President Donald Trump marked the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Monday by siding with Moscow and its closest allies on the losing side of two UN General Assembly resolutions concerning Moscow’s unprovoked invasion on February 24, 2022.
One condemned the brutal Russian aggression by name, and the other called for an end to the war but didn’t even mention Russia. It was the latest sign of Trump aligning with Russian President Vladimir Putin against Kyiv and America’s traditional democratic allies.
Alone among Washington’s closest friends voting with Putin and Trump was Israel, which sources tell me was the result of intense US pressure. More on that later.
In his first weeks in office, Trump dramatically reversed the US’s Ukraine policy, even falsely accusing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of starting the war, which is akin to saying Poland started World War II.
Throwing Ukraine under the bus
Trump appears anxious to throw Ukraine under the bus, or in this case, a Russian tank. He likes to wrap himself in the red, white, and blue at his political rallies but when it comes to Putin, it’s a white flag.
Candidate Trump had boasted he could end the war on Day One: “I’ll have that done in 24 hours.” How? By selling out our ally. Note to Israel: you might want to pay attention to how your friend in the White House treats putative allies.
He phoned Putin recently and set up meetings for their countries’ top diplomats in Saudi Arabia, the new Munich where the big powers could sell out the war-ravaged, fledgling democracy and bring peace in our time.
Of course, Ukraine wasn’t invited, which suited Putin, who insists it isn’t a real country, and Trump, who harbors deep grudges against that country and its leader. “I don’t think he’s very important to be in meetings,” Trump has said, since Zelensky has “no cards.” Only a country.
Trump went out of his way to insult Zelensky. He accused him of being antidemocratic, a dictator, and unpopular. He wrongly said Zelensky is “down at 4% approval rating,” when the real number is 57%, according to factcheck.org, well above Trump’s own, which is under water and sinking.
Columnist Fareed Zakaria noted “the Trump administration has preemptively conceded most key Russian demands before the formal negotiations have even begun.”
Trump quickly met one key Russian demand without even consulting Zelensky: no NATO membership for Ukraine. The administration is also reportedly prepared to agree to Russia keeping large chunks of territory seized since the 2022 invasion and in Crimea.
Trump has several goals, and Ukrainian democracy and freedom are not among them.
He said Putin “wants peace.” If that were so, he could end the war today by withdrawing his troops instead of raining bombs on Kyiv.
There’s also his craving for bragging rights. Trump doesn’t really care what happens to Ukraine if he can claim to have brought “peace,” another notch on his belt in his pursuit of the Nobel Peace Prize, something he feels he was cheated out of a few years ago.
It will also win him the approval of Putin, whom he has long admired. The Russian strongman has been offering Trump not only praise but access to lucrative business deals in Russia once the Biden-imposed sanctions are lifted.
Trump is swooning over exchanging visits between the two, but the Russian leader is being coy, saying there’s “not enough” to talk about at this point. Zelensky, however, is anxious to meet with Trump to discuss negotiating strategy but the president so far is uninterested.
In the give-and-take of negotiations, Trump expects Zelensky to do all the giving and Putin and Trump the taking. Among Putin’s rewards is ending his global isolation and a return to the G-7 group of industrial nations.
The transactional former real estate mogul is demanding Ukraine pay back past US aid, although it was never intended as loans. That could have implications for Israel, which I’ll get to shortly.
He falsely claims the US has spent $350 billion on the war (actually about half that sum) and that Europeans are not paying their share, which they are. The truth, according to the Congressional Budget Office, Germany’s Kiel Institute, and Factcheck.org, is that contributions on both sides of the Atlantic are roughly equal. Incidentally, most of that US military aid is spent in the United States to replenish military stocks drawn down to aid Ukraine.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has pressed Zelensky to sign over the rights to half of Ukraine’s critical mineral wealth, or about half a trillion dollars. It’s not clear whether that includes future security guarantees or just compensation for past aid.
Trump is a man of many grievances, as is abundantly clear in the first weeks of his chaotic second term. Several of those are aimed at Ukraine and Zelensky in particular.
It started with the infamous “perfect” phone call in 2019 asking Zelensky for a favor: dig up political dirt on the Bidens, with the implication that you do that for me, and you’ll get the weapons I’m holding back. The result was Trump’s first impeachment.
Trump is also driven to end the war on his terms as a rebuke to former president Joe Biden, who defeated him in 2020, rallied international support for Ukraine, and punished Putin with sanctions and isolation. Biden’s policy was no talks with Russia without Ukraine at the table; hence Trump is keeping Ukraine and the Europeans out of the room while he holds center stage.
As I mentioned, Israel was under intense pressure to follow Trump’s lead at the UN this week.
When Trump demanded reimbursement-plus for past aid, Zelensky pointed out Trump was making no such demands on Israel and other countries. So far.
Israel is not immune from the wrath of Trump. The Bibi-Donald bromance is over-hyped. The transactional president’s approach is “What have you done for me lately?” Netanyahu knows this and has been lavish in praise for the man with an ego deeper than the Marianas Trench. He also knows this president can be vindictive.
One administration leverage point, especially in the Elon Musk co-presidency, is to declare that all foreign assistance grants – closing USAID demonstrated how unpopular foreign aid is – will henceforth be loans. Netanyahu knows this and that awareness gives him billions and billions of reasons to tread carefully with Trump, and that includes delivering votes at the UN.
As a result, Israel, like the United States, voted on Monday with Russia, North Korea, Belarus, Sudan, and Nicaragua, while even Iran and China abstained.
The writer is a Washington-based journalist, consultant, lobbyist, and a former legislative director at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.