So much has transpired during the first month of President Donald Trump’s second term that it sometimes seems difficult to remember it all. And, of course, there’s also the matter of disbelief: Did he really just fire thousands? Did he give Elon Musk free rein to access private data? Did he order whole agencies (the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, for example) to stop work? What about that blizzard of executive actions, some of which may have had questionable legality? And the FBI is really going to investigate the Jan. 6 investigators?

But even in the blur of good, bad and ugly, there was this past week’s showstopper: Trump claimed that Ukraine started its war with Russia and called Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “dictator.”

Now, Trump may have a legitimate gripe with Zelenskyy’s handling of the war. Estimates show that as many as 80,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and 400,000 wounded, with many cities reduced to rubble. Trump, a self-described “deal-maker” probably gets offended at the sight of a bad deal, and the U.S., which has provided $174 billion in aid to Ukraine only to see it fuel the war further rather than end it probably irked him. Yet, whatever one may think of Ukraine elections — the scheduled 2024 contest did not take place because of the invasion and a declaration of martial law — it’s not all that difficult to recognize Ukraine as the victim and Russia as the invader.

We can be confident that average Americans aren’t siding with Putin or buying his anti-Kyiv, anti-Zelenskyy propaganda. A recent Quinnipiac University Poll found 81% percent of Americans believe Putin should not be trusted and political affiliation didn’t much matter with 73% of Republicans and 93% of Democrats on the not trusting Putin side. So how exactly does it advance Trump’s interests to go the opposite way? Trump is no stranger to unconventional strategy. His use of tariffs to threaten weaker nations that could advance U.S. interests have so far worked well, as have his threats to obliterate Hamas. Could this be another one of his strategies?

Whatever his strategy is, it certainly won’t help our relationship with our European allies, at least not in the short-term.

Republican leaders aren’t exactly demonstrating any serious opposition to Trump’s Ukraine-excluding peace initiative. Oh, perhaps privately the more hawkish within the GOP may be having words with the administration but publicly? It’s been pretty soft with even relatively independent folks like U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina saying he is “concerned” about a Putin-Zelenskyy moral equivalency or U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine reminding Americans that “the instigator of this war was President Putin.” Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota said he wants to give the administration “some space” on the issue.

No doubt Trump would very much like to announce a peace deal that would save lives (and spare a further outlay of U.S. military aid that as of last month totaled $174 billion to date). But what if that plan amounts to a surrender? While Trump’s rhetoric so far certainly gives one no confidence that it would be anything less, we can’t deny that he hasn’t acted unconventionally in the past only to sometimes later strike a decent bargain. But Trump hasn’t exactly given himself much to work with either. He’s already taken NATO membership off the table. And how much territory does he expect Ukraine to give up to Russia or lithium, titanium and rare earths to the U.S.?

Trump likes to rule like a businessman. He likes to threaten others and play dirty to strike a deal that balances in his favor. But foreign policy is not at all like a real estate transaction. The stakes are higher.

Lives and livelihoods are literally at stake — millions of them. Yet, it could be too soon to cast aspersions at Trump’s strategy at this juncture. We will be watching.

Our current president is erratic, but rarely are his actions devoid of purpose. Trump knows that calling Zelenskyy a dictator will rub a lot of people the wrong way. And maybe that’s the point. Or maybe he doesn’t care.

Whatever the point is, Trump has promised to end the war in Ukraine. If we can get that and saves lives with a deal that is fair to Ukraine, the rhetoric matters little, but we hope for the best solution for all parties.