Foreign Policy Brief #212 | Nicholas Gordon | August 13, 2025
Trump’s egregious pre-election claim that he could “end the war in a day” between Russia and Ukraine has instead resulted in Russia’s huge surge of attacks on Ukraine and an increasing number of civilian deaths. While Trump often tries to deflect his responsibility for handling this war onto past U.S. presidents, he is now in fact the commander in chief and must take action to support an ally in Ukraine, help prevent further carnage, and demonstrate American democratic mettle vis-a-vis a ruthless dictator in Putin.
Summary
Since President Trump’s inauguration last January, Russia has aggressively amped up its missile and drone attacks across Ukraine, often targeting civilian structures, including hospitals, schools, apartment buildings, and transportation hubs. Throughout these attacks, Trump has vacillated in his support for Ukraine, while kowtowing to Russia with repeatedly empty threats of sanctions. In February, after berating ally Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in an ugly, nationally televised White House meeting that was a disgraceful moment for American democracy, Trump paused U.S. military assistance to Ukraine. Months of failed peace negotiations followed. Meanwhile, Russia continues its relentless assault on Ukraine. An overnight attack on July 30-31 killed at least 31 civilians, five of whom were children, and injured 159 more people. Trump then condemned Russia’s military aggression on Ukraine and pledged to send more weapons to the country. He also reduced his previous 50-day deadline, which was set to expire in September, to 10 days for Russia to agree to a ceasefire or face new sanctions. Needless to say, that 10-day limit evaporated without Trump imposing any sanctions on Russia. Instead, Trump has gifted his buddy the war criminal Putin a face-to-face meeting in Alaska this Friday in a move that many analysts consider a diplomatic coup for Moscow. Enough is enough. A hardline stance from Trump on Russia is long overdue and should have come at the outset of his new administration.
Analysis
During the failed Russia—Ukraine peace negotiations in February and March, Trump was busy heaping praise on Putin in his customary fashion and making dangerously irresponsible false claims about Zelensky being a dictator and Ukraine having started the war. Following a severe Russian attack in April on the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv that killed over 12 people and injured 90, Trump himself finally admitted in a social media post that Putin continues to string him along, with no real intention of ending Russia’s war on the Ukraine. Though Trump’s post was rife with his signature belittling insults—hurled at various professionals and former U.S. Presidents—that do little other than convey Trump’s own insecurity and weakness, the post also showed an uncharacteristic and exceedingly rare self-acknowledgement of Trump’s fallibility in handling this international crisis. But such a hint of accountability on Trump’s part wouldn’t last long. Merely hours after a phone call with Putin in early July that Trump said did not lead to progress, Russia launched its largest number of drones and missiles at Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities since the beginning of the war in February of 2022. As Trump’s frustration with Putin and with his own inability to help bring an end to the war has grown in recent weeks, he has once again reverted to blaming past American presidents for allowing Putin to fool them and absolving himself of any such obtuseness in being ruthlessly duped by Putin for the last six months.
After resuming military aid to Ukraine, Trump told reporters, “We get a lot of bullshit thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth.” Another part of the truth implicit in that crude statement and which Trump won’t acknowledge is Russia’s embrace of the TACO phenomenon: Trump Always Chickens Out. As the ongoing and intensified Russian attacks on Ukraine’s civilian life continue, the Kremlin is violently and unmistakably demonstrating its dismissiveness of Trump and his threats of sanctions. Why would the Kremlin be worried about Trump’s new threat when he has a well-documented, shameful history of fawning over Putin, and has done nothing to punish or even pressure Russia for its war crimes thus far? Moreover, why would U.S. allies have faith in Trump’s baseless claims of getting tough on Russia when he routinely undermines allies’ trust by flip-flopping on support for Ukraine and making inane statements that have no bearing on reality?
Speaking in Scotland recently alongside British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Trump said that he is “disappointed in President Putin.” Well, the Ukrainian people have been disappointed in Putin’s genocidal attack on their country over the last three and a half years. The American people could be disappointed in a president who wrongly and repeatedly claimed he could stop a war in a day, but which war in reality has gotten tragically worse since he’s taken office. In late July, Trump threatened severe sanctions on Russia, with the possibility of secondary tariffs on countries that trade with Russia. Now, as Trump and Putin are reportedly heading into direct talks without Zelensky present but with Trump already babbling about “land exchanges” and Ukraine ceding territory to Russia, it’s more important than ever that Trump for once stands up to Putin and defends American democratic values, instead of showing pathetic deference to the Russian authoritarian leader over that of U.S. intelligence agencies, as he has done on the world stage in the past. To achieve any meaningful negotiations with the Kremlin in an effort to end the Russian war on Ukraine, Trump must now hold the line on Russia.
Engagement Resources:
- The Institute for the Study of War (ISW)
- A non-partisan, non-profit, public policy research organization that provides informed analysis of military affairs aimed at “improving the U.S.’s ability to execute military operations and respond to emerging threats”
- The Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR)
- Independent non-profit that supports local journalism in conflict zones “to promote human rights, justice, and combat disinformation and to strengthen the flow of credible information, enabling journalists and civil society to inform, educate and mobilize communities”
- The Council on Foreign Relations
- A nonpartisan, nonprofit organization founded in 1921 focused on U.S. foreign policy and international relations.