President Trump’s opponents are objecting to negotiations with President Vladimir Putin of Russia about ending his war against Ukraine. The criticism is a shift from the days of urging leaders to pursue diplomacy over military options, and suggests that rather than pursue peace, many prefer to give war a chance.

Doing the rounds on the Sunday shows, Secretary Marco Rubio rejected condemnations of Friday’s Alaska summit. On “Meet the Press,” he said that “ultimately,” the Trump administration is “aiming for an end to this war,” and on “Face the Nation” he dismissed as a “stupid media narrative” that Mr. Trump intended to “bully” President Volodymyr Zelensky. 

On “This Week,” Martha Raddatz cited objections to the “pomp and circumstance, the red carpet, the warm handshake” from Mr. Trump, which she said elevated Mr. Putin “to the world stage.” Mr. Rubio chuckled, saying Mr. Putin “is already on the world stage,” as the whole world is talking about him.

Mr. Rubio said that talking to Mr. Putin “doesn’t mean he’s right” or his invasion “justified.” Yet “you’re not going to end” the war “without dealing with Putin.” In the secretary’s view, “that’s just common sense,” because America is “going to have to have the Russian side agree to things that they don’t want to agree to if we want to have peace.”

Ms. Raddatz asked why Mr. Trump hadn’t stormed out or slapped new sanctions on Russia, which he’d said he was prepared to do if Mr. Putin didn’t agree to a cease-fire. “The minute you levy additional sanctions,” Mr. Rubio said, “the talking stops, and you’ve probably added six, nine, 12 more months to the war if not longer.” 

America “may end up” having “no other recourse” than more economic pressure, Mr. Rubio said. Yet “everyone,” he said, “including the Ukrainians and all the countries of Europe, are begging the United States to be engaged, engage Putin, and try to get him to agree to a peace agreement.” 

On Saturday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer of the United Kingdom put out a statement saying that Mr. Trump had “brought us closer than ever to ending Russia’s illegal war,” and that his “efforts to end the killing should be commended.” His remarks were in line with one of his predecessors, Winston Churchill. “Meeting jaw to jaw,” he said, “is better than war.” 

As colonial secretary during the Anglo-Irish War, Churchill negotiated with the Irish leader, Michael Collins. Bitter adversaries, they became friends, starting when Churchill defused tensions over the £5,000 bounty he’d put on Collins’s head. The Boers, Churchill said, had only asked £25 for Churchill during that conflict, “dead-or-alive.”

In 1932, Churchill’s son, Randolph, sought to arrange a dinner between his father and the Nazi leader, Adolf Hitler. The future chancellor declined the invitation, saying he was too busy and needed a shave. The elder Churchill had been open to the idea but Hitler, he wrote, “lost his only chance of meeting me.” 

President Reagan was criticized for not talking to Kremlin premiers, though it was due to three passing away before he had the chance. “How am I supposed to get anyplace with the Russians,” he told his wife, Nancy, “if they keep dying on me?” He made a partner for peace of the USSR’s last leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, ending the Cold War.

Had the metaphor “only Nixon could go to China” not been coined after President Nixon opened relations with Beijing, the phrase might have been coined for Reagan. Both men despised communism. To advance the cause of freedom, though, they were willing to shake hands, even blood-stained hands.

In his first term, Mr. Trump did just that as the first sitting American president to enter North Korea. At the DMZ summit, he greeted Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un and achieved a slight reduction in nuclear tensions. Following the strike on Iran’s atomic facilities, Mr. Trump extended Ayatollah Ali Khamenei a similar offer to parley.

On “Meet the Press,” Mr. Rubio said that though it “may be distasteful” to talk to Mr. Putin, it’s necessary “for there to be an end to the war.” Hammering out a deal is difficult, but it would be impossible without meeting “jaw to jaw.”