This is John Batchzer, a conversation with colleague Jonathan Shanzer, the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy, about the report from Moscow, Washington, and elsewhere, that Mr. Trump has spoken to Mr. Putin about Mr. Putin brokering a truce talk or a disarming talk or a diplomatic talk between Washington and Tehran.

That's right. Putin to step between Tehran and Washington and negotiate away from the confrontation that is very likely imminent.

Here's Donald and Shanzer on an unusual headline everywhere in Europe.

More of this tonight.

I wish I knew, John.

Wilk, we are watching some very strange things play out right now where Donald Trump has decided to put a pause on the assistance to Ukraine.

This is pleasing Vladimir Putin endlessly.

And now we understand that Putin is being invited into the tent to try to neutralize the Iranian threat.

We learn this just as headlines

indicate that the Russians actually were sending advisors to Iran on the two different occasions

that they fired ballistic missiles at Israel last year in April and in October. This does not

bode well, I think, for the negotiations that Trump has envisioned.

I have to say up front that I think negotiating with Iran is a mistake for this president.

I hope that we don't go too far down this road before the president begins to understand that

legitimizing the Iranian regime and giving the regime an opportunity to obfuscate and

to continue to surreptitiously work on its nuclear program is a huge mistake.