President Donald Trump is so stupid and clumsy with words, he just endorsed Ukraine’s annexation of Russian territory. But hey, it’s better than the opposite!
In one of his patented Truth Social rantshis target is, for once, warranted. Let’s break down the post:
After getting to know and fully understand the Ukraine/Russia Military and Economic situation and, after seeing the Economic trouble it is causing Russia, I think Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form.
The battle lines have barely shifted for months. Drones dominate the battlefield, preventing Russia from making meaningful advances, but also stopping Ukraine from doing the same. Tanks and armored vehicles are mostly absent and obsolete; progress comes in small infantry groups trying to dodge drone detection. Anything exposed in the open is dead.
That’s why the Russia-Ukraine War, despite staggering casualties, has become primarily economic. Both sides are targeting each other’s infrastructure. Russia can feed the front with endless waves of men, but if Ukraine keeps degrading its enemy’s oil and gas industry—Russia’s one real economic engine—that’s a different story.
With time, patience, and the financial support of Europe and, in particular, NATO, the original Borders from where this War started, is very much an option. Why not?
NATO is Europe … and the U.S. (and Canada). It would really help if the U.S. lent assistance, but this is still a welcome change in Trump’s rhetoric for several reasons:
He’s not trashing NATO. Maybe we’ve survived his obsession with leaving the alliance.
Just last week he insisted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy should “make a deal,” meaning surrender territory. Now he’s suggesting Ukraine could restore its 2014 borders … for the moment.
One of the problems Ukraine had at the start of this Trump presidency was the notion that it couldn’t possibly defeat Russia. Remember the infamous “You have no cards!” ambush at the White House? Trump no longer believes that.
Russia has been fighting aimlessly for three and a half years a War that should have taken a Real Military Power less than a week to win. This is not distinguishing Russia. In fact, it is very much making them look like “a paper tiger.”
The Trump administration’s unlikely hero remains Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has argued this point since Day 1. Most of Trump’s orbit—Vice President JD Vance, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, House Speaker Mike Johnson, and the MAGA movement—are pro-Russia or openly hostile to Ukraine. Rubio, with a small cadre of congressional Republicans, resisted.
Somehow, Trump is now anti-Russia. The trick may have been convincing him that Russia is weak. Nothing enrages him more than weakness, and on the battlefield, Russia is exactly that.
When the people living in Moscow, and all of the Great Cities, Towns, and Districts all throughout Russia, find out what is really going on with this War, the fact that it’s almost impossible for them to get Gasoline through the long lines that are being formed, and all of the other things that are taking place in their War Economy, where most of their money is being spent on fighting Ukraine, which has Great Spirit, and only getting better, Ukraine would be able to take back their Country in its original form and, who knows, maybe even go further than that! Putin and Russia are in BIG Economic trouble, and this is the time for Ukraine to act. In any event, I wish both Countries well.
That is all one sentence. Trump remains a butcher of language.
It’s true that Russia—despite being a major oil producer—is experiencing fuel shortages thanks to Ukrainian strikes on energy infrastructure. It’s also true that Ukraine has fought with extraordinary spirit. Two truths in one Trump sentence might be a record.
But his leap to suggesting Ukraine might “go further than that” is bizarre. Is he endorsing Ukraine invading Russia? Annexing Russian territory? Ukraine just wants its land back, Crimea included. Can we stick to that?
We will continue to supply weapons to NATO for NATO to do what they want with them. Good luck to all!
Now this is something. The U.S. doesn’t supply weapons to NATO; NATO isn’t an army. But if Trump means the U.S. will funnel weapons through NATO to Ukraine, that’s a major reversal. More likely, it’s incoherent babble. Still, if he really does intend to use NATO as a laundering mechanism for U.S. support, Ukraine’s prospects brighten considerably.
Europe has to step up—not just with weapons, but with money. Ukraine’s domestic arms industry is cranking. What it needs most is financing for its long-range missiles to keep hammering Russian infrastructure. If Trump wants to frame U.S. support as “NATO’s business” to dodge MAGA fury, fine. As long as the weapons flow, Russia will struggle against a U.S.-E.U. one-two punch.
The irony is that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin once had Trump in the palm of his hand. Flattery and promises of a Nobel Peace Prize could have helped him starve Ukraine into submission. But Putin, too arrogant to debase himself and suck up to Trump the way other world leaders did, may have overplayed his hand.
And that arrogance might ultimately help doom him.
What a crazy twist.
Related | Putin’s latest warmongering highlights Trump’s limp diplomacy
