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      ‘They brought it on themselves’: a new low in US-Ukraine relations

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      There was an audible gasp in the room at the Council on Foreign Relations as Keith Kellogg, the White House’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, characterised the US decision to cut off intelligence sharing and military aid to Kyiv as like beating a farm animal with a piece of wood.“Very candidly, they brought it on themselves, the Ukrainians,” Kellogg said as the veteran diplomats, academics, and journalists in the room recoiled in surprise. Several held their hands in their faces. “I think the best way I can describe it is sort of like hitting a mule with a two-by-four across the nose,” he continued. “You got their attention, and it’s very significant, obviously, because of the support that we give.”The collapse in US-Ukraine relations since the White House summit between Trump and Zelenskyy has been precipitous. Those around Trump viewed as the strongest supporters of Ukraine – including secretary of state Marco Rubio, national security adviser Mike Waltz, and Kellogg – have become vocal sceptics of continued US support or been sidelined entirely.“We know that [the Maga wing] are just waiting for something they can use to pounce,” said a former senior US diplomat. “And I think that’s where you get the posturing by Rubio, Kellogg and also Waltz, which disturbs people who understand America’s interest in preventing a Putin win in Ukraine.”It has been matched by a rise in the people around Trump who hold vocally Eurosceptic views: Elon Musk, Tucker Carlson, and JD Vance, the vice-president who seized his moment in the Oval Office and provoked a greater conflict between Trump and Zelenskyy.Vance has made several key interventions meant to sow divisions with Europe. He appears to have planned ahead of time. His team briefed European media before he spoke up during Trump’s meeting with Keir Starmer to complain about “infringements on free speech” in the UK. And when Zelenskyy disregarded advice from Kellogg, Republican senators, and others, not to clash with Trump during the White House meeting, Vance once again poured petrol on the fire.“First Zelenskyy needs to keep silent in public about concerns with Trump’s policy moves, even though those concerns are justified,” the former senior official said. “It would be good for him to send a team to the meeting in Riyadh which is not at his level. I think he needs to sign the mineral agreement in any form that the Trump administration wants.”Fiona Hill, a former White House official during Trump’s first term, said the speculation on the part of many European officials was that “this was set up by Vance … that he wanted to sideline the Rubios, the Waltzes, the Kelloggs.”These were supposed to be the adults in the room for this administration. Rubio was confirmed 99-0 by senators who believed he would help keep Trump’s foreign policy on track. Waltz was expected to be a centrist ally as national security adviser. And Kellogg, while sceptical of piecemeal support for Kyiv, was seen as a firm supporter of Ukraine.View image in fullscreenInstead, they have followed Trump into putting pressure on Ukraine. Rubio last week said: “Frankly, it’s a proxy war between nuclear powers – the United States, helping Ukraine, and Russia – and it needs to come to an end.”That was a vision closely aligned with the Kremlin’s. Dmitry Peskov reacted positively to Rubio’s words, saying: “We can and want to agree with it, and we agree with it. That’s the way it is. We have said this repeatedly. We have said that this is actually a conflict between Russia and the collective west. And the main country of the collective west is the United States of America.”That’s not the only way in which the US is adopting Russia’s views on the war. In his speech, Kellogg broke ground in describing how Trump sees the conflict: the US wants to position itself as a neutral arbiter between Russia and Ukraine, and Trump recognises that the US needs to “reset relations with Russia” to secure US national security. “The continued isolation and lack of engagement with the Russians as the war in Ukraine continues is no longer a viable strategy,” he said.That portrayal is a radical realignment of US policy interests in the conflict. For three years, Washington has provided considerable financial and military support to Kyiv to allow it to stay in the fight. But under a new Trump administration, those who supported the previous policy have quickly pivoted to back Trump as he seeks to end the war by putting pressure on Ukraine.“Kellogg has some people around him who do know what they’re doing,” said Hill, who worked with him during the first Trump term. “He’s 80 years old. He fought in Vietnam. He knows his stuff. He’s no fan of Russia. He’s a total cold warrior. He’s trying to thread the needle there but he also works for the commander in chief, so he’s trying to interpret, in the best way that he can, what’s going on here? And he will not stray away from what Trump does or says, that’s why he is still there.”Yet Kellogg was left off the list for a key summit between Ukrainian and US officials this week in Saudi Arabia in an attempt to repair the relationship. Waltz, Rubio, and Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff are set to travel for talks with Zelenskyy’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak and his team. The path forward is unclear – although both pro-Ukraine Americans and European officials believe that there is no alternative to US support in the conflict.European officials are hopeful that Zelenskyy and the Trump officials can manage to hold a meeting that won’t erupt into open conflict. That may lead to a quick renewal of intelligence support, which European officials have not lost hope for.But there are broader discussions about whether or not the US remains a viable longterm partner for the Ukraine. For now, the Ukrainian side has few options except to make amends. More

