Threats from former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev last week, warning President Donald Trump about Russia's nuclear weapons, warranted Trump's responding announcement that he would send U.S. nuclear submarines into Russian waters, Fred Fleitz, a former National Security Council chief of staff under the president, said on Newsmax on Sunday.
"These comments by Dmitry Medvedev, and he is essentially [Vladimir] Putin's deputy, that Russia may use nuclear weapons against the U.S, that every Trump ultimatum brings the two nations closer to war, these are unacceptable and very dangerous statements," Fleitz told Newsmax's "Sunday Report."
This meant Trump had to respond strongly to "demonstrate his leadership and that he's not going to be the paper tiger," plus use deterrence to make it clear that America would not accept Medvedev's rhetoric, like former Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama would have done, he added.
"Trump is sending a message to Putin to rein in your guy," Fleitz said. "This kind of rhetoric is not helpful. There is a way to work forward with Trump to get Russia out of this isolation, and Putin has to take advantage of it."
Fleitz said he also questions why Putin has not accepted Trump's "very generous offers" to work toward peace with Ukraine.
"I think we have to consider that Putin may be concerned that if he makes a deal and it looks like Russia has lost, he could be overthrown or pushed out of power," he said. "So I think we need to keep working with Putin, push forward something that will allow [us to] find a way to end the war."
But that may not be easy for Putin to do and still save face, said Fleitz.
"That may take time," he said. "We may be looking at a year or two of negotiations, which is typical for negotiating these complex ends to these complex crises, but I think Trump can do it."
At this point, it doesn't look like Putin wants to reach a deal, even with Trump proposing "extremely painful" sanctions against Russian oil, said Fleitz.
"The Russian economy is in trouble," he said. "I think Trump's going to try to find a way to put the pressure on Russia, maximum pressure, but still be aggressively engaged diplomatically to show Putin that there is a way out of this, normalize relations with the U.S., and cut a relationship with China that is not in Russia's long-term interests."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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