Trump's Push for a Ukraine Deal / Virginia Schools Go Cellphone Free
25:51 Share

The spirit of innovation is deeply ingrained in America, and Google is helping Americans innovate in ways both big and small. The Air Force Research Laboratory is partnering with Google Cloud, using AI to accelerate defense research for air, space, and cyberspace forces. This is a new era of American innovation. Find out more at g.co slash American innovation. From the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal, this is Potomac Watch.

President Trump puts more pressure on Ukraine to take a peace deal with Russia. But what are the proposed terms and would they amount to a victory for Vladimir Putin? Plus, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin passes a bill to ban cell phones in public school classrooms as the Republican and Democratic parties gear up for the state's off-year election to choose Youngkin's successor.

Welcome, I'm Kyle Peterson with The Wall Street Journal. We're joined today by my colleagues, editorial board member Kate Batchelder-Odell and columnist Kim Strassel. Russian strikes overnight on the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv killed at least nine and injured dozens. News reports saying one missile struck a two-story apartment building. That prompted a Truth Social post this morning from President Trump.

quote, I am not happy with the Russian strikes on Kiev, not necessary and very bad timing. Vladimir, stop, unquote. It

What makes that line notable is that for the most part, the Trump administration seems to be putting its pressure for a deal on the Ukrainians and President Volodymyr Zelensky. Here is Vice President J.D. Vance speaking to reporters Wednesday during a trip to India. We've issued a very explicit proposal to both the Russians and the Ukrainians, and it's time for them to either say yes or for the United States to walk away from this process. We've engaged in an extraordinary amount of diplomacy.

of on-the-ground work. We've really tried to understand things from the perspective of both the Ukrainians and the Russians. What do Ukrainians care the most about? What do the Russians care the most about? And I think that we've put together a very fair proposal. We're going to see if the Europeans, the Russians, and the Ukrainians are ultimately able to get this thing over the finish line. Again, I feel pretty optimistic about it. I think everybody has been negotiating in good faith, but it's now time, I think, to take

if not the final step, one of the final steps, which is at a broad level, the party saying we're going to stop the killing. We're going to freeze the territorial lines at some level close to where they are today. And we're going to actually put in place the kind of long term diplomatic settlement that hopefully will lead to long term peace.

And here is President Trump speaking to the press about an hour ago at the White House in a meeting with the prime minister of Norway. I have my own deadline. I have my own deadline. And we want it to be fast. And the prime minister is helping us. He wants it to be fast, too. And I think everybody in this, you know, at this time in NATO, they want to see this thing happen.

So we have a deadline. And after that, we're going to have a very much different attitude. But I think it has a very good chance of getting done. Kate, so the U.S. now saying that there is an explicit proposal for a peace deal on the table. What are the terms that the Trump administration is putting forward? Well,

Kyle, I think this missile attack on Wednesday night really did underscore the human tragedy of the war, first of all, but also that the current peace negotiations are not working. The president is offering Vladimir Putin quite a lot. We've made a lot of concessions before even going to the table. And Putin is continuing to lob missiles at apartment buildings even far away from the front lines.

So the terms of what the offer are, we hear a mix of different things, but let me give you a couple outlines. We know that the Trump administration does not think that Ukraine should be allowed to join NATO. That has been something they've been pretty consistent about for a while. There is second this question of whether the United States will recognize Ukraine

Crimea as Russian. That would be a big change of policy for the United States. We have generally thought that legitimizing territory seized by conquest just encourages taking more territory. The question is, what security guarantees is Ukraine going to get?

What is it going to get to ensure that Putin doesn't merely take a break, regroup, continue to rebuild his war capacity, and then go right back at this and take more of Ukraine? Since his behavior, lobbying missiles at Kiev and whatnot, appears that he wants to still swallow the entire country and hasn't backed off that.

So the terms are fluid right now as we understand them. But what we have here is that Putin, first of all, rejected President Trump's offer of a 30-day ceasefire. Ukraine accepted it.

And he does not appear to be taking the president's offer seriously, and he appears to be abusing the president's goodwill. So the administration, I think, despite making this offer, might have to change its strategy in its negotiations. Kim, what's your read of these terms? Russia has put its own suggestion on the table, which is to freeze the conflict on the current front lines. But that would be, I think, a win for Putin himself.

and for Russia. And it's notable that when Trump put out this Truth Social post saying, Vladimir, stop, there's no or else at the end of that Truth Social post. Whereas when the Trump administration deals with the Ukrainians, it seems like there is an or else. And J.D. Vance, you heard him there saying, maybe it's time if we can't get to an agreement, maybe it's time for the U.S. to walk away from that. And that

to me reads like an implicit suggestion that the U.S. aid that has kept Ukrainian defenders going, including these anti-aircraft systems the U.S. has provided that is protecting cities like Kyiv, it seems like there's almost an implicit threat there that those U.S. resources may not be there tomorrow. Two things really should be at the top of everyone's minds, just as broad context as these negotiations are.