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      The founding fathers baked reason, truth and free speech into the US. That’s all gone now | Will Hutton

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      The founding fathers of the USA – James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin and more – were quintessential disciples of the European Enlightenment. Their intent was to embed Enlightenment values into the government and culture of the New World. America would be a republic of laws. Its constitution would ensure governance of the people, by the people, for the people. Through checked and balanced branches of government, it would expunge the possibility of monarchical discretionary power and inaugurate proper democracy.It would celebrate all liberties, from freedom of speech to freedom of worship. Their belief in science “for the benefit of mankind in general”, in Franklin’s words, would imbue the republic’s commitment to reason, the scientific method and the pursuit of truth. The dynamic economy and society that emerged, however imperfect, reflected those values. It has inspired billions and, for all its falls from grace, has been a force for good.Donald Trump’s presidency is widely deplored for everything from his unilateral imposition of swingeing tariffs to his public humiliation of Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and siding with Russia over the war. He is guilty of all those things, and of an impulsiveness and unpredictability as he seeks retribution, respect and, as he would put it, reciprocity. But this misses the larger point: he draws not only on a constituency that shares his views but also on a well-developed body of thought that wants a decisive rupture with those Enlightenment values and all that spring from them.There is now genuine fear in US civil society – in business, finance, academia, the media and the Republican party – that to speak out will bring cruel retribution or even personal harm: this from the apostles of “free speech”. The US has gone mute. Its Enlightenment-based constitution and the accompanying values once held to be universal are being torched in near silence. Only fealty to Making America Great Again, by repudiating its notable traditions, is permitted – at home and abroad. The profundity of this is beginning to be recognised. Canada finds itself fighting for its life. Friedrich Merz, the incoming German chancellor, says for Europe it is “five to midnight”. He is driving through an extraordinary €1tn commitment to raise German defence and infrastructure spending over the next 10 years. The EU is bracing itself for attacks on its trade and its capacity to set standards and regulations for all goods EU citizens buy – so-called non tariff barriers – that Trump plans to launch “soon”. The EU’s high product standards, he argues, discriminate against lesser-regulated US exports. Even VAT is anti-American. The EU’s very being as a self-governing, multinational organisation is under threat.Multilateral organisations like the EU and the UN, expressing the same Enlightenment values as the US constitution, are in Trump’s crosshairs. The unashamed project is to reshape the world economic and political order so it serves only the interests of the US – as if it did not already. Can Britain really be a bridge between this vision and Europe, as Keir Starmer wants? These differences are unbridgeable.Trump’s court at Mar-a-Lago, high on power and much else, has reportedly worked on a draft contract for countries to sign that reverses the alleged rip-off of the US. Instead, they will have to agree to boost US industry by accepting one-sided trade deals and appreciating their currencies. In return, they will be offered degrees of US security. Countries are said to be colour coded green, yellow and red, depending on the degree to which they might wholly accept vassalage, bargain for a compromise or are deemed to be enemies – with China the number-one target, and also including Canada, Mexico and the EU. Nato and the World Trade Organization be damned.Stephen Miran, the new chair of the US Council of Economic Advisers, won his job as the author of an extraordinary paper – A User’s Guide to Restructuring the World Trading System. Trump can reshape the global economic and trade order, he argues, through creating targeted tariff policies aimed at countries to which the US objects. The tariff regime must be designed to maximise fear and uncertainty; last week’s imposition, then withdrawal, of car tariffs on Mexico and Canada was a prime example. The bulk of any economic costs will be displaced on to the countries at the receiving end by forcing them to raise their currencies against the dollar. He writes approvingly of Scott Bessent, now Trump’s treasury secretary, last year publicly arguing for putting countries into varying Mar-a-Lago style buckets corresponding to their readiness to comply with Washington’s will.Self-pity at the US’s alleged victimhood pervades Trumpite thinking. Even on Miran’s own numbers, the US still accounts for the same 25% of world GDP now as it did in 1980 – a phenomenal achievement. America is as great as it ever was. Only 19% of its GDP is imports, but these are blamed entirely for the fall in manufacturing employment as if robotisation, automation and the emergence of a service-based economy were irrelevant. Many working-class Americans have certainly suffered from these changes – but that needed an enlightened domestic policy response. China has re-industrialised by electrifying and decarbonising its economy. This is dismissed as woke.Adam Smith, the great Enlightenment economist, inspired the founding fathers as much as Montesquieu, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Thomas Paine. He praised the invisible hand of the market and open trade as pathways to the common good of greater prosperity – but none of that is for the Trumpites. They come from the mobster, cowboy, might-is-right, make-a-deal-on-my-terms strain of US culture and society. The humbling of Zelenskyy is the tip of this anti-Enlightenment iceberg. They are the masters now, and will gladly bend the US electoral system to stay that way. As some judges stir themselves, and political dissenters start to be braver, it’s an open question if they will succeed – but going back, if at all, is likely to be only partial.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionStarmer’s tactics so far have been hard to fault. His level-headedness, decency and pragmatism have been assets. But he faces an unavoidable choice: Britain cannot achieve economic growth by remaining a vassal state to the US while abjuring closer trade relations with Europe. Trump does not want Britain to grow US-competitor great tech companies, which are essential to economic growth. Nor does he want to defend Ukraine and Europe. It is brutally stark. The UK must make common cause with Europe to defend not only our economic and defence interests but, more importantly, our values. They live only in Europe now. More

