Gram Slattery

Trump advisers concede Ukraine peace deal is months away Advisers to President-elect Donald Trump now concede that the Ukraine war will take months or even longer to resolve, a sharp reality check on his biggest foreign policy promise - to strike a peace deal on his first day in the White House.

Reality check time:

Trump said he would solve the Ukraine war on Day One, if not before. But any deal is months away, advisers warn

The president-elect has begun to publicly lament how intractable the conflict is

www.reuters.com/world/europe...

Trump looks to Greenland to cement his legacy and expand sphere of US influence The president-elect said he would not rule out using military or economic action to acquire the overseas Danish territory after he takes office on Jan. 20.

"The real legacy is you have expanded the United States. Literally in 70 years we haven't added one piece of real estate to the portfolio. He talks about it a lot."

Our piece today on why Trump *really* wants Greenland

www.reuters.com/world/trump-...

Scoop: Trump's Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, has postponed his first post-election Kyiv trip, which was slated for early Jan, per sources

Reason not immediately clear but it underlines how solving the conflict will be more time-intensive than Trump had planned

Trip now expected after inauguration

New: Trump just filed another motion to delay sentencing in the New York hush money case, which is slated for Jan. 10, according to court document

via @reuters.com

A bit of Greenland news in our latest Trump/foreign policy analysis:

These PR pitches are only getting harder...

#Trump spoke with Chancellor Olaf Scholz earlier on Thursday, per German govt spox

via @reuters.com

Scoop: Trump's incoming Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, is planning a fact-finding trip to Kyiv, per sources

He will visit several other European capitals, but the plan is to skip Moscow for now

This is the first trip to Ukraine by an incoming Trump official

Assad's final hours in Syria: Deception, despair and flight Bashar al-Assad confided in almost no one about his plans to flee Syria as his reign collapsed. Instead, aides, officials and even relatives were deceived or kept in the dark, more than a dozen people with knowledge of the events told Reuters.

Assad told his presidential office manager on Saturday when he finished work he was going home but instead headed to the airport.

He also called his media adviser, and asked her to come to his home to write him a speech. She arrived to find no one was there.

www.reuters.com/world/middle...

Trump crypto venture partners with platform linked to Middle East militants A crypto venture recently unveiled by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and his new Middle East envoy, billionaire Steve Witkoff, has partnered with a crypto platform that authorities and financial experts say has been used by criminals and Iran-backed militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah.

NEW: Trump crypto venture partners with platform linked to Middle East militants Hamas and Hezbollah

www.reuters.com/technology/t...

Scoop: William Evanina, formerly the nation's top counterintelligence official, has been interviewed for the deputy DNI job, according to two sources

There are others in the running. He would make for a relatively conventional counterbalance to Gabbard

Zelenskiy made case for security guarantees at meeting with Trump President Volodymyr Zelenskiy used his first meeting with Donald Trump since the U.S. election to explain Ukraine's need for security guarantees in any negotiated end to the war with Russia, two sources familiar with the Dec. 7 discussions said.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy used his first meeting with Donald Trump since the US election to explain Ukraine's need for security guarantees in any negotiated end to the war with Russia, two sources familiar with the Dec. 7 discussions said reut.rs/3ZyqMn7

Zelenskiy made case for security guarantees at meeting with Trump President Volodymyr Zelenskiy used his first meeting with Donald Trump since the U.S. election to explain Ukraine's need for security guarantees in any negotiated end to the war with Russia, two sources familiar with the Dec. 7 discussions said.

New: We got a readout of the Trump-Zelenskiy-Macron meeting over the weekend

Trump pushed Zelenskiy to get to the negotiating table. Zelenskiy said he was open to talks - but preconditions were needed

www.reuters.com/world/zelens...

Trump plans major reshaping of U.S. policies within hours of taking office Trump is planning a blizzard of more than 25 executive orders and directives on his first day in office.

NEW: Trump plans major reshaping of U.S. policies within hours of taking office

www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...

News:

Kevin Guthrie, Florida's top emergency management official, is in the running to be Trump's FEMA director. He was interviewed by transition officials last week, per sources

Transition scooplet:

Trump's State Department transition team is interviewing candidates for assistant secretary of state (A/S) and undersecretary positions

Typically, most of these positions have gone to career foreign service officers. Trump is discontinuing this norm, per sources

Zelenskiy floats idea of deploying foreign troops to Ukraine before NATO membership Ukraine has insisted throughout the war that it needs security guarantees to prevent Russia launching another invasion after the current hostilities are halted.

New: Zelenskiy publicly floats freezing the prevailing battle lines in Ukraine, an approach favored by Trump advisers but unlikely to appeal to Putin, who wants all of the Donbas and two other Ukrainian regions he doesn't fully control

www.reuters.com/world/europe...

New: Trump, Zelenskiy and Macron are currently meeting at Elysee Palace in Paris, per images divulged by aides

First in-person meeting b/w Trump and Zelenskiy since election.

Reuters reported earlier in the week that a tri-lateral was on the table

Ukraine's Zelenskiy heads to Paris with possible Trump talks in mind, sources say Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will travel to Paris to attend the re-opening of Notre-Dame cathedral on Saturday, and could use the trip to hold talks with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, two diplomatic sources said.

New: Representatives for Trump and Zelenskiy have discussed a meeting in Paris this weekend. If it comes together, will be last-minute and discreet

Trilateral w/ Macron one possibility

SCOOP: Trump may cancel US Postal Service electric mail truck contract, sources say

www.reuters.com/business/aut...