A top US general has delivered a stinging rebuke to Donald Trump's critics, telling GB News that the President's "rhetorical jujitsu" could end the war in Ukraine and bring lasting peace to the region.
Our exclusive interview with Major General David Baldwin was conducted days before high-level talks between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and a US delegation led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz in Saudi Arabia laid the groundwork for Ukraine and Russia agreeing to a partial 30-day ceasefire.
Following the agreement, which focuses on pausing attacks on energy and civilian infrastructure, the US resumed the flow of military aid and intelligence sharing to Ukraine after turning off the taps in response to Zelensky's chaotic White House meeting with Trump and his veep JD Vance.
The tense exchange saw the two Republicans accuse the Ukrainian President of being ungrateful and risking World War Three.
Trump's "rhetorical jujitsu" could end the war in Ukraine and create lasting peace in the region, claims top US general
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The fallout from the public outburst led many Western analysts to conclude that America under Trump was about to jettison 80 years of foreign policy and abandon Nato allies while cosying up to autocrats that are hellbent on destroying the post-1945 world order.
Not everyone took such a grim reading, however. On the contrary, one highly decorated US Army veteran assures GB News that Trump's unpredictability is designed to snap America's allies out of their paralysis and bring the warring parties to the negotiating table.
It is a welcome departure from the last administration, says Major General David Baldwin, who commanded units at all levels during his 40-year service in the US military.
He explained: "They [the Biden administration] offered very tepid support. It was adequate enough to keep Ukraine from losing, but not bold enough to help Ukraine completely thwart the invasion and win. They were terrified of pushing Putin too far and as a result, didn't push hard enough."
The US general continued: "They could have deployed F-16s faster. They could have deployed weapons that have an operational and tactical impact, such as ATACMS missiles and HIMARS. They trickled those in, and they took a long time to decide, whereas if they had offered all of those packages on the second day of the war, it would have had a different outcome and probably saved a lot of lives."
While he concedes that Trump's "frenetic" approach to foreign policy can be "confusing", confusion is very much "part of the game".
As Baldwin explains, it's part of President Trump's negotiation tactics, adding: "He is doing what I would term rhetorical jiu-jitsu in that he is making everyone believe that he's abandoning NATO, when in reality, what he's doing is forcing the NATO partners to step up to the plate meet their spending commitments.
Recent developments across the Atlantic suggest he has a point. Trump's defence posture prompted Sir Keir Starmer to commit the UK Government to increase defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2027 - three years earlier than originally planned.
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Trump's "frenetic" approach to foreign policy can be "confusing" but confusion is very much "part of the game", says US general
PoolStarmer and his European allies are also considering deploying a peacekeeping force to Ukraine after a permanent ceasefire is agreed upon, although the PM says he wouldn't commit British troops without a US security backstop.
"We're not gonna abandon Western security - it's in our national interest and the interests of our friends and allies globally - but we are going to continue to hound those countries that are not meeting their GDP commitments," Baldwin told GB News, adding: "We are gonna ask more from those friends, allies, and partners to step up and take more of the burden on and help reduce some of the costs that America's been bearing for decades."
He draws on his own military experiences to demonstrate how thinking outside the box can achieve results.
"When I was a young lieutenant, we were in a tactical exercise where we had to defend a hill like you always did in those days. We did something very unorthodox that was not in accordance with US doctrine and we decisively beat the opposing forces."
Trump "negotiates through disruption", Baldwin says, adding: "If it leads towards Europe putting more money into Nato, and the Ukrainians coming out stronger in the end with Russia getting bloodied up a little bit but being forced to the peace negotiation table, and this ultimately ends in a ceasefire that leads to lasting peace because of security guarantees for Ukraine, then he did it the right way."
The US general acknowledged there's a lot of "ifs" in this equation and much can still go wrong with a fragile ceasefire, but Trump has at least presented a solution, and that is to be commended.
