OPINION: Trump’s rejection of Ukraine is a betrayal of what makes America great
Photo via: White House Rapid Response/Public domain/Wikimedia Commons
Danny Murnin, a Senior studying Journalism, argues that Trump’s response to the war in Ukraine is an unacceptable way of acting to a country in need.
“We must stand by all our democratic allies. And we must not break faith with those who are risking their lives -- on every continent, from Afghanistan to Nicaragua -- to defy Soviet-supported aggression and secure rights which have been ours from birth.”
These words were uttered by Ronald Reagan in his 1985 State of the Union address. He spoke of the importance of upholding American values of freedom and democracy around the world by funding and supporting resistance to a powerful aggressor’s vicious imperial ambitions.
Reagan understood that America’s greatness comes not from superficial narratives, but from our commitment to actually practicing our stated values and not just preaching them. Reagan believed it was America’s duty to support freedom around the world and if necessary, achieve “peace through strength.”
Forty years after Reagan delivered that speech, an imperialist Russian regime is again threatening freedom and democracy while the United States has a Republican president, this time in Ukraine. For three years now, Ukrainians have fought valiantly against a brutal invasion aimed at erasing their sovereignty. Heavily outmanned and outgunned, Ukraine defied the initial odds of a quick Russian victory and inflicted devastating casualties on their invaders, with Russian military deaths numbering as high as 200,000 by some estimates. At the same time, Ukraine has suffered tremendously, with around 80,000 soldiers killed in action.
The difference between then and now is that the United States no longer has a leader like Reagan; a leader who understands that America must always play a crucial role in protecting freedom and democracy around the world and will fearlessly resist authoritarian imperial aggressors.
President Donald Trump made ending the war in Ukraine a cornerstone of his campaign platform, but many feared he would be deferential to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s priorities in negotiations and abandon the interests of Ukraine and our European allies. After all, Trump called Putin “genius” and "savvy” for the invasion at the time it happened, has a long history of praising Putin and was anything but aggressive on Russia during his first term.
Let’s remember who Trump is talking about here. Many wars are complicated and feature combatants on different sides with valid reasons for fighting. This couldn’t be further from the truth in Ukraine, where the war is Putin’s sole responsibility. Putin is the true villain of our time. He is an authoritarian dictator who has clamped down on basic personal freedoms during his reign. He is a murderer who routinely and discreetly has political opponents and dissidents killed with impunity. He is a deeply corrupt thug who rigs elections to stay in power. Most importantly to remember, he is a barbaric war criminal who is directly accountable for unspeakable acts in Ukraine like the pulverization of the city of Mariupol and horrifying, genocidal massacres in small villages like Bucha.
Remember that Ukraine did not ask for this and certainly did not want this. Ukraine, a sovereign country, was illegally invaded by Russia on Feb. 24, 2022. As much as Kremlin “useful idiots” like Tucker Carlson might want you to think differently, Ukraine bears no responsibility for starting this war and how long it has gone on. Vladimir Putin made the decision to send his troops into Ukraine and start relentlessly bombing Ukrainian cities and he can stop it at any time. Ukraine is fighting for no less than their right to exist as a sovereign state.
This fact makes it all the more infuriating that this administration has taken Russia’s side on the matter. Trump’s statements about the war since taking office again, along with those of his foreign policy team, are entirely the regurgitating of Russian talking points. In the last few weeks alone, Trump has sidelined Ukraine from negotiations to end the war, ruled out membership for Ukraine in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), ruled out helping Ukraine regain sovereign territory lost in the war, ruled out sending U.S. troops to Ukraine regardless of the circumstances, falsely claimed Ukraine started the war and falsely claimed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is a dictator.
The tension came to a head on Feb. 28 when Zelensky visited the White House and met with Trump and Vice President JD Vance in the Oval Office. The meeting was going relatively smoothly until Zelensky pointedly asked Vance to elaborate on what the administration considered as diplomacy, correctly noting that Putin has never been a reliable partner in diplomatic agreements relating to Ukraine. At that point, things went south and a shouting match started.