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      Trump administration briefing: US backs Russia ahead of G7, Republican spending bill boosts defense

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      The US has reportedly rejected a Canadian proposal to establish a task force that would tackle Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet” of oil tankers and pushed to soften language on Moscow ahead of a G7 foreign ministers meeting this week.In negotiations to agree a joint statement on maritime issues, the US is pushing to strengthen language about China while watering down wording on Russia, the reports said.The move comes amid growing fears in Europe that Washington is turning away from its western allies and towards Moscow; as Russia increased attacks on Ukraine last week Donald Trump said “anyone in [Vladimir] Putin’s position” would do the same.US rejects Canadian attempt to tackle Russia’s ‘shadow fleet’The US has reportedly rejected a Canadian proposal on tackling Russia’s “shadow fleet” of oil tankers ahead of a meeting of G7 foreign ministers in Quebec later this week. The “shadow fleet” refers to ageing oil tankers, the identities of which are hidden to help circumvent western economic sanctions imposed on Moscow since it launched its full-scale military invasion of Ukraine in 2022.As well as vetoing Canada’s proposal to establish a task force to monitor sanctions breaches, the draft G7 statement seen by Bloomberg News shows the US pushed to remove the word “sanctions” as well as wording citing Russia’s “ability to maintain its war” in Ukraine by replacing it with “earn revenue”.Read the full storyRepublican push spending bill that cuts everything aside from defenseUS House Republicans unveiled a spending bill on Saturday that would keep federal agencies funded through to 30 September, pushing ahead with a go-it-alone strategy that seems certain to spark a major confrontation with Democrats over the contours of government spending.The 99-page bill would provide a slight boost to defense programs while trimming non-defense programs below 2024 budget year levels.Read the full storyWe shouldn’t have played ‘so safe’, says WalzTim Walz has said that he and Kamala Harris were too “safe” during their 2024 election campaign, with the former vice-presidential candidate claiming they should have held more in-person events around the US.“We shouldn’t have been playing this thing so safe,” Walz, the governor of Minnesota, said in an interview with Politico.Read the full storyFort Bliss in Texas could become deportation hub under Trump planThe huge US army base of Fort Bliss at the Texas-Mexico border is poised to become a deportation hub under plans proposed by the Trump administration – prompting an outcry from critics as it once again becomes a focal point in the immigration debate.Read the full storyClasses cancelled at National Fire Academy after funding freezeThe country’s pre-eminent federal fire training academy cancelled classes, effective immediately, on Saturday amid the ongoing flurry of funding freezes and staffing cuts by Donald Trump’s administration.The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced that National Fire Academy (NFA) courses had been cancelled amid a “process of evaluating agency programs and spending to ensure alignment with administration priorities”, according to a notice sent to instructors, students and fire departments.Read the full storyTrump policies could make US more vulnerable to drug trafficking, ex-officials sayDonald Trump’s policies could leave the US more vulnerable to dangerous synthetic drug trafficking from abroad, even as the administration has vowed to stop fentanyl from entering the country, former government officials say. Jim Crotty, the former Drug Enforcement Administration deputy chief of staff, called the Trump approach of putting tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico “coercive” and said it had the potential to backfire.Read the full story‘Jerk boss’: the Minnesota senator calling out Trump and MuskThe American people “can see in Elon Musk and in Donald Trump” the “kind of jerk boss who just doesn’t respect the work that anybody does”, the Democratic senator Tina Smith of Minnesota told the Guardian. Smith has been bluntly calling out Musk and Trump since she made a strikingly rare decision in February for someone elected to one of the country’s top positions: she will leave her job, by choice, without some kind of scandal, at the end of her term.Read the full storyColleges and universities grapple with Trump funding cutsStudents, researchers, faculty and leadership at universities and colleges across the US are grappling with drastic short- and long-term impacts “for decades to come” caused by funding freezes, cuts and executive orders from the Trump administration.“It’s sowing a lot of chaos on campuses,” said Sarah Spreitzer, the vice-president and chief of staff of government relations at the American Council for Education.Read the full storyWhat else happened today:

      An environmental nonprofit sued the US Environmental Protection Agency and Citibank on Saturday, seeking billions of dollars for solar and other projects frozen by the bank as the Trump administration slashes federal spending.

      The head of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces, Adam Cohen, was fired, another move by Trump’s administration to purge or sideline career officials.

      The White House, responding to Iran’s rejection of Trump’s call to negotiate a nuclear agreement, reiterated the US president’s assertion that Tehran can be dealt with either militarily or by making a deal.
      Catching up? Here’s what happened on 7 March. More

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      Trump administration cancels classes at National Fire Academy amid funding freeze

