Tom Nichols: “Donald Trump loves to speak extemporaneously, and usually, he makes very little sense… Trying to turn his ramblings into a coherent message is like trying, as an old European saying goes, to turn fish soup back into an aquarium. But he is the president of the United States and holds the codes to some 2,000 nuclear weapons. When he speaks, his statements are both policy and a peek into the worldview currently governing the planet’s sole superpower.”

“This morning, the commander in chief made clear that he does not understand the largest war in Europe, what started it, or why it continues. Worse, insofar as he does understand anything about Russia’s attempted conquest of Ukraine, he seems to have internalized old pro-Moscow talking points that even the Kremlin doesn’t bother with anymore.”

Janan Ganesh: “If Trump were clear and consistent that he is abandoning Ukraine, as well as Europe and Nato, the continent would have no choice but to become militarily self-sufficient as soon as possible. It might fail, of course, but there could be little doubt what should be done. If Trump were clear and consistent that he stands with democratic Europe, to the death, there would be no problem. One of these situations is ideal. The other, while grim, is an impetus for Europe to change: a fixed point that its leaders and voters can plan around.”

“The worst of all worlds is one in which Trump blows hot and cold, and we are living in it.”

“If Russian President Vladimir Putin agrees to meet his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, as urged by President Trump, he will come face-to-face with a man he has spent 3½ years excoriating as an illegitimate leader and puppet,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Negotiating directly with Zelensky would run sharply counter to the narrative Putin has carefully constructed and sold to Russians in an effort to justify his 2022 invasion of Ukraine: that the war is part of a broader conflict with the West in which Zelensky and his country are mere pawns.”

“Syria’s foreign minister held a rare direct meeting with an Israeli delegation in Paris on Tuesday, talks that were brokered by the United States as part of a diplomatic push for Syria and Israel to normalize relations despite a recent surge in tensions between them,” NBC News reports.