The editorial boards of Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post and Wall Street Journal this week both warned Donald Trump against attending a proposed summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Trump “would blow up the Republican Party,” declared the headline of the usually pro-Trump Post’s editorial, which urged the president to reject Putin’s proposed meeting at next month’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen, China.
Read the full editorials on the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal.
Putin has reportedly said the gathering would ostensibly focus on ending the war in Ukraine, which he launched in 2022. Trump has said he is open to meeting with the two leaders, but has suggested denuclearization be the focus.
“If President Donald Trump wants a full-on riot within the Republican Party, going along with Vladimir Putin’s idea for a ‘Yalta 2’ summit with Xi Jinping is the way to do it,” the Post’s board cautioned.
Trump would be “volunteering to be outnumbered by our determined foes,” the board warned.
“Simply announcing he means to do this would instantly prompt all-out rebellion by much of the GOP, further sinking the party’s chances in the midterms,” it added, calling it “such a gift to the Democrats that it might hand them 60 Senate seats — enough to end an impeachment process with conviction.”
The Journal’s editorial board, meanwhile, which has criticized Trump on multiple fronts during his second term, echoed the warning, saying “his Yalta 2 courtship of Putin and Xi could blow up alliances at home and abroad.”
The danger, it argued, is that Trump, Xi and Putin “try to carve up the globe.”
“A new triumvirate that divided the world into spheres of influence would blow up America’s global credibility as a reliable ally,” it wrote. “U.S. allies may be punching bags these days, but the U.S. network from NATO to Japan, South Korea and Australia allows America to deter aggression and maintain peace before threats are dire.”