Trump’s efforts at mediation and arbitration have failed miserably, as any reasonable person would have predicted. Where does he go now?
It is painfully obvious that he has no intention of providing any significant additional military assistance to Ukraine. That leaves him with three options: to cut off transfers of American weapons, but to continue with intelligence sharing and to acquiesce to European transfers to Ukraine; to eliminate the intelligence sharing, but to at least do nothing to stop the Europeans from helping; or to use his position in NATO to prevent the Europeans from providing assistance. Under the first scenario, Ukraine will probably lose more ground, but should keep its independence; under the second, its sovereignty is in serious jeopardy; under the third, America is effectively a Putin ally, NATO will splinter, and Ukraine will become a Russian vassal state.
To put it in simple Trumpian terms, how many cards will Zelensky be permitted to play from this point forward? TBD.