On the campaign trail last year, Herr Trumpf claimed that if elected president, he could end Russia’s imperial war on Ukraine in twenty-four hours. He never explained how he might do that. Even surrendering unconditionally usually takes longer—which was my sense of his grand plan. His treatment of Ukraine and President Zelenskiy, so petulant and shoddy, his obsequious regard for Putin, and his hopes for post-war lucre in Russia all signaled a rather ignominious capitulation as the best that could be expected from Trumpist policy. He can’t even do that, thankfully. Two thousand four hundred and forty hours later, there is no peace, not even a cease-fire agreement, in Ukraine, with his Secretary of State threatening to walk out on peace talks. Peace, apparently, is harder work than anyone in this administration ever thought—if “thinking” is the correct term for the invertebrate neural processes that direct U.S. government activity these days.
Concern for Ukraine is as genuine and sustained among those of us who care as it has ever been, but Trump and his Republican gofers dither on Ukraine while they ramp up economic hostilities on the rest of our friends and allies. You are not alone, Ukraine. The U.S. soon may be.
