The first two months of President Donald Trump’s presidency have been a roller coaster. But one development from this past week should raise major red flags for all Americans: Trump’s foreign policy shift away from Ukraine and toward Russia.
On Feb. 24, 2022, Russian troops, tanks and machinery thundered into Ukraine, seeking to topple Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and annex the entire nation. They failed. Since that fateful day, Russia’s unprovoked assault on Ukraine’s sovereignty has killed hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians and Russians, while Russia has only made minimal territorial gains.
In the time since the invasion, Russia has largely – and rightly – been shunned and isolated by the international community for its aggression. In response, they deepened alliances with other pariah states like North Korea and Iran, countries that Russia relies on for manpower and weapons. The United States and Europe have provided aid, weaponry and assistance to Ukraine for the last two years as it has fought to stave off the Russian offensive.
Unfortunately, Trump’s latest rhetoric signals a shift in U.S. foreign policy away from Ukraine and toward the Kremlin. Last week, Trump excoriated Zelenskyy, insinuating that he is a “dictator without elections,” claiming that his approval ratings are only at “4%” and demanding that Ukraine hold elections before receiving future U.S. aid. In a press briefing, Trump went as far as to say that Ukraine “shouldn’t have started” the war with Russia. Trump’s anti-Ukraine rhetoric is deluded, dangerous and eerily echoes Russian propaganda surrounding the war.
Within Russia, dictator Vladimir Putin pushes a bizarre and dishonest narrative of the war, claiming he was forced to fight because of Ukrainian aspirations to join the North American Treaty Organization and Western expansionism surrounding Russia’s borders. These claims are false. Ukraine’s former ambitions to join NATO were necessitated by threats of Russian aggression, not vice versa.
Ironically, Trump’s accusations toward Zelenskyy actually apply to Putin. He has reigned as a brutal dictator in Russia, violently crushing dissent, murdering political opponents and refusing to hold free and fair elections. He has engaged in major acts of sabotage against Europe and the U.S., has meddled in foreign elections and carried out numerous cyberattacks on the U.S.
Trump’s questionable rhetoric has even drawn criticism from his fellow Republicans. Nebraska Rep. Don Bacon was particularly vocal, asserting that “Putin started this war, Putin committed war crimes.” Republican Sen. Thom Tillis similarly called Putin a “cancer” and the “greatest threat to democracy in my lifetime.”
Trump’s false rhetoric and foreign policy shift to favor Russia are unprecedented and dangerous, signaling a shift in support away from Ukraine, a democratic country fighting for freedom, and toward Russia, a hostile dictatorship that seeks to undermine the West. As the leader of the free and democratic world, the U.S. should be opposing tyranny. Unless Congress can rein in the president, this development will hurt American interests and the world order, not to mention the people of Ukraine, a peaceful nation that never asked for war. The America I know does not embrace and appease dictators; it stands up to them.