Morning Note

Most Americans don’t realize it, but Joe Biden’s legacy will revolve around Ukraine. The former president spent nearly three years dumping billions of taxpayer dollars into the distant nation’s war while making no progress on bringing it to a close. The carnage he exacerbated could soon end.

Donald Trump told reporters on Friday that he and the Kremlin have already had “very serious” discussions about the gratuitous conflict and that Vladimir Putin could soon take “significant” action toward ending it once and for all. 

“We want to end that war,” the president said. “That war would have not started if I was president.” It’s hard to disagree with that assessment. Trump is the only 21st-century president under whom Russia has not launched a new invasion. 

He did not reveal what he may do to help end the war, but plenty of options exist. A pledge to disallow Ukrainian NATO membership, a land transfer allowing Ukrainians who voted to be Russian to have their wish, or even Russia’s admittance into the alliance would likely do the job. D.C. war hawks would hate all of those, which should be all the proof you need that they’re worth considering. 

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