A POWERFUL ARTICLE BY SUSAN B. GLASSER IN THE NEW YORKER: IS TRUMP HELPING PUTIN WIN? Trump’s Republican Party is barely holding on to both chambers of Congress, while his approval ratings are sinking to historic lows. Yet at this critical moment, the president has spent an entire week attacking Volodymyr Zelensky and openly helping Vladimir Putin in his war of aggression against Ukraine. Zelensky is now publicly describing his conflict with Trump as an almost irreversible rupture. Ukraine is “losing a strong partner,” he told Piers Morgan. “It hurts when Trump chooses a side, and it isn't ours.” In an interview with the Financial Times, Zelensky also announced that Ukraine had observed Trump’s proposed energy ceasefire for three days but would no longer comply, despite American threats to suspend intelligence sharing. “That’s over,” he declared. Timing is everything, both in war and in midterm elections. And this particular moment is extraordinarily dangerous. Trump’s special envoys are once again pressuring Kyiv to accept an agreement that looks far more like surrender than compromise. “The moment of greatest danger is now,” warned Daniel Fried, a former senior American diplomat. Returning from meetings with security officials in Poland and Romania, Fried expressed deep concern not only about Ukraine’s position but also about Russia’s escalating attacks designed to test NATO allies. His greatest fear is that Putin recognizes this vulnerability and intends to exploit it immediately. The question is whether anyone in Washington can—or even wants to—stop him, given Trump’s expansive interpretation of presidential authority and his apparent indifference to Congress. Senator Chris Coons of Delaware offered an equally disturbing assessment. Trump’s worst instincts, he argued, continue to prevail: trusting Putin and treating the Russian dictator’s words as more important than the warnings of America’s allies. Coons recalled the enormous effort required to persuade Trump to sign the Graham sanctions legislation against Russia. Now Trump has undermined his own Ukraine strategy, repeating a pattern that has become painfully familiar over the past decade. He takes a hesitant step toward helping Kyiv, speaks with Putin, and promptly returns to his instinctive preference for Moscow. Can America repair its damaged relationship with European allies? Coons answered his own question: “Not while Trump is president.” He also warned that the damage Trump could inflict over the next two years is being seriously underestimated. Even Republicans are increasingly alarmed. Six Republican senators recently condemned Trump’s Russian diesel agreement as a gift to an adversary and a betrayal of allies. The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board called it a moral and strategic mistake, an assessment quickly amplified by Trump’s former vice president, Mike Pence. Meanwhile, a new Fox News poll reportedly puts Trump’s approval rating at just 36%, with 70% of Americans disapproving of his handling of the economy. Russia expert Angela Stent, who previously served as a senior intelligence analyst during the George W. Bush administration, suggests that Trump may be preparing Zelensky to become his political scapegoat. If Republicans suffer serious losses in November, Trump could blame Ukraine for high diesel prices and demand Zelensky’s departure. But Americans struggling with their own economic problems are unlikely to embrace demands for Ukraine to remove its president. And Trump knows that Russian diesel, even if delivered, cannot arrive quickly enough to rescue Republicans before November 3. This raises an even darker possibility, one that Susan B. Glasser leaves hanging over the entire discussion. What if Trump is returning to Putin not because he believes it will help Republicans win the midterm elections, but because he genuinely wants Russia to win the war? That is the question Americans—and the entire democratic world—must confront.