A kiss! Just a kiss! That’s all it took. Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, planted a kiss on Donald Trump’s cheek, and the trade war was over.

Love was in the air: “Obviously the European Union, as represented by @junckerEU and the United States, as represented by yours truly, love each other,” Trump tweeted.

Poor Putin. “All I needed to do was kiss the guy and I wouldn’t be in this mess,” he must be saying. “U.S. visit would still be on, and I’d get more concessions that Trump wouldn’t even remember afterwards. Old sanctions would be gone. No new sanctions. He’d still believe me when I said I didn’t mess with his election. Why’d he change ‘would’ to ‘wouldn’t’ anyway?”

Now Puti sits in the Kremlin, gazing at the Steve Sack cartoon showing the treasured relationship that has now gone awry. Trump leans over in the cartoon and says (to himself about Puti), “He ‘gets me.’ ” And Puti says, “I’ve got him.”

No more. One little kiss. That’s all it would have taken. Sad.

Donna Halvorsen

South Portland