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OPINION:
Feb. 24 marks the three-year anniversary of Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, and President Trump stands at a crossroads that will define his legacy. He can reassert America’s dominant position as leader of the free world or diminish its status as a first-rate power that subjugated itself to a weaker, tyrannical empire under the veil of achieving “peace.”
In the past week, Mr. Trump has ridiculed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy with sophomoric insults, mislabeled him a “dictator” and blamed Russia’s illegal invasion on Ukraine, suggesting that its desire to walk alongside America as a NATO member provoked an unnecessary war. Mr. Trump’s administration also refused to co-sponsor a United Nations resolution reaffirming Ukraine’s territorial integrity and demanding that Russia withdraw its troops.
On Wednesday, The Washington Times characterized Mr. Trump’s comments as a “blistering attack” on the Ukrainian president, saying his Russia favorable comments “mark[ed] a significant shift in U.S. foreign policy after the Biden administration’s four years of portraying Mr. Zelenskyy as a brave hero and critical ally against Russian authoritarianism.”
While Mr. Trump’s comments did indeed mark “a significant shift in U.S. foreign policy” in terms of how they portray Mr. Zelenskyy, his entire approach to the Ukraine war signifies a shameful retreat from the Reagan doctrine to stand beside nations facing Russian aggression. It also reveals stunning hypocrisy in the Trump administration’s “America First” policy, which supposedly supports nationalism.
Nationalists respect territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence. They do not dictate that other countries bow before tyrants who violate it.
While Mr. Trump may believe he is showing strength by denigrating Mr. Zelenskyy and our European allies, he seems totally disconnected from the reality that his victim-blaming Ukraine is being viewed as an American surrender driven by fear of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.
The reason for this perception, true or not, is the following: The United States of America is the most awesome military power to ever stride the face of the earth. When it fights to win, as it did in the Gulf War, it achieves victory. When it snatches defeat from the jaws of victory, as it did in Vietnam, it loses. Simply put, America does not need to negotiate. It commands concessions by the very nature of its power.
Yet, in the most recent case of aiding Ukraine against its Russian invaders, Mr. Trump has achieved the unthinkable in record time. He has validated the enemy’s position and volunteered concessions to a weaker opponent on the brink of defeat. If Mr. Trump continues down this path, nothing else he accomplishes regarding the border, economy or education will matter. Such policies are important but are relegated to the footnotes of history among the headlines of who won and lost wars.
While history recognizes President Reagan’s implementation of supply-side economics, it celebrates his victory against Soviet communism in the Cold War.
British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain passed compassionate labor reforms to protect women and children from abusive factory practices. Still, he is immortalized as the face of defeat for his concession of the Sudetenland to the Nazis.
Mr. Trump’s bizarre attempts to rewrite history in the Kremlin’s favor leave many disturbing questions unanswered, especially since in 2022, he rightly described Russia’s war crimes against Ukraine as a “holocaust.”
To know which side is right and which is wrong, however, the world needs only to look at the unspeakable acts committed by Mr. Putin’s United Russia regime, which include targeting hospitals and orphanages, kidnapping children, conscripting Ukrainians into forced labor zones and ordering soldiers to rape women. A recent story published by the Daily Telegraph reported that Russia was torturing Ukrainian female POWs by parading them naked in the snow.
These sadistic war crimes are not just illegal. They are intentionally cruel and meant to demoralize an innocent country that took no hostile act against its neighbor. Demonstrating intent to join a defensive alliance such as NATO is not a provocation, no matter how much Messrs. Putin and Trump want the world to believe it is.
In this life, there is right and there is wrong. Justifying Russia’s war crimes by blaming the innocent and perpetuating false propaganda does not make any of it true, nor does it mean that might makes right.
All of us have to answer for our actions and our choices. Mr. Trump’s actions will be judged in the pages of history, and for better or worse, there will be a verdict.
• Jeffrey Scott Shapiro is a former Washington prosecutor who served as a senior U.S. official in the Trump administration from 2017-2021. He now serves on the editorial board of The Washington Times.
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