Ukrainians, Europeans and Americans had better wake up. Trump is not their ally. He has made it so clear that he serves Putin and Russia that even polite US journalists and European politicians should state the truth: Trump roots for Putin and his aggression in Ukraine.
Trump is hiding in plain sight. The 2019 Mueller Report’s 250 Russia pages elaborated at length how Trump and his campaign cooperated with the Kremlin, but Trump’s attorney general William Barr did not allow Robert Mueller to state that Trump and his collaborators had committed treason. Trump shouted it down as a “Russia hoax” and US journalists are too timid in their fear of losing access. At his meeting with Putin in Helsinki in 2018, Trump took Putin’s word as more credible than US intelligence.
In his 2018 book, House of Trump, House of Putin, Craig Unger showed how Trump had been enamored with Russia from his first trip to Moscow in 1987 and how greatly his real estate business had benefited from dubious money from the former Soviet Union.
Regardless of what Putin does, Trump praises Putin. He called Putin a “genius” when he launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine and he has never condemned Putin’s war of aggression, which he disingenuously blames on Presidents Biden and Zelensky.
In diplomatic terms, Trump spits in Zelensky’s face.
Trump has appointed the most incompetent and pro-Russian cabinet the US has ever had. Russian television’s favorite “our girl” Tulsi Gabbard has become the Director of National Intelligence.
Trump broke the sanctioning of Putin by inviting him to Alaska last August, and he accomplished nothing because his dimwit envoy Steve Witkoff misunderstood everything Putin told him in five long meetings in the Kremlin. Trump treated Putin with maximum pomp in Alaska: meeting him personally, putting out a red carpet, and offering an airplane overflight.
The contrast to Trump’s treatment of Ukraine’s heroic president Volodymyr Zelensky could not be greater. He has arrived four times in the US under Trump. Despite being democratically elected, unlike Putin, Zelensky is not met by any US official or red carpet, when he arrives in the US, not even by the head of protocol of the State Department, otherwise the sheer diplomatic minimum. In diplomatic terms, Trump spits in Zelensky’s face.
Worse, each time Trump meets Zelensky, he calls Putin first for instructions and reports his results afterwards. That is how a Putin asset behaves.
While Biden pushed through legislation to give Ukraine $60 billion in financial and military aid in 2024, Trump has stopped ALL US funding of aid and arms to Ukraine.
Trump has abandoned all traditional American values – such as democracy, freedom of speech, rule of law, and anti-corruption – and accepted Putin’s autocracy, kleptocracy, and imperialism as his ideal.
Repeatedly, Trump has asked both Russia and Ukraine to opt for a ceasefire. Ukraine has complied, but Russia has never done so. Yet, Trump has scolded Ukraine but not Russia. Ukraine has made many concessions, while Putin has made none. Trump pressures Ukraine and has repeated asked Ukraine to give up the remaining part of the Donetsk region that Putin’s troops have failed to conquer.
Just like Putin wants Ukraine, Trump wants Canada, Greenland and Panama, and his appetite increases while he engorges himself.
Trump is not accusing Putin of any war of aggression. He does not call for any Russian reparations. He does not even ask Putin to return the Ukrainian children he has stolen. And Trump has never complained about Russian torture or war crimes. Apparently, Trump approves of all these Russian actions.
In no way has Trump protested against Russia’s terror bombings of civilians in Ukraine, which have sharply expanded under Trump. Instead, Trump expressed understanding for Putin not wanting to halt his terrorist bombings. Trump has effectively opposed a ceasefire since Alaska.
Europe must no longer claim that Trump’s ‘diplomacy’ is helpful, when it is actually harmful support for Putin.
In the UN General Assembly, the Trump regime, acting as the US, voted twice in 2025 with a dozen rogue states, including Russia, against condemning Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine.
Europe rightly supports Ukraine with financing and arms, while Washington gives nothing and even wants to exploit Ukraine. On Dec. 19, the European Union took the important decision to provide Ukraine with an interest-free loan of no less than €90 billion ($105 billion) for 2026-27 to fill the big hole that the White House has left.
Yet, Europe needs to stand up to Trump also diplomatically. Trump has prolonged and aggravated the war by supporting Putin, who has responded by escalating his bombing of Ukrainian civilians. Trump’s subservient Secretary of State Marco Rubio even refuses to see his EU counterpart Kaja Kallas.
Europe must no longer claim that Trump’s “diplomacy” is helpful, when it is actually harmful support for Putin. Trump has nothing to offer in “peace” negotiations that only serve Putin and fictive US financial interests. Realize that Trump is an ally of Russia and not of Ukraine or Europe!
Trump’s new National Security Strategy singled out Europe as the only true enemy of the US. Europe needs to face up to the new Trump reality, call Trump out on his persistent lies; Europe must protest and seize the initiative.
Trump’s ouster of Putin’s ally Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela might weaken Putin. Yet, Trump also justifies Putin’s lawless military aggression and his division of the world into spheres of influence of the great powers.
The worst thing that could happen to Putin, apart from his own ouster, would be the demise of Trump.
The views expressed in this opinion article are the author’s and not necessarily those of Kyiv Post.