details and disengaged from complex processes. Trump 1.0 was dragged down by neocon albatrosses John Bolton and Mike Pompeo, among others.
Even a Col. Douglas Macgregor brought in in the 4th quarter at the two minute warning to throw a “Hail Mary” pass to get us out of Afghanistan was tackled behind the line of scrimmage by Robert O’Brien, Trump’s final National Security Advisor and neocon dead-ender.
Neocons are wreckers. That’s the one thing they are good at.
The inclusion of new blood in the person of Vice President Vance ally, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll – who supplanted terminally clueless Trump envoy Keith Kellogg – offered the promise that finally the realist faction in the shadows of the Trump Administration would have their shot.
JD Vance Swears in Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, Feb. 25, 2025. (Wikimedia, PD US Government)
Then the rug was pulled. Again.
Rubio jetted off to Geneva to help lick the wounds of the European “leaders” who are dedicated to fighting the Russians down to the last Ukrainian.
Politico lets us in on what happened next, in a piece titled, “Rubio changes the tack of Trump’s Ukraine negotiations after week of chaos.”
“Before Rubio showed up in Switzerland, it largely felt like Vice President JD Vance, via his close friend Driscoll, was leading the process. By the end of the weekend, Rubio had taken the reins because the conversations became more flexible, the official said.”
“Flexibility” means that we are back to square one, with a reversion to the Kellogg/Euro view that the side winning a war should unilaterally freeze military operations in favor of the losing side.
Politico continued:
“Rubio’s participation in the talks produced much more American flexibility, the four people familiar with the discussions said. Rubio told reporters on Sunday night that the aim is simply to finalize discussions ‘as soon as possible,’ rather than by Thanksgiving.”
That loss of momentum and destruction of the sense of urgency means we have returned to the endless bickering of the eternally deluded voices who even in the face of rapid recent Russian advances believe that Ukraine is winning – or could win with a few hundred billion more dollars – the war against Russia.
Never mind the golden toilets. Suddenly that’s out of the news.
At the end of the day, all the drama changes little. As President Putin himself said while meeting with his own national security council (h/t MoA):
“Either Kiev’s leadership lacks objective reporting about the developments on the front, or, even if they receive such information, they are unable to assess it objectively. If Kiev refuses to discuss President Trump’s proposals and declines to engage in dialogue, then both they and their European instigators must understand that what happened in Kupyansk will inevitably occur in other key areas of the front. Perhaps not as quickly as we would prefer, but inevitably.
And overall, this development suits us, as it leads to achieving the goals of the special military operation by force, through armed confrontation.”
In other words, Russia is happy to achieve its objectives through negotiation, which would save lives and infrastructure especially in Ukraine. But it is also willing to continue its accelerating push to achieve those objectives militarily. And no fever dreams of war with Russia from the likes of former NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen is going to change that.
Marco Rubio is a pretty bad Kissinger, and Kissinger was bad enough. At some point – and that point may have now passed – the Russians are going to rightly conclude that they have no negotiating partner in a U.S. still dominated by people like the former Senator from Florida whose first love is regime change in Venezuela and Cuba.
Whatever the case, Trump should be pretty miffed that Marco threw a spanner in what would have been a world record, unprecedented, universally-praised, like-nothing-the-world-has-ever-seen, solving of NINE wars in just his first year in office!
Daniel McAdams is executive director of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity and co-producer/co-host of the Ron Paul Liberty Report. Daniel served as the foreign affairs, civil liberties, and defense/intel policy advisor to U.S. Congressman Ron Paul, MD (R-TX) from 2001 until Dr. Paul’s retirement at the end of 2012. From 1993-1999 he worked as a journalist based in Budapest, Hungary, and traveled through the former communist bloc as a human rights monitor and election observer.
This article is from the Ron Paul Institute.
Views expressed in this article and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
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Agreed with everything in here until the reference at the end to Trump solving nine wars in his first year of office. Others of these wars are to also to be disputed, but there is no resolution to the genocide in Palestine, and without such resolution, how can one say that that ‘war’, which is not even a ‘war’ since it is between an illegal occupier and an illegally occupied people, has been solved? Such an assertion is appalling.
That was very clearly a humorous and sarcastic remark.
I see no reason to think that Starmer wants the war to end. He has always supported escalation and his government very much welcomes a war economy.
Amusing and sharply written article considering the sad prospect of watching rich old men and Ukrainian kleptocrats continue sending the young to die in a hopeless war. But how can the whole world not laugh out loud at Trump constantly changing his mind after making his final, resolute, absolutely last offer and the best deal ever negotiated by anyone anywhere, beating out the archangel Michael, Lucifer and even Roy Cohn himself.
