"Putin, end the war or I will end your rule"

Bosco pointed out that Trump was completely wrong when he promised to end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours of resuming the presidency.

His plan, according to Bosco, was to engage with his "friend", Vladimir Putin, whom he called "brilliant" after the first Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2014.

"Trump has shown his intention to employ a geostrategic pincer movement to bring Ukraine to terms: Russia would increase pressure on the battlefield and on the civilian population while Trump squeezed Ukraine by reducing the flow of American diplomatic, political and, most critically, weapons and intelligence support. As Trump told President Volodymyr Zelensky in February when he and Vice President Vance sandbagged him in the Oval Office, ''You don’t have the cards'", said Bosco.

• The Russians are at the door: If this is true - Putin has achieved a great victory PHOTO/VIDEO

But now, as he points out, the public humiliation that the Vance-Trump team subjected Zelensky to has been returned to Trump by Putin, albeit in a subtler manner.

Namely, it continues, over the past month, after Zelensky accepted the cease-fire proposal, Trump's repeated calls for Putin to end the killing became more strident, eventually reaching the level of warnings and deadlines.

Putin made promise after promise to stop the war as soon as its “root causes” were addressed — by which the Russian leader means the unacceptable existence of  Ukraine as an independent, pro-Western country, reminds Bosco.

Trump’s 50-day extension for Russian compliance — shortened on Monday to just 10 to 12 days — and his promise to impose punishing sanctions on Russia and its allies is the latest stall that serves Russia’s interests, according to this analyst.

"It allows the continuing destruction of Ukraine's cities and the wanton killing of Ukrainian men, women and children," he added to The Hill.

"Trump should play the card he used successfully with Iran and not let the clock run out before acting against Putin and his malign allies who are supporting his aggression and war crimes —that is, China, Iran and North Korea," Bosco believes.

He pointed out that the price of Putin's aggression is not limited to the terrible destruction of ancient cities and 400,000 Ukrainian victims, but also to the huge costs of European economies that have to build or buy weapons to defend against Putin's scourge.

"Trump should also lay down the gauntlet by announcing that the U.S. will ensure the Russian people know the truth about what is happening in Ukraine — and how a million young Russians were deceived into becoming ''expendable'' casualties of Putin's totally unnecessary war. When the truth becomes known to the many millions of the Russian families and friends of the killed and wounded, Putin will have on his hands the most serious challenge to his rule of his entire career — one that cannot be resolved with dissidents falling from tall buildings or being stricken in public places by sudden contact with Novichok poison," continues Bosco.

A relatively peaceful regime change in Russia will set the stage for similar governance transformations in Iran, North Korea and, most critically for world peace, the People's Republic of China.

Today, Trump is the only world leader who can make this happen. That would certainly be worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize Trump is openly seeking, he concluded in the text entitled: "Trump must tell Putin: End the war in Ukraine or I will end your rule."