The administration subsequently suspended all military aid to Ukraine and paused critical intelligence sharing. While these moves were reversed, the damage was done. Many Ukrainian civilians were killed in Russian airstrikes in the days after the decision and Ukraine lost wide swaths of territory because they possessed poorer intelligence. A Kremlin spokesman said on March 2 that Trump’s actions and words toward Ukraine “largely coincides with our vision.”
The fact that the Kremlin is openly praising the President of the United States’ foreign policy is an utter disgrace. Unlike what Trump, members of his team and prominent supporters might think, Russia is not an ally or a friend; they are an adversary whose geopolitical goals are antithetical to everything the United States supposedly stands for. More to the point, there is virtually no chance that Russia is going to just sit back and exclaim “mission accomplished” if they win the war in Ukraine or come out on top in negotiations. Putin, a former devout KGB officer, would love nothing more than to recreate the old Soviet Union and push back NATO military power in Eastern Europe, which he views as threatening.
Putin and Russia might deny it, but the harsh reality is that there has not been a single occasion during his time in power that telling him “no” or signing deals and agreements has deterred him from gradually increasing the aggressiveness of his actions. Appeasing him simply won’t work. The reason we got to this point in the first place was because U.S. leaders, including Democrats Barack Obama and Joe Biden, weren’t tough enough on Putin. During a 2012 Presidential Election debate against Mitt Romney, Obama mocked Romney for saying Russia was the United States’ biggest enemy, and then didn’t respond harshly enough to Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. Biden, meanwhile, should be applauded for galvanizing the West into a coordinated response to the 2022 invasion consisting of enormous military aid to Ukraine and heavy sanctions against Russia. However, his refusal to implement a lifesaving NATO no-fly zone over Ukraine at the start of the war as well as a prolonged ban on allowing Ukraine to strike targets inside Russia with American weapons absolutely are a contributing factor to the precarious position Ukraine is now in.
Trump is different. Many have compared him to Neville Chamberlain, a former United Kingdom Prime Minister whose betrayal of an ally to appease Adolf Hitler in 1938 failed to stop a wider war from breaking out as he thought it would. Trump might be in a very similar position to the one Chamberlain was in all those years ago, but his mindset is completely different. Trump isn’t favorable to Putin because he is afraid of him or because he doesn’t take him seriously. Trump is favorable to Putin because he genuinely likes Putin and admires his leadership. Trump, a man who recently said that he has the power to overrule any law he wants and openly muses about serving a third term, clearly wishes he could be a dictator. Putin is everything Trump wants to be.
The only thing certain about Ukraine’s future is that the United States will not advocate for its sovereignty and self-determination for at least the next four years. More likely than not, the United States under Trump wouldn’t uphold the United States’ NATO Article 5 obligation if Putin were to attack the Baltic states or Poland. For the time being, Putin really only has Europe to worry about.
It is sad that Trump, the duly elected president, does not care to uphold the values that are at the core of who we are as a country at the expense of our allies. He has instead chosen to lie, deceive, and mask his arrogance and contempt for democracy under a faux guise of putting America first.
Still, while this certainly reads like an anti-Trump piece, the hard truth is that this slide toward isolationism we are seeing isn’t because of him. Like many other concerning political trends, Trump isn’t the catalyst of the problem; he is a symptom. Ultimately, Trump can get away with abandoning Ukraine because it is the will of the American people. According to a recent CBS News poll, as many Americans view Russia as an ally (34%) as they do an enemy (also 34%). Trump’s approval rating on his handling of the war in Ukraine is currently 51%.
As president, however, Trump has the responsibility to focus on the bigger picture. Put plainly, most Americans possess no understanding whatsoever of foreign policy issues, particularly ones that involve war. I hope President Trump will change his tune and realize that abandoning Ukraine is the exact opposite of putting America first.
Please note that these views and opinions do not reflect those of The New Political.
