President Trump’s minerals deal is the best security tripwire Ukraine could ever hope for.

President Zelensky doesn’t seem to understand that Mr. Trump’s mineral and mining deal offer is, indeed, a giant step toward Ukraine’s security.

I call it the tripwire effect.

Think of it this way: American companies will come into Ukraine and open up drilling excavation and mining operations for rare earth minerals, precious metals, oil and gas, and so forth.

And they will be coming in to build infrastructure in various geographic locations throughout the country.

American firms will therefore be putting their boots on the ground. These are not American military boots on the ground. They would be private-sector corporate boots on the ground. But they will nevertheless bring with them large-scale security.

Digging for minerals and mining is no small operation. It’s a very big deal. It’s conceivable thousands of Americans would be moving in to do all manner of jobs, be they front-office administration or engineers out in the field.

Think of it as oilpatch roughnecks like in the Permian Basin. Something right out of the TV show “Landman.”

Now, I call it a “tripwire” — because if the Russians start rolling in tanks or start bombing these American operations — then all global hell will break out, because Russia would then be attacking Americans.

And I don’t think they want that kind of escalation.

I don’t think President Putin wants anything near the idea of attacking and killing Americans.

It’s a bit like President Eisenhower after World War II relocating American families and businesses to Europe,  alongside our post-war military bases.

The old Soviet communists may have talked big, but they didn’t want to start bombing Americans — be they civilian families or military ones.

That American population in post-war Europe was a cold war “tripwire.”

According to Treasury Secretary Bessent, Mr. Zelensky has failed to sign the minerals deal now three times: once at Kyiv (where he was reportedly rude in the meetings), once at Munich, and again last Friday at Washington DC.

It’s possible Mr. Zelensky is just a hothead with no respect for the Oval Office or President Trump.

When Mr. Zelensky blew up on Friday, this hostility to America was blatantly on display for all the world to see.

Not to mention, American voters are firmly behind Mr. Trump on this. The latest poll from Harvard-Harris pollster Mark Penn shows 60 percent of Americans favor holding direct peace talks with Russia, and 72 percent want Ukraine to negotiate an end to the war. 

Only 28 percent support Mr. Zelensky’s plan, as it essentially appears now, to simply keep fighting with no end in sight.

Mr. Trump is offering him an incredible way out.

Yes, America can recoup some of its Ukraine war expenses.

Longer term, though, Ukraine’s entire economy will be reopened, and its assets will be monetized in ways that will be of incalculable benefit to them.

It’s like Mr. Trump is offering Mr. Zelensky a future but he won’t take it. He keeps prattling on against cease-fires without security guarantees when Mr. Trump is offering him the best possible security guarantee.

Mr. Trump and his top advisers are worried about something that’s almost inconceivable — that Mr. Zelensky doesn’t really want a peace deal and that the brutal fighting with hundreds of thousands or even millions killed and wounded will go on for years and that really will bring us closer to World War III.

From Mr. Kudlow’s broadcast on Fox Business Network.