continue and go on. One is that if you give Russia anything, you are essentially rewarding a thug and a tyrant who marched into a free nation that had done nothing to provoke Russia, rolled through it, has killed civilians, engaged in absolutely atrocious

wartime behavior and now is not compromising in the least. In fact, this latest missile strike, I think the United States should view as Putin thumbing its nose at the U.S. and these attempts at a negotiated settlement. And Donald Trump is going to have to decide if he wants to be the loser in this conflict.

and allow Vladimir Putin to win the day. That's one piece. The other piece, I think, has to be the degree to which Ukraine has already agreed to a number of concessions that were certainly very different from what it would have liked to have seen an outcome of this war to have been. Obviously, they wanted all

all of their territory back. You could understand why. They did want to join NATO. As Kate said, that seems to have been taken off the table.

And essentially, I mean, I think in a perfect world that they would want Vladimir Putin to be humiliated and defeated. And that seems not to going to be in any way the terms of any sort of deal. And so they've already given up a great deal. Again, this is a free and democratic country that has been assaulted by the first government.

wartime occupation in Europe since World War II. So they've already said that they will come down a lot in order to get to some sort of a peace. And by the way, note, it was Ukraine who agreed to a 30-day ceasefire. Again, it's Russia that thumbed its nose at that entire idea. And again, which I think should be viewed as a kind of act of

provocation to the United States and the negotiators working on this. So those two things ought to help guide what comes next, because again, Ukraine is offering to give up a great deal. The pressure should all be at this point on Vladimir Putin to at the very least stop dropping the bombs.

or understand that there will be some sort of consequences. And that's that or else part that you mentioned, Kyle. It's what's missing in all of this at the moment and or else to Russia. What happens to it if it doesn't engage in some sort of real negotiation? Hang tight. We'll be right back in a moment. The spirit of innovation is deeply ingrained in America. And Google is helping Americans innovate in ways both big and small.

The Air Force Research Laboratory is partnering with Google Cloud, using AI to accelerate defense research for air, space, and cyberspace forces. This is a new era of American innovation. Find out more at g.co slash American innovation.

Welcome back. Kate, what about Crimea and potential recognition of it? That seems to be something that President Trump is focused on. Here was a true social post from recent days. He's saying Vladimir Zelensky is boasting on the front page of The Wall Street Journal that, quote, Ukraine will not legally recognize the occupation of Crimea.

There's nothing to talk about here, unquote. President Trump goes on to say that this statement is very harmful to the peace negotiations. He says nobody is asking Zelensky to recognize Crimea as Russian territory. But if he wants Crimea, why didn't they fight for it 11 years ago? He's also saying this, President Trump, suggesting Zelensky can't have peace.

peace or he can fight for another three years before losing the whole country, unquote. And Kate, something that I think is important to dial into here is when we're talking about Crimea and recognition of Crimea, my understanding is that Zelensky's position here is not that this deal has to result in the return of that territory to Ukraine and it's

vacation by Russian forces. It's about whether, as part of this deal, Ukraine is going to be required to relinquish any claim to it and acknowledge that that is now part of the sovereign state of Russia. Do I have that right? Because it seems like this is confused in this true social statement where Trump is saying, you know, we're not asking them to legally recognize it as part of Russia. And if they feel so strongly about Crimea, why didn't they fight for it?

Well, this is an odd history on the president's part altogether, given that the Obama administration wouldn't help Ukraine in 2013, 2014 when they needed it. And a lot of folks warned at the time that if Putin were allowed to roll in, that he wouldn't be satisfied there and that it would only lead to greater provocations and him wanting to swallow more territory. And that's exactly what has happened.

So I think that's the larger framing that matters in this very odd broadside the president is issuing at Ukraine. The question about recognizing whether Crimea belongs to Russia, Zelensky has ruled that out. And that's what the president is venting about Ukraine doing that. It's against Ukraine's constitution. It would have no truck in Ukrainian politics.

