President floats a land swap on a Saturday; Ukraine, which owns the land, was not consulted.

The President spent Saturday at his golf course in Virginia. Between rounds, the country was informed via social network that the upcoming Friday meeting with Russia in Alaska might involve some “swapping of territory” between Ukraine and Russia. The President of Ukraine, who is in fact the head of state of the country with the territory, responded the same evening that Ukraine “will not give up land.”

Hon. He’s not authorized to swap land that isn’t his.

There is a basic level of homework that goes into being a head of state, and one of the items of homework is whose name is on the deed. The deed for the eastern Donbas region is, as a matter of international law, Ukraine’s. The deed for Crimea, which Russia took in 2014 and the world has never recognized, is also Ukraine’s. The President of the United States is not a party to those deeds. He cannot transfer property he does not own. He can write a sentence about transferring property he does not own, and he did, on a Saturday, between holes.

The envoy who delivered the original Russian offer changed his account of what was on offer between Wednesday and Friday. By the next call with European leaders the offer was different than it had been the day before. Nobody knows what was actually on the table. Somebody at our end is taking notes on a napkin.

The summit happens Friday in Anchorage. By Friday morning the United States will have spent the entire week describing a deal it does not control, with land it does not own, on terms its own envoy cannot keep straight from one phone call to the next.

You ever notice how the great deal-makers always seem to be making the great deal in a room without the seller in it.

That ought to concern you.