After which he phoned Russia’s Vladimir Putin to start arranging a Putin sitdown with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky, then “we will have a Trilat, which would be the two Presidents, plus myself.”

Crucially, he was caught on a hot mic earlier saying he believes Putin truly wants to reach a peace deal: “I think he wants to make a deal for me, you understand that? As crazy as it sounds.”

The day sure offered grounds for hope, starting with an Oval Office love-in as Trump, Zelensky and a pack of European leaders cooed at each other.

Finland’s President Alexander Stubb probably best summed up the crowd’s praise for Trump: “I think in the past two weeks, we’ve probably had more progress in ending this war than we have in the past 3½ years.”

Up in the air: Can the West give Kyiv sufficient hard security guarantees that it might give Putin part of what he wants as his price for peace?

And: When if ever will Trump ever turn the screws on Putin to make him reduce that price?

Those long-discussed secondary sanctions are an obvious cudgel that could leave the Kremlin no choice but to bend