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      The country’s pre-eminent federal fire training academy canceled classes, effective immediately, on Saturday amid the ongoing flurry of funding freezes and staffing cuts by Donald Trump’s administration.The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced that National Fire Academy (NFA) courses had been canceled amid a “process of evaluating agency programs and spending to ensure alignment with Administration priorities”, according to a notice sent to instructors, students and fire departments. Instructors were told to cancel all future travel until further notice.Firefighters, emergency medical service providers and other first responders from across the country travel to the NFA’s Maryland campus for the federally funded institution’s free training programs.“The NFA is a powerhouse for the fire service,” said Marc Bashoor, a former Maryland fire chief and West Virginia emergency services director with 44 years of fire safety experience. “It’s not a ‘nice to have’. It is the one avenue we have to bring people from all over the country to learn from and with each other. If we want to continue to have one of the premier fire services in the world, we need to have the National Fire Academy.”The academy, which also houses the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial, opened in 1973 to combat a growing number of fatal fires nationwide. At the time, the National Commission on Fire Prevention and Control envisioned it to be the “West Point of the Fire Service”, according to a report form the organization.Bashoor said the NFA had been expecting to welcome a new set of fire safety officers for training next week.“People had made their plane and travel reservations. And all of a sudden, they get an email that: ‘Sorry, it’s been canceled,’” he said. “It’s really upsetting.”For firefighters, including those on the frontlines of deadly fires that ravaged California this year, having an essential training institution “shut down under the presumption that there’s waste, fraud and abuse” has been demoralizing, Bashoor said. He said losing NFA training could make the coordinated response that prevented additional deaths and destruction in California more difficult.Fema and the National Fire Academy did not immediately respond to requests for comment.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionWhile surveying disaster zones in California in January, Trump said he was considering “getting rid of” Fema altogether, previewing sweeping changes to the nation’s central organization of responding to disasters.Firings at the National Forest Service on the heels of the deadly California blazes also sparked outcry among discharged workers and officials, who said it would mean fewer people and fewer resources would be available to help prevent and fight wildfires. More

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      America vetoes G7 proposal to combat Russia’s shadow fleet of oil tankers

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      The US has rejected a Canadian proposal to establish a task force that would tackle Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet” of oil tankers, according to reports last night.Canada, which has the current Group of Seven presidency, proposed the measure ahead of a meeting of G7 foreign ministers in Quebec later this week.In negotiations to agree a joint statement on maritime issues, the US is pushing to strengthen language about China while watering down wording on Russia, the reports said.The “shadow fleet” refers to ageing oil tankers, the identities of which are hidden to help circumvent western economic sanctions imposed on Moscow since it launched its full-scale military invasion of Ukraine at the start of 2022.As well as vetoing Canada’s proposal to establish a task force to monitor sanctions breaches, the draft G7 statement seen by Bloomberg News shows the US pushed to remove the word “sanctions” as well as wording citing Russia’s “ability to maintain its war” in Ukraine by replacing it with “earn revenue”.G7 communiqués are not final until they are published through consensus. Further talks could still result in changes to the end-of-summit statement.US diplomats briefed their G7 counterparts that the move was because of Washington’s “re-evaluation of its position in multilateral organisations, rendering it unable to join any new initiatives”, according to the Bloomberg report.European countries are discussing plans that will let them carry out seizures of Moscow’s oil-exporting tankers in the Baltic Sea.The proposals include using international law to allow them to take control of vessels on environmental or piracy grounds. More

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      ‘She is evil’: Amy Coney Barrett under attack by right wing after USAid ruling

