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In just a matter of weeks, President Donald Trump has overturned 80 years of bipartisan American global leadership, has instigated a trade war in North America, and has pivoted the United States from supporting our democratic allies to aligning with America’s long-standing enemy and adversary, the brutal dictatorship of Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
As an indicator of the radical nature of this historic shift, just months ago when Secretary of State Marco Rubio was still a Republican senator, he was one of the strongest champions for funding both Ukraine’s defense against Russian aggression and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
For over 60 years, USAID, with strong bipartisan support, has been the primary instrument of America’s “soft power.” It has been a key element of our global leadership and has literally saved millions of lives around the world. With USAID now (perhaps illegally) dismantled by Trump and the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, people will die—and China will gladly step into the development aid vacuum to increase its own “soft power.”
The war in Ukraine could end tomorrow if Russia withdrew from sovereign Ukrainian territory. So why is Trump pressuring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy instead of Putin?
Throughout his first term and into his second, Trump has openly disparaged NATO and insulted our NATO allies—European countries and Canada, who fought alongside the United States in Afghanistan—while simultaneously praising bellicose Putin.
The intentional public bullying of Zelenskyy by Trump and his vice president in the Oval Office on Feb. 28 was a shameful day in American history. John Bolton, the ultra-conservative Republican who served as George W. Bush’s ambassador to the United Nations and as national security adviser for part of Trump’s first term, put it this way:
“It was a disaster for the United States of America. It showed a president who was literally mouthing Russian propaganda—as he has for the past several weeks—the idea that somehow Ukraine’s act of self-defense threatens World War III. It was a very sad day, not just for Ukraine, but really for the United States. … They have now shifted the American view on the war in Ukraine 180 degrees. They are on Russia’s side.”
Following the verbal ambush of Zelenskyy in the Oval Office, Trump suspended all U.S. military aid to embattled Ukraine—aid that had already been approved by Congress—and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered U.S. Cyber Command to stand down from all planning to counter Russian cyberwarfare against the United States. Ahead of any peace talks, Trump had recently declared that Ukraine would never be allowed to join NATO. The Kremlin gleefully announced that American foreign policy is now in alignment with Russia’s.
I think it’s reasonable to suggest that Republican Presidents Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford, Reagan and George H.W. Bush, and Republican Sens. McCain and Lugar—all of whom supported free trade, America’s global leadership, and the transatlantic alliance to stave off Russian aggrandizement—would be appalled.
Putin’s territorial desires go well beyond Ukraine. He wants to re-create the geopolitical footprint of the old Soviet Union, and that includes the Baltic member-states of NATO. If Ukraine falls, who will be next?
Meanwhile, Trump’s call for a “peace deal” that will come at the expense of Ukrainian territory signals to China that there is another democracy the United States might abandon in the face of invasion: Taiwan. America’s allies in Asia, including Japan and South Korea, are no doubt as nervous and dismayed by Trump’s “America alone” approach to the world as are our European allies.•
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Atlas, a political scientist, is a senior lecturer at the Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University-Indianapolis. His opinions do not necessarily reflect those of Indiana University. Send comments to [email protected].
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Nothing like approvingly quoting blood-soaked warmonger John Bolton to make the case for keeping the old failed U.S. policy of endlessly provoking Russia.
The claim that Russia will keep going, to the borders of the old Soviet Union, is standard war-machine propaganda.
I can almost guarantee you that Perfesser Atlas will be plumping for war with Iran next.
Nonsense, Richard! In other words, horse feathers! Russia is the aggressor, DJT is a Putin puppet and Elon Musk wants all our money to get to Mars and have world domination.
Having strong allies and global trade makes us more secure. Destroying our economy, increasing our pollution, and not protecting our clean water infrastructure makes us weak and untrustworthy.