Where there's smoke there is fire. And there is enough smoke coming from the Trump administration about wanting a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin that we should take it seriously.

Trump is obviously feeling confident he can weather any storm of criticism for such a meeting from the usual suspects from his opposition before the mid-term elections – the DNC, Congress, the Deep State, or do I repeat myself?

In fact, I would argue Trump is right to continue the peace path in the wake of his success with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore earlier this month. The obvious partisanship evinced by these same people have helped to marginalize them with the center of the US electorate.

These are the coveted swing voters that Trump will need to not only secure some crucial wins in November, but also to force a makeover of the GOP leadership going forward for the second half of his first term.

Americans are tired of war. They are tired of being lied to. They want their cost of living to stabilize or, if possible, drop. Both sides of the political spectrum rallied behind the populist idea of more money for the 99% and less money for the 1% in 2016.

That dynamic is still in play. And Trump was smart to undercut his opposition after Singapore by emphasizing the cost and expense of unnecessary war games with South Korea when he canceled them.

A move that was both brilliant domestic politics and brilliant international diplomacy.

It is hard to justify the empire abroad when peace is breaking out on the Korean peninsula. It is also easy to make the case, as he has been, that the US has been paying not only for the world's defense directly but also indirectly through byzantine trade barriers designed to retard US growth and subsidize the G-7 nations' social welfare states and their political relevance.

The net effect has been the creation of a tyrannical and anti-democratic European Union which is now not only the biggest debtor relative to its output in the world but also an increasingly unsound political entity which could blow apart at the seams at any moment, taking the world's financial system with it.

It is for these reasons and so many others that I feel Trump and Putin should tackle the biggest problem in the world right now head on, Syria, and, by extension, the Middle East.

Syria has been nothing short of a disaster for the entire world. It is the breeding ground for most of the hot button issues du jour. The knock-on effects of trying to create a failed state in Syria (and Libya, Egypt and others) are the wedge issues in global geopolitics.

Immigration. Budget deficits. Trade barriers. Sanctions. Identity politics. Refugee treatment. Border Security.