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Washington establishment should learn from Trump's unconventional diplomacy, MS NOW guest says
By Hanna Panreck
Published December 28, 2025
Jonathan Guyer, the program director at the Institute for Global Affairs, said during an appearance on MS NOW on Saturday that the Washington establishment could learn from President Donald Trump's "unconventional" foreign policy.
"I think the establishment in Washington has something to learn from Trump’s unconventional diplomacy, totally breaking diplomatic precedent," Guyer told the panel. "Look at his diplomats. I call them cowboy diplomats; Jared Kushner, Steve Witkoff, they have no experience, and yet sometimes they get stuff done. We talk about the Gaza ceasefire. Yes, 400 Palestinians have been killed by Israel, but it’s held together in a way that President Biden did not achieve such a ceasefire. So I do think there’s much to learn from President Trump’s totally unconventional approach. But there are huge risks, too."
MS NOW host Catherine Rampell pushed back and said there were risks in having Kushner and Witkoff negotiate, and asked, "How do we know that they are actually operating in the country’s interest, as opposed to the interests of their own wallets?"
U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, accompanied by U.S. President Donald Trump, speaks during a swearing in ceremony for interim U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., Jeanine Pirro in the Oval Office of the White House on May 28, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Guyer responded, "The conflicts of interest could be legion here, and it’s massively risky for American interests. On the other hand, they just don’t care. They’re willing to talk with Hamas, lift sanctions on Syria, stop a bombing campaign in Yemen when it’s not working. They are not following the rules. And I think there are some upsides to that, even though we should be highly critical of them also breaking all the ethical strictures that have basically been definitional for U.S. officials over time."
MS NOW host Elise Jordan criticized the Trump administration's handling of the Russia-Ukraine war and said Trump offered "preposterous" terms to Ukraine.
Guyer agreed that there were downsides to his approach, but said getting both sides to the table was a good first step.
Jonathan Guyer, the program director at the Institute for Global Affairs, praised President Donald Trump's "unconventional approach" to foreign policy on Dec. 27, 2025. (MSNOW/Primetime)
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"President Biden wasn’t able to bring these two sides to the table. And there may be a silver lining by getting a line to Putin, a line to Russia. You know, this is just the start, and you’re going to need expertise. You’re going to need hard-nosed diplomacy to get to the finish line. But I do think it’s a good thing we’re talking with Russia, because that’s the first step here," he said.
The rest of the panel pushed back and pointed to concerns about other aspects of the administration's foreign policy, including the drug boat attacks, as well as the recent strike in Nigeria.
In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin, accompanied by Kremlin economic envoy Kirill Dmitriev and Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov, meets with US special envoy Steve Witkoff and US President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner at the Kremlin in Moscow on December 2, 2025. (Alexander KAZAKOV / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)
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"This is a lot of bad news. But I do think we need to focus on the credit where credit’s due with this president that, cowboy diplomacy as risky, as dangerous as it might be. As much as we may want to be highly critical of President Trump’s approach, we’ve got to give him a little credit," he said.
Trump is set to host Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at his Mar-a-lago estate on Sunday in the latest attempt to end the war. Russian and Ukrainian negotiations have repeatedly broken down over where the final territorial lines will fall in a peace agreement.
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