Once again, we are watching an historical exercise in futility. And once again, it is because there is a delusional leader believing that giving a tyrant what he wants will pacify the tyrant and make him stand down. Wrong, wrong and wrong. The parallels between England’s meeting with Adolf Hitler and this Friday’s meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are almost frigheningly exact. Back in September, 1938, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain met with Adolf Hitler. The issue there was the escalating tensions over Sudetenland. Hitler’s contention was that Sudentenland had once been a part of Germany (are the bells ringing now?) and therefore he deserved to have it back. That led to the Munich Agreement, which was designed to bind Hitler to peace by giving him what he demanded. It didn’t go down that way. One year later, in September of 1939, World War II started. Now we’re seeing Trump fly to Alaska to meet with Putin who wants part of Ukraine back, for the same reasons Hitler wanted Sutentenland.
The meeting between Trump and Putin in Alaska will be a repeat of the meeting between Chamberlain and Hitler
Appeasement negotiations with an aggressor don’t work. History already gave us this lesson when Great Britain tried it with Hitler.
On 30 September 1938, British Prime… pic.twitter.com/AhOwXRHmm7
— LynnZ (@ZemanLynnZ) August 9, 2025
Here’s the entire tweet: The meeting between Trump and Putin in Alaska will be a repeat of the meeting between Chamberlain and Hitler Appeasement negotiations with an aggressor don’t work. History already gave us this lesson when Great Britain tried it with Hitler. On 30 September 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain stepped off the plane after the Munich Conference and read a joint statement with Adolf Hitler: “We… are agreed in recognizing that the question of Anglo-German relations is of the first importance for our two countries and for Europe…
We are resolved that the method of consultation shall be the method adopted to deal with any other questions… and thus to contribute to assure the peace of Europe.” In front of 10 Downing Street, Chamberlain then declared: “My good friends, for the second time in our history, a British Prime Minister has returned from Germany bringing peace with honor. I believe it is peace for our time… Go home and get a nice quiet sleep.”
One year later, Hitler started World War II. The proposed meeting between Trump and Putin on August 15 in Alaska is history repeating itself. If it happens, it will be unprecedented in both location and symbolism — Alaska was once in the sights of russian imperial ambition, and Putin thrives on historical symbols.
This meeting will serve the Kremlin’s interests above all:
1. It will be presented in russian propaganda as “an equal meeting of great powers,” undermining U.S. resolve.
2. It will shift the focus from Ukraine’s victory to a “compromise” narrative with the aggressor.
3. Putin’s proposal to stop the war in exchange for Donbas is not peace — it’s a reward for aggression and war crimes.
4. Losing part of Donetsk region would dismantle the fortified defense lines Ukraine has built since 2014 and open a direct path for russia to strike further west.
5. No credible security guarantees are on offer — russia would simply get a pause to prepare for the next stage of aggression. And Trump? He has already shown his impotence. He threatened russia with “two more weeks” multiple times and set an August 8 deadline. Today is August 9. The deadline passed — and nothing happened. No consequences, no action, just empty words. The ultimatum turned into a bluff, strengthening the Kremlin’s position by proving that threats can be ignored.
History has a cruel way of repeating itself when its lessons are ignored. In 1938, appeasement led directly to a world war. In 2025, it could lead to something far worse. —Roman Sheremeta
Yes, history does have a cruel way of repeating itself when its lessons are ignored. America got a valuable lesson about who and what Donald Trump was from 2016 to 2020. That lesson was ignored. And there is an immense difference between Trump and Chamberlain. Chamberlain was naive and overly optimistic. Trump is stupid and simply wants Putin to have whatever he wants because he fears him. Those are two very different mindsets.
Expect Friday to be a disaster. The only question is: what will be the greater resulting disaster? Because Volodymyr Zelensky has made it clear he has no intention of giving up any land.
Wait. You described both Trump and Putin. Not Zelensky. pic.twitter.com/ZxMqX6ddHc
— Arperture (@arperturemedia) August 10, 2025
He’ll go down in history as a smeagol and a quisling.
He’s already earned those titles.
Dementia Don is about to re-earn his T.A.C.O nickname.
Again.
I’m praying he’ll chicken out. I’m afraid he’s going to do a Stalin-esque carving up of Ukraine. I get the distinct impression he has something like that in mind with his comment about “swapping territories.” There’s no swap contemplated, Putin wants Donbas and a few other places simply ceded to him.
This is another challenge for Ukraine and for Europe. But “nemo dat quod non habet.”
It is purely a symbolic exercise. Essentially, Trump paying tribute to, as you write, Putin on “Russian” land. Trump has plenty to give in terms of support for Ukraine, Europe and in US interests but chooses that the US kowtow to Putin. (Kowtow is, of course, of Chinese origin and, i expect, will be soon be used in that arena when Xi closes his net round Taiwan.) His TACO is written large and may well be underpinned by Putin’s silence on whatever kompromat he has on Trump. As is written: History repeating
Whatever crooked deal is agreed between Trump & Putin means bugger all. They can wave their own bits of paper and declare whatever they want but Ukraine will never surrender and Europe will never accept any shoddy deal which rewards Russian aggression.