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      Amy Coney Barrett, the Donald Trump-appointed conservative supreme court justice, has been branded a “DEI judge” by furious rightwing figures, after she voted to reject Trump’s attempt to freeze nearly $2bn in foreign aid.Coney Barrett, part of the court’s rightwing majority, split with her fellow conservative justices this week. She and John Roberts, the chief justice, voted to leave in place a ruling from a US district judge that ordered the Trump administration to unfreeze the nearly $2bn in aid for foreign aid work that had already been performed, and that had been approved by Congress.The reaction from pro-Trump rightwing commentators and activists was swift.“She is evil, chosen solely because she checked identity politics boxes. Another DEI hire. It always ends badly,” Mike Cernovich, a prominent rightwing influencer and conspiracy theorist, wrote on X, referencing diversity, equity and inclusion policies, which Republicans have demonized.Fox News host Mark Levin claimed in an online post that Barrett had “deceived people into thinking she was a reliable constitutionalist”. He added: “The power has gone to her head. It happens with frightening regularity the last half-century.”Laura Loomer, the rightwing activist who repeatedly traveled with Trump during his 2024 campaign, went even further. She posted a picture of Coney Barrett’s family, which includes two adopted Black children, and wrote: “Amy Coney Barrett was a DEI appointee.” Jack Posobiec, a popular Maga figure with more than 3m followers on X, posted that Coney Barrett was a “DEI judge”.Mike Davis, who was involved in the effort to confirm Trump nominees Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh to the supreme court, appeared on Steve Bannon’s podcast to add his voice to the criticism.“She’s a rattled law professor with her head up her ass,” Davis said of Coney Barrett.He added: “As we work with the Trump 47 administration on the next supreme court list, we’re going to be looking for more bold, more fearless, less DEI, and people who are going to be more of a sure bet.”The branding of Coney Barrett as a liberal judicial figure will come as a surprise to those familiar with her work and legal history.Her appointment to the supreme court in October 2020 cemented the court’s 6-3 conservative majority, and she voted to overturn Roe v Wade, which established the right to abortion in the US, in 2022. An analysis by the Empirical Scotus website found that Barrett voted with Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito – the court’s two most conservative justices – more than 80% of the time in 2023.However, before the vote to reject Trump’s attempt to withhold aid, she had sided with liberal justices to deny Trump’s request to delay sentencing in his New York hush-money case, and joined a dissent against a conservative-led decision that weakened rules on the discharge of raw sewage. More

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      House Republicans unveil spending bill boosting defense and trimming all else

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      US House Republicans unveiled a spending bill Saturday that would keep federal agencies funded through 30 September, pushing ahead with a go-it-alone strategy that seems certain to spark a major confrontation with Democrats over the contours of government spending.The 99-page bill would provide a slight boost to defense programs while trimming non-defense programs below 2024 budget year levels. That approach is likely to be a non-starter for most Democrats who have long insisted that defense and non-defense spending move in the same direction.Congress must act by midnight Friday to avoid a partial government shutdown.Speaker Mike Johnson is teeing up the bill for a vote on Tuesday despite the lack of buy-in from Democrats, essentially daring them to vote against it and risk a shutdown. He also is betting that Republicans can muscle the legislation through the House largely by themselves.Normally, when it comes to keeping the government fully open for business, Republicans have had to work with Democrats to craft a bipartisan measure that both sides can support. That’s because Republicans almost always lack the votes to pass spending bills on their own.Crucially, the strategy has the backing of Donald Trump, who has shown an ability so far in his term to hold Republicans in line.