Throughout Joe Biden’s presidency, there could be no doubts, here or abroad, about the United States’ unambiguous position on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “The bottom line is this: We want Ukraine to win,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during a visit to Kyiv six months ago. The nation’s top American diplomat added at the time, “Our support will not wane. Our unity will not break.”
Six months later, the U.S. position has undergone a terrifying metamorphosis. Indeed, for all intents and purposes, with Donald Trump in power, the White House has effectively switched sides. The New York Times published a compelling analysis of the new landscape.
As far as Mr. Trump is concerned, Russia is not responsible for the war that has devastated its neighbor. Instead, he suggests that Ukraine is to blame for Russia’s invasion of it. To listen to Mr. Trump talk with reporters on Tuesday about the conflict was to hear a version of reality that would be unrecognizable on the ground in Ukraine and certainly would never have been heard from any other American president of either party.
The Republican has had a great deal to say of late about the devastating conflict, but he broke new ground this week declaring, “You should have never started it.”
In context, Trump was referring, of course, to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, launching a war that Vladimir Putin started.
The American president made the comments as members of his administration began preliminary discussions with Russian officials about the future of the war in Ukraine — diplomatic discussions that the Trump administration did not invite Ukrainian representatives to participate in.
After the same comments in which Trump blamed Ukraine for starting the war that Russia started, the Republican also publicly mocked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s approval rating and suggested that Ukraine did not deserve “a seat at the table.”
A day later, by way of his social media platform, Trump described Zelenskky as a "modestly successful comedian" and a "Dictator without Elections." The American added that his Ukrainian counterpart "talked the United States of America into spending $350 Billion Dollars, to go into a War that couldn’t be won."
There is no evidence that Trump is reading prepared talking points from the Kremlin. But if the American president were, hypothetically, sticking to rhetorical scripts from Moscow, effectively positioning himself as a puppet of Putin’s government, the Republican would probably sound quite a bit like he sounds now.
Indeed, let’s not forget that, as offensive Trump’s latest rhetoric has been, it’s part of a larger series. It was, after all, just last week when the American president publicly vouched for Putin’s interest in peace, despite the devastating war in Ukraine that the Russian leader began and can end at any time.
Trump also declared that he expects Russia to keep at least some of the land Putin took from Ukraine by force and hedged on whether he considers Ukraine an equal member of the peace process.
As last Wednesday came to an end, former White House national security adviser John Bolton told CNN, “Putin has scored a whole series of victories today. It’s hard to encompass them all.” The former Trump aide added, “They’re drinking vodka straight out of the bottle in the Kremlin tonight. It was a great day for Moscow.”
It was a day later when Trump said he also has a new gift in mind for Putin: The Republican said he wants to welcome Russia back into the G7.
One can only speculate as to who put these ideas in Trump’s head, but he has a history of private interactions with Putin, and he’s been awfully cagey of late about his recent conversations with the Russian autocrat.
Among the many problems with the White House’s line is that Trump is leaving little doubt that he has no interest in serving as a fair arbiter or honest broker as the diplomatic process inches forward. Indeed, after the American president blamed Ukraine for Russia’s invasion, Zelenskyy said that Trump appears trapped in a “disinformation bubble.”
Or put another way, the more Trump takes Russia’s side, the more difficult it is to believe that he’ll play a constructive role in negotiating an end to the devastating war.
Meanwhile, longtime U.S. allies are reassessing what they can expect from a White House they’re now struggling to respect or believe. In the Czech Republic, for example, Interior Minister Vit Rakusan said via social media, in reference to Trump blaming Russia’s war on Ukraine, “I’m afraid we’ve never been this close to Orwell’s ‘war is peace, freedom is slavery, and ignorance is strength’ before.”