It's not something that Zelensky is willing to consider. The separate question is whether the United States would recognize Crimea as Russian. And I would argue that's a bad precedent that we would regret. It would be a departure from our bipartisan U.S. policy, which has refused to recognize Crimea as Russian because, like I said, it encourages more such conquests.

and the U.S. doesn't want to do that. And it also would just be a tremendous gift of legitimacy to Putin. It would reward him at home that he accomplished something. It would divide the NATO alliance pretty profoundly if the United States issues this big change in Europe's own backyard. You can forget about the Europeans coming to help us deal with China, for instance, if we are

unilaterally making choices like that without involving them. I do think that there's an attitude sometimes in the Trump administration that this is a minor map revision that just concedes reality by acknowledging Crimea as Russian. But that is not true. And there is a reason that the United States has refused to do so on a bipartisan basis for years. But Kim, I guess what I'm trying to get at is it seems to me that even many, maybe most of Ukraine's defenders acknowledge that

that there is going to be a resolution here based on negotiation. It is not as if there is any suggestion at this point that the U.S. is going to keep flowing arms to help Ukrainian defenders retake Crimea. I mean, unless there is some sort of significant change in the balance of forces on the ground there.

What we're arguing about is what the terms should be for that negotiation and whose side of the bargaining table the United States is going to be behind. Yeah. And I think just to go back, I would argue that's what's missing from this.

Again, Ukraine has acknowledged that. It has accepted the broad contours of an agreement that is very much less than what it would have liked to have seen. The missing piece here is pressure on Russia and making it very, very clear to Russia what the consequences will be to it.

if this negotiation does not proceed. Because right now, Putin's attitude is exactly as you say, Kyle. He is listening to the White House and he is making the assumption, probably pretty sound, that if he blows this up, that the United States walks away. It won't double down on its commitment to Ukraine. And that gives him a free hand to get more of what he wants.

if you want this to get over the finish line, and this just seems to be obvious to me, but missing in the White House's strategy. Now, in fairness, I don't know what's happening behind the scenes, but public pressure matters as well, too. And there should be some very clear spelling out to Russia what will continue if this situation continues in terms of

sanctions in terms of United States efforts to continue diminishing its ability to send oil, the oil that matters so much to its coffers, to European buyers, in terms of other sort of attempts to work against Russian interests across the globe in ways that could just make its life very difficult. And the other piece that seems to be missing here as well, too, is simply an acknowledgment

that Russia is struggling as well.

It's struggling to get more people to put into this conflict. There are certainly internal discontent in the Russian nation. Vladimir Putin's position is not always as strong as he would like to suggest it is. And we're making the same mistake we made in the Cold War, where we're believing the propaganda that all is well and Russia is strong, when in fact, as we know, it's got a pretty small and weak economy, and this has put a real toll on it.

And we believed for way too long during the Cold War that it was a much greater force than it was until someone finally called that bluff. We need to be using all of those tools of pressure and of consequences because until Vladimir Putin understands that it's going to be worse for him to not engage in a deal, a deal will not get done. Hang tight. We'll be right back in a moment.

The spirit of innovation is deeply ingrained in America, and Google is helping Americans innovate in ways both big and small. The Air Force Research Laboratory is partnering with Google Cloud, using AI to accelerate defense research for air, space, and cyberspace forces. This is a new era of American innovation. Find out more at g.co slash American innovation.

Don't forget, you can reach the latest episode of Potomac Watch anytime. Just ask your smart speaker. Play the Opinion Potomac Watch podcast. From the opinion pages of The Wall Street Journal, this is Potomac Watch.

Welcome back. Let's start in Virginia and the question of whether that state might be at the forefront of a change in strategy in public K-12 schools. Governor Glenn Youngkin is set to sign a bill passed by the legislature banning cell phones in classrooms K-12 from school bell in the morning to school bell in the afternoon. This is an initiative that Youngkin has helped

to put on the map in Virginia following an executive order with a similar intent. Some schools that have been involved in pilot programs, one in Arlington there, where students are now asked to put their phones in the morning when they arrive into locked pouches

that they then get out in the afternoon. And notable that Glenn Youngkin has a Democratic legislature. So now we have a bit of bipartisanship here, suggesting maybe this is a strategy to improve public schooling that could get across the finish line in maybe a range of states.

Well, I think this is a signature move by Youngkin because he has done such a great job coming up with a policy set on education that command a lot of bipartisan support, even among kind of secular, liberal, suburban families, for instance. So I think this no cell phone in schools thing is a big winner for him because he's

Everyone, I think there's pretty much broad agreement now that children are spending way too much time on their phone. There is a pretty rough consensus that it's making teenagers more anxious, they're distracted from their schoolwork.

Parents want to work on that and parents want their kids to spend less time on their phone. But if you send your kids to school and everybody else is on their phone all day, it's very hard to just go it alone and be the one parent who won't allow their kid to use a phone. So I think this is a really good move because it will start to create a culture of public schools where kids can't be on their phone all day and nobody has a phone.