“All Republicans should vote (Please!) YES next week,” Trump posted on Truth Social on Saturday.House Republicans’ leadership staff outlined the measure Saturday, saying it would allow for about $892.5bn in defense spending and about $708bn in non-defense spending. The defense spending is slightly above the prior year’s level, but the non-defense comes in at about 8% below.The leadership aides said the deal does not include various side agreements designed to cushion non-defense programs from spending cuts. Those side agreements had been part of negotiations by Joe Biden, a Democrat, and then speaker Kevin McCarthy, a Republican, when they were in office. The negotiations had allowed for a debt-ceiling extension in return for spending restraints. Under terms of that agreement, defense and non-defense spending had both been set to increase 1% this year.The measure will not include funding requested by individual lawmakers for thousands of community projects around the country, often referred to as earmarks.The bill does not cover the majority of government spending, including programs such as social security and Medicare. Funding for those two programs are on autopilot and not regularly reviewed by Congress.The Republican representative Ralph Norman said he had never voted for a continuing resolution – what lawmakers often call a CR – but that he is on board with Johnson’s effort. He said he has confidence in Trump and the so-called “department of government efficiency”, led by Elon Musk, to make a difference on the nation’s debt.“I don’t like CRs,” Norman said. “But what’s the alternative? Negotiate with Democrats? No.”“I freeze spending for six month to go identify more cuts? Somebody tell me how that’s not a win in Washington,” added the Republican representative Chip Roy, another lawmaker who has often frequently voted against spending bills but supports the six-month continuing resolution.Republicans are also hoping that resolving this year’s spending will allow them to devote their full attention to extending the individual tax cuts passed during Trump’s first term and raising the nation’s debt limit to avoid a catastrophic federal default.Democratic leaders are warning that the decision to move ahead without consulting them increases the prospects for a shutdown. One of their biggest concerns is the flexibility the legislation would give the Trump administration on spending.“We cannot stand by and accept a yearlong power-grab CR that would help Elon take a chainsaw to programs that families rely on and agencies that keep our communities safe,” said the Washington senator Patty Murray, the lead Democrat on the Senate appropriations committee.The Democratic leadership in both chambers has stressed that Republicans have the majority and are responsible for funding the government. But leaders also have been wary of saying how Democrats would vote on a continuing resolution.“We have to wait to see what their plan is,” said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer. “We’ve always believed the only solution is a bipartisan solution, no matter what.”Trump has been meeting with House Republicans in an effort to win their votes on the legislation. Republicans have a 218-214 majority in the House, so if all lawmakers vote, they can afford only one defection if Democrats unite in opposition. The math gets even harder in the Senate, where at least seven Democrats would have to vote for the legislation to overcome a filibuster. And that’s assuming all 53 Republicans vote for it. More

