Trump’s Transactional Diplomacy: A Deal on Ukraine in Two Weeks?

President Donald Trump is applying his signature style of transactional diplomacy to the intractable war in Ukraine, effectively offering Russia a deal with a two-week deadline. The terms are simple: deliver a presidential summit, and avoid a new round of sanctions.
This approach strips the conflict of its complex historical and ideological baggage and reframes it as a straightforward negotiation. Trump is not demanding a final peace treaty; he is asking for a single, verifiable action—a meeting between Putin and Zelensky.
This transactional style has been met with a positive response from Vladimir Putin, who seems to understand and perhaps even prefer this kind of direct, results-oriented engagement. His praise for Trump as a “light at the end of the tunnel” suggests he sees Trump as a leader with whom a deal can be struck.
However, the question remains whether a deep-seated conflict like the one in Ukraine can be resolved through such a transactional approach. While a meeting may be achieved, Putin’s staunch defense of Russian sovereignty indicates that the underlying issues will be much harder to bargain over.