I think one kind of fascinating trend here is that there has been some pushback from some parents who want to be able to reach their kids all day at school and have not been fans of these proposals. But I think over time, they'll start to see the benefits of having their kids not distracted by technology all day. And, you know, you can always call the front office if you need to reach your kid. That's how it worked in the 1990s. And I think it would be...

a big improvement to get back to that in schools. Kim, I tend to agree with Kate that there's a real collective action problem here because it's tough for individual parents and families to say you can't take your cell phone to school if all the other kids and some of the social networking takes place through these apps, through text messages and chats and so forth.

And same for teachers. I mean, I can only imagine there are teachers who are just so fed up in some of these states, some of these classrooms of having to be the phone police all day long, which puts them in an unenviable position when they're trying to teach mathematics or history or whatnot. And one last thought here I'd throw out is notable that

Governor Glenn Youngkin, despite being narrowly elected as Republican governor in a purple, maybe you'd say it's a blue state these days, has pretty remarkable approval rating. One poll from a couple months ago, Virginia Commonwealth University, 51% of Virginians approve of his performance, 38% disapprove. So well-appointed.

above water there. And Kim, I mean, I know that this is only one small piece of the Yunkin agenda, but it does seem to me kind of consonant with the approach that he has taken to the job. So on the cell phone ban, by the way, I cannot applaud this more, although put me in the camp of those that wish that schools had figured this out a decade ago before they were the ones that encouraged kids to bring cell phones to school.

you know, those parents that Kate was mentioning that now feel like it's the only way to reach their kids. Look, I was the parent who didn't want to get my kid a cell phone before a certain amount of time. And I was essentially bullied into doing it by the school who essentially said that if I wanted to communicate with my kid about when sports practice was ending and when they had to be

picked up, they had to bring a cell phone to school and they made it because they viewed it as easier at the time to not have all those calls coming into the front office. And now they've got this monster that they created where all these children are glued to their phones all day. One other aspect of this, which I really like, and we should take a moment to just note, is that after some back and forth on this issue, it was decided that this new

law is going to require bell-to-bell cell phone free, meaning you don't bring your cell phone into school because there had been this out that a lot of schools have been utilizing. Well, you had to have it in your locker for your first three periods, then you could get it out for lunch, and then you had to put it back in again.

There is a much bigger benefit to kids simply having a forced reprieve for a block of hours during the day from cell phone drama, including in the lunchroom, where a lot of that kind of online bullying and other things goes on as well, too. So I like that provision of this law. Len Youngkin is doing well because he really is.

kind of manifestation of that common sense governance. He's focused very much on the economy. It's his day-to-day message. And then a lot of issues that voters expect their governors to care about, like education. And I think by keeping a couple of really big priorities top of mind and doing them well, he's really succeeded. And by the way, remember, Virginia governors only get four years

So to have accomplished what he has in that period of time and have these approval writings, I think is quite a testament to how good a politician he has been. That term limit is where I was going to go next. I know it feels probably to people who watch national politics like,

Glenn Youngkin just showed up on the radar, having been sworn in in 2022. But Virginia's constitution says that governors can't serve consecutive terms. And so we are going into Virginia's off-year gubernatorial election in November. And the two parties now have their nominees in recent weeks. Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earl Sears and on the Democratic side, former Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger.

And Kate, how do you see this election getting sized up? I mean, it's early days yet, but always difficult to be the party that is out of power in the White House. There's sometimes a swing against that party. And I would also note Northern Virginia, a lot of

government workers there who are maybe not so thrilled about the whole Doge effort that has been happening in the last few months? Well, I do think you could see a reaction to some of the Trump behavior that benefits the Democrats. I think Abigail Spanberger is probably well positioned to capitalize on that because she's represented a suburban district and has managed to portray herself as a more moderate, even though I think she's pretty progressive.

Look, Virginia is always tough ground for a Republican to do well in. But I do think the Youngkin record is, and continuing it, is something that Winston Sears should try to capitalize on for herself. I mean, one thing was we're talking about these school cell phones and stuff. Youngkin did a whole town hall tour called Parents Matter, talking about the role of parents in schools with technology, with improving how kids are doing on tests. I mean, he was working on some of these issues where, like I said, that are 80% issues.

So I think that's the kind of campaign that any Republican has to run in a state as tough as Virginia. And there will be headwinds if the Trump administration continues on its current trend. Thank you, Kate and Kim. Thank you all for listening. You can email us at pwpodcast at wsj.com. If you like the show, please hit that subscribe button. And we'll be back tomorrow with another edition of Potomac Watch.

The spirit of innovation is deeply ingrained in America, and Google is helping Americans innovate in ways both big and small. The Department of Defense is working with Google to help secure America's digital defense systems, from establishing cloud-based zero-trust solutions to deploying the latest AI technology. This is a new era of American innovation. Find out more at g.co slash American innovation.