I would respectfully suggest that McAdams and the Institute read and carefully consider the analysis and opinions of Patrick Lawrence in his recent essay, hxxps://consortiumnews.com/2025/11/24/patrick-lawrence-what-peace-in-our-time/
It is the wise writer who recognizes their own biases – and, most importantly – questions these.
Rubio may have conned Donald Trump, but he will not con Vladimir Putin. Putin knows that Russia holds all the cards in the Ukraine proxy war, and it will take what it wants. Ukraine and its western backers will give what they must. That’s how wars always end when one side has lost the capacity or the will to continue fighting, which describes Ukraine’s current situation exactly.
When I first read Putin’s statement, “And overall, this development suits us, as it leads to achieving the goals of the special military operation by force, through armed confrontation.” in my translation the last was ‘armed struggle’, a phrase right out of old communist liberation tracts. You can take the communist out of the farm, but you cannot take the farm out of communism.
Five (5) Days ago, “PUTIN’S VICTORY IN KUPYANSK, Real or A Propaganda?” Russian Troops Raise Flag, Ukraine BLASTS Lies.” (Kupiansk or Kupyansk is a city in Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine. It serves as the administrative center of Kupiansk Raion. It is also an important railroad junction for the oblast. Kupiansk hosts the administration of Kupiansk urban hromada. In Ukraine, a hromada is the main type of municipality and the third level local self-government in Ukraine).
“So goes Trump’s 28-point plan to end the Russia-Ukraine war;” hence, the “Name change “28-points” nka 19-point plan.
11.26.25, Trump’s-Vance’s-Witkoff’s plan to refresh Trump’s 28 Points is f/regressive, i.e., “A [RETURN] to the endless bickering of the eternally deluded voices who even in the face of rapid recent Russian advances believe that Ukraine is winning – or could win with a few hundred billion more dollars – the [USG’s/NATO’s vs. Russia “ground war” in Ukraine, a defacto president, Volodymyr “El Chapo” Zelensky; &, effective 24/7, IS martial law, ROCK’N Ukraine].
The Russians, the Chinese, the bankers, the butchers, the haymakers; &,“ordinary “People” “are going to rightly ask,” *“is it worth all the ringing? Is it worth all the pain? Is it worth the pretending? The fear? The disdain? Is it worth the shift in countenance just to live how [Trump-Vance, Inc.] like? Is it worth the split in conscience just to satisfy what’s inside? [Will it ever] really work, this thin, weak facade?…. Absophknlutely, NOT!
….. Trump-Vance, Inc., coming in hot per their, lies, “bargains,” beg & steal strategy, “keeping the shackles hardened;” but, the creature [Trump-Vance, Inc.] will never cease their barrage. The owl asks, “WHO will “lock them up?” The bird tweets, *“when Trump’s polls drop to thirty percent (30%); AND, it’s only at thirty percent (30%) that Hakeem Jeffries & Chucky Schumer say that’s when they can go after DJTrump.” Concluding, the Party of Jackasses can’t find their own ass w/both hands.
WELCOME, to “The West Pole!” Trump’s-Vance’s Inc., “Icy Kingdom,” i.e., “Ukraine Peace Plan.” Unpacked by Daniel McAdams!!! Everybody, knows, *”there’s one single, lonesome cure, that when Dr. Jekyll goes; he will take Mr. Hyde with him!” IMAGINE, Trump-Vance, Inc., done & dusted!!! The F/Freaks, Trump-Vance, Inc., “of course, there was the part where the U.S. would share the “profits” from Russia’s paid reconstruction of Ukraine,” “Never mind the golden toilets.”
Trump-Vance, Inc., do it for the f/money! “He who rides the horse of greed at a gallop will arrive at the door of shame!”
TY, Daniel McAdams, CN, et al. Onward & Upwards!
* “The Ballad of Dr. Jekyll/Mr.Hyde”
…p.s.,*“WHEN Trump’s polls drop to thirty percent (30%)” … “I expect that his polls are going to drop to thirty percent and it’s only at thirty percent that Hakeem Jeffries and Schumer say that’s when they can go after him.” Ralph Nader @ hxxps://scheerpost.com/2025/09/29/its-time-to-fight-back-against-trumps-fascist-regime-w-ralph-nader-the-chris-hedges-report/
“Well, that waits to be seen. [WHAT] does it mean to go after him? There’s only one remedy. It’s called impeachment in the House, removal of the Senate.” Ralph Nader.“Now people say impossible, GOP controls both. It’s not at all. Here’s why: [WHEN] the GOP sees his polls plummeting for 2026, it’s either them, up for reelection and loss of the Congress, or Trump, who is not up for reelection. [WHAT] do you think they’re going to pick? [WHAT’S] the precedent?