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      Tim Walz says he and Harris were too ‘safe’ during 2024 presidential campaign

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      Tim Walz has said that he and Kamala Harris were too “safe” during their 2024 election campaign, with the former vice-presidential candidate claiming they should have held more in-person events around the US.“We shouldn’t have been playing this thing so safe,” Walz, the governor of Minnesota, said in an interview with Politico, as Democrats seek to learn the lessons of Donald Trump’s win in November, which has sent the party into the political wilderness.Walz, who was widely seen as one of the Democratic party’s most effective messengers against Trump and Vance in 2024, becoming best-known for his frequent description of the pair as “weird”, also said he and Harris had been hampered by the shortened length of their campaign.Harris effectively became the official Democratic party nominee on 5 August, just three months before the election, and Walz said that the abbreviated time frame limited the amount of risks the campaign was able to take.“These are things you might have been able to get your sea legs, if you will, 18 months out, where the stakes were a lot lower,” Walz said.He added: “[But] after you lose, you have to go back and assess where everything was at, and I think that is one area, that is one area we should think about.”Walz’s verdict was that he and Harris should have spent more time directly engaging with Americans, as they sprinted through their 107-day campaign.“I think we probably should have just rolled the dice and done the town halls, where [voters] may say: ‘You’re full of shit, I don’t believe in you,’” he told Politico. “I think there could have been more of that.”Walz has been returning to the national spotlight of late, conducting more TV appearances and last week headlining a fundraising event in front of 1,000 Democrats in his home state. His use of social media, and folksy appearances in TV interviews, were praised during the early party of the 2024 campaign, and Walz suggested he and Harris could have done more.He told Politico that Democrats “as a party are more cautious” in engaging with mainstream and non-traditional media. The former high school football coach added: “In football parlance, we were in a prevent defense [a strategy whereby a team focuses on a gritty defense, rather than attacking], to not lose – when we never had anything to lose, because I don’t think we were ever ahead.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionHarris and Walz lost to Trump by 312 electoral college votes to 226, losing in the national vote by about 1.5%. Republicans also won both houses of Congress. Walz said he bears some of the blame for the loss, because “when you’re on the ticket and you don’t win, that’s your responsibility”.The 2028 Democratic presidential primary is expected to be extremely crowded, with Democrats boasting several high-profile governors, and Walz, who is yet to decide whether he will run for a third term as Minnesota governor, was coy about whether he would run, telling Politico he was “not saying no”.“I’m staying on the playing field to try and help because we have to win,” Walz said. “And I will always say this: I will do everything in my power [to help], and as I said, with the vice-presidency, if that was me, then I’ll do the job.” More