Joe Biden dealt President Trump a bad hand on Ukraine. Over the course of nearly three years, Biden unfortunately mismanaged the Russian invasion of Ukraine toward a stalemate. Biden provided Ukraine with barely enough weapons to stay in the fight but not enough to win the war. He sent American tax dollars overseas with no plan for return them, and he often spent on things having nothing to do with helping Ukraine prevail. He also did nothing to make sure our European allies were doing their part.
Biden condemned Ukraine to perpetual warfare with no end in sight and threw in billions of dollars to pay for Ukrainian politicians’ salaries instead of lethal warfare. While Biden inherited a stable Europe with an armed Ukraine after Trump reversed the Obama administration’s refusal to provide lethal military aid, Biden’s incompetent mismanagement over the last three years left President Trump a dire situation. Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed or wounded in the Ukraine war, and Europe faces its largest ongoing conflict since the end of the Second World War.
Immediately upon taking office, President Trump got to work to put an end to the suffering.
Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and the entire administration know well that it is in America’s and Europe’s best interests for Ukraine to win this war. President Trump has gotten our European allies on board as well. French President Emmanuel Macron sat next to Trump in the Oval Office in February and said it himself: “This is exactly what we want to do. We want to build a peace with Ukraine.”
He credited Trump with bringing forward a tremendous opportunity to reach a historic deal. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told Trump the same thing just days later in the same setting. After a rocky start, Ukraine is now agreeing to a comprehensive ceasefire proposed by the U.S. during talks in Saudi Arabia.
But one potential spoiler remains: Russia. Russia could be stalling, as Trump has suggested, considering Vladimir Putin tried to attach conditions to a ceasefire deal that notably limited the Ukrainian Armed Forces. No one can expect Ukraine to accept such terms or take Putin at his word. He has already violated his own proposed truce, whereby he was to spare energy infrastructure from hostile action by unleashing waves of attacks against Ukraine’s facilities.
We have seen the remarkable way Trump is dealing with Russia. On the one hand, he has exerted pressure on Putin by maintaining sanctions against Russia and supplying weapons to Ukraine. On the other hand, he has sought to improve relations with Moscow by promising a more productive relationship — but only if the war in Ukraine is settled amicably. This leaves Putin with a choice: agree to peace and get out of Ukraine or become a global pariah facing severe sanctions from the U.S. and European allies. The Kremlin would be wise to accept Trump’s outstretched hand of peace.
Endless Russian delays and feigned efforts to seek peace will come with consequences. With Russia experiencing hyperinflation, falling foreign currency reserves, and an economy increasingly consumed by producing war materiel, Moscow’s hand weakens by the day.
Under Trump’s leadership, the U.S. is negotiating a deal to ...