… “Let’s go to Richard Nixon. He won 49 states in 1972, 60% approval, less than two years later, he resigned. [WHY]? about to be impeached and removed from office. For [WHAT] articles? For two (2) counts of obstructing justice and one (1) article of defying a congressional subpoena. Trump defied 125 congressional subpoenas in his first term alone. 125. “Obstruction of justice was a way of life, a daily way of life in the White House first term.” John Bolton.
Concluding, “a daily way of life, in the White House” second term is “Expansion of Powers,” i.e., world dominance, authority, control, power over plant, animal & human life, domestic & foreign. “It’s Time to Fight Back Against Trump’s Fascist Regime,” i.e., “Civic Self-Respect” by Ralph Nader, 2025 @ hxxps://civicselfrespect.org/ TY. Ciao…..
I think the Russians already know that they have no negotiating partner in the US — or Ukraine and Europe. They will have to fight this war to the final and absolute defeat of Ukraine. Then Russia will have to occupy all of Ukraine and rebuild a democratic government there. The Nazis and the NATO assets can be put on trial for war crimes.
The 28 point plan Trump circulated was pretty offensive. Trump simply shove it in the faces of both Russians and Ukrainians and said, “now you have one week to accept this or there will be harsh consequences. ” That’s not how diplomacy works.
On the Donbas and the ethnically Russian areas of the former Ukraine, international human rights law guarantee the right of political self-determination. The people of the Donbas and Crimea voted in legitimate referendums to leave Ukraine and join Russia. These lands belong to the people who have lived there for many generations. They do not belong to Zelensky and his gang of criminals in Kiev. Nations break up when central governments become intolerably corrupt and brutal. That’s what happened in Ukraine. Russia was reluctant to annex these areas and tried with the Minsk Agreements to patch up the dispute between the people of the Donbas areas and Kiev. But it was Kiev which refused to agree. So now the ethnic Russian people of the East and South of Ukraine have left.
President Trump should never ever listen to the Europeans, especially not those, who are in office in Germany, France, and Great Britain right now. They will sacrifcíce their fellow countrymen for their benefits and sure enough don’t care about the Ukrainians at all. I wonder how many of them are a part of the Zelenskyi corruption scheme. I’ve worked for the US Forces and saw a side of my countrymen making me sick until today. I would not trust them as far as I could throw them and I even can’t pick them up. Merz, Macron, and Starmer are deeply despised in their countries, so President Trump should not trust them because their own people don’t. He and President Putin should go ahead with their peace plan because if they ask Zelenskyj and the Europeans, there never will be peace. The have nwéw word at the stock exchange that sys it all “Friedensangst” (fear of peace), that should tell you what kind of scum they are.
“Yes, Kaja “Sun Tzu” Kallas. Military history teaches us that every army making rapid gains on the battlefield periodically pauses to make concessions to the losing side. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be fair, and not everyone would get a trophy.”
This is great! Best paragraph I’ve read all week. Bravo!
“Military history teaches us that every army making rapid gains on the battlefield periodically pauses to make concessions to the losing side. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be fair, and not everyone would get a trophy.,” Love it!
Best analysis I’ve seen on the absurd 28-point ‘peace plan’. Also the most witty and fun to read. I love the quip on Kaja “Sun Tzu” Kallas!
No question about it, the neoconservatives still believe they can demonize Russia out of existence, even as their loose cannons blow out the hull of their own ship of state. And if it weren’t Marco Rubio in there, it would probably be Antony Blinken.
We call her “Cuba Libre-Kallas” since she likes to visit the bar of EU-Parliament early in the morning according to this youtube video
hxxps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6To89SzVhY
The American elites don’t want to destroy Russia, just the government that prevents them from stealing Russian resources as they did in the 1990s.
Trump IS acting as the clandestine U.S. regimes “puppet – or at least stenographer.”
McCarthyism did not die with the man.
USSR ‘communism’ was implanted in the American “neocons and their European counterparts” mindset long ago.
The very notion predates the person by at least four decades, and was never extracted.
The bugaboo is now the chronic paranoid malady. The medicament is perpetual war that feeds the dark interests of this regime. It does NOT cure the disease, no matter the name of the commander-in-chief.
He too is just another flunky, no matter his self-proclaimed geni-ass!
The constant garbled rhetoric is simply the affluent’s effluent that flows and deepens the abyss of the blackened swamp.
“(T)he personnel is the policy”, which is why they were pre-selected! It deflects the blame from this man’s narcissistic, unblemished ego.
1917 Bolshevism frightened the owning class all over the world—the Americans and British sent troops to bolster the counterrevolutionary Whites. Ever since, the West proclaimed communism as supreme enemy (it was but on the domestic front, not the Soviets) and then pushed their hatred onto the American and European people with an astonishing plethora of propaganda.