Editorial: One of Donald Trump’s qualities is his ability to retreat from error, and he should do that now over Russian war

​Donald Trump has significant support on this side of the Atlantic, both here in Northern Ireland, the rest of the UK and in much of Europe.​

He is, to be clear, one of the least popular of US presidents outside of his own country, which is inevitable given his unashamed and blunt and even at times unpleasant America First outlook.

But no wonder he nonetheless has his admirers: he is honest about the scandal of weak western governments losing control of their borders and letting in extremists, criminals and, more generally, people who hate our values.

He has stood up to the nonsense of DEI positive discrimination based on race, stood up to women competing in men’s sports, and to European nations freeloading on defence and using the money to have a lavish welfare state which Americans themselves do not enjoy.

But it is hard to think of a subject on which he has gone more badly wrong than on Russia-Ukraine, perhaps even worse than his blundering and stupid approach to tariffs.

President Trump said that neither the Middle East nor Russian war would have happened if he had been in the White House, an absurd statement.

Even more ludicrously, he said he would solve the Ukraine conflict on his first day in office.

Instead, he emboldened that rampaging, corrupt thug President Putin into thinking that the conflict would be settled on his invading terms. Four months later, a fair peace seems a distant prospect.

At the weekend, Russia launched a sweeping drone assault across Ukraine, targeting multiple regions, leaving several people dead.

One of Mr Trump’s qualities is his ability to retreat from error.

Let us hope that now happens in his approach to the Ukraine tragedy.