By Thomas L. Friedman / The New York Times
Whenever President Donald Trump talks about Ukraine there is always something off, something missing, that makes you wonder what he is really up to; and his brief remarks on Ukraine to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night was no exception.
He crazily exaggerated how much the U.S. has contributed to Ukraine’s war effort as opposed to what our European allies have given. When he talked about the human toll of the war, he first mourned “Russian young people” and then “Ukrainian young people”; as if they were both hit by a meteor, the one before the other. And he declared that he has received “strong signals” from Vladimir Putin that he wants peace, but offered no details.
If there is one thing that I have learned in journalism it is that when you don’t call things by their real name, there is usually a reason; you are hiding something, some motivation, some intent.
How to explain that in Trump’s case? Well, he is either the most pliant Western negotiator against the enemies of liberty since Neville Chamberlain, making concessions to the aggressor before talks have even started, or he actually prefers the friendship of Putin over our European allies and courageous Ukrainian democrats.
Because right now the Trump administration is behaving in ways that trouble a great many patriotic Americans; sticking a knife in the back of a nation struggling for liberty, Ukraine, by cutting off its vital U.S. weapons supplies and trying to extort its minerals, before Russia has even agreed to a ceasefire.
Imagine Trump was trying to sell a Trump Tower to a Russian — let’s call him Vladimir — and Trump brought along his banker. What would Trump think if, before the negotiating began, his banker proclaimed, “Donald, you have no cards, we’ve just cut off your line of credit, and before we even let you start negotiating to sell this building, you need to take out a second mortgage on it and give me all the money.”
That is exactly what Trump did to Volodymyr Zelensky. Something doesn’t smell right in this story. I don’t know where it ends, but I think I know where it starts: When it comes to the defense of liberty, Trump does not share the values of the best of his 44 predecessors. And if that is right, Ukrainians, in the end, will never buy what Trump is selling. Our European allies won’t, either.
Only Putin might, but, as Trump said in his speech, to make peace, “You have to talk to both sides.” He meant Putin, but Trump should actually start with our own allies. They are the ones who don’t understand him. Putin does.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times, c.2025.
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