Cutting U.S. budget deficits, maintaining price stability and running a steadily growing economy is impossible under conditions of intensifying military operations in Europe, widening Middle East hostilities and dangerously rising tensions in East Asia.

Europe is the best place to start untangling that Gordian knot.

And in this epochal confrontation between the U.S. and its strategic adversaries Russia and China the peace is the only way out. Elon Musk’s highway to Mars is not ready yet. There can be no survivors in a war among nuclear armed world powers.

Washington and Moscow must talk now – because they failed to talk in 2021.

President Trump’s statement that he can solve the Europe’s war problem in a “phone call,” or in a “one-day” diplomatic effort, is not entirely a campaign trail braggadocio.

The essential principle here is that America First and MAGA (Make America Great Again) commitments should be unconditionally upheld.

But the idea of America serving as a benevolent hegemon -- underwriting with blood and treasure the causes with no direct bearing on its national interests – should be relegated to past mistakes, along with the naïve slogan of the “end of history.”

A shining “city upon a hill”

America should serve as an example of a great world power with a healthy, prosperous and vibrant society showing the way in arts, sciences and education.

Europe, of which Russia is an integral part, should learn how to live together in peace and comity. The continent’s centuries old hatreds have led to two world wars – with 80 million casualties. Europe, therefore, should cooperate to put a quick end to this war.

Only Europe at peace can rescue its faltering economy and the crumbling project of economic and political union.

Following the example of Charles de Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer, celebrating the French-German reconciliation in the Cathedral of French Kings at Reims, the European leaders should gather in a splendor of a renovated Notre-Dame de Paris to pray and reflect on the pain, misery and destruction in their beautiful home of an ancient civilization.

Washington could then move on to stop the intractable Arab-Israeli confrontation. That will be a very difficult follow up work to reconcile the present facts on the ground with the provisions of the U.N. Resolution 181 (1) of 1947 when Palestine was partitioned into Arab and Jewish states, with Jerusalem as a separate entity.

To do all that, the U.S. will need to work with Russia and China to pass the binding international legislation – through the U.N. Security Council – in order to re-create a legal framework of a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine.

Make a deal with Russia and China

Russia is militarily involved in the Middle East, with a base in Syria and well established economic and diplomatic ties in the Arab world. Similarly, China has a significant influence in Iran and Saudi Arabia, with rapidly expanding relations in the rest of that area.

To work effectively with Russia and China, the U.S. will also need to lower tensions with both countries in East Asia and on the Korean Peninsula.

Problems with China involve (a) Beijing’s contested maritime borders, (b) territorial disputes with U.S treaty allies Japan and the Philippines, and (c) the status of Taiwan.

U.S. problems with Russia in East Asia are (a) unsettled territorial claims and a state of war with Japan, (b) Moscow’s defense and cooperation treaty with a nuclear-armed North Korea, and (c) Russia’s de facto alliance with China.

What we have here is a need for America’s substantial foreign policy realignment to (1) reach a peace agreement in Europe, (2) secure an Arab-Israeli settlement in the Middle East and (3) build a balanced security architecture in East Asia.

President Trump knows that. At the beginning of his first term of office in 2017, he spoke about his idea of improving relations with Russia and China. He knows why he could not do that.

So, he may wish to try again. On reflection, it will become clear that America First and MAGA key political, economic and social objectives require an open and free trading world economy. Pervasive and debilitating sanctions, judicial overreach, prohibitively high trade tariffs and brandishing “tip of the spear” with nuclear-armed adversaries won’t do it.

The trust is lost. Having destroyed Napoleon and Hitler, Russians are back to Alexander III mantra that army and navy are their only allies. The Chinese sound less alienated with their constant invocation of “mutual respect and win-win cooperation,” but they question America’s good word for “saying one thing and then doing the opposite.”

Interests are still there, though. Let’s hope that the author of “The Art of the Deal” will find what it takes to bring peace to the world.