Trump’s Truth Social post last week, in which he talked about assessing the military situation in Ukraine and believing that Ukraine could take back all of its territory, was widely interpreted as an about-face.
It wasn’t. Just like his previous so-called about-face earlier this summer, this is rhetoric that disguises the reality. European leaders noticed the real message: “It’s up to you, but we’ll be here to sell you weapons.” Trump even used the wrong pronoun for NATO, calling it “them” rather than us.
The EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said of Trump’s remarks: “He was the one who promised to stop the killing. So it can’t be on us.”
This isn’t a new chapter in Ukraine policy but rather a new round in preemptive blame-shifting for the West’s policy failures.