At last week’s joint press conference in the Oval Office with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President Donald Trump — along with Vice President JD Vance — aped Russian propaganda, lied about the war and berated his guest. The meeting ended acrimoniously, without an agreement on mineral mining rights that was the ostensible reason Zelenskyy traveled to Washington. America’s leaders presented not as peacemakers, let alone as Ukraine supporters, but as advocates for Russia. It left no doubt that the United States has switched sides.
Trump recently denounced Ukraine’s freely elected president as a “dictator” — something he has never said about Vladimir Putin, who has ruled Russia this whole century — and falsely blames Ukraine for Russia’s invasion. When Trump talks about peace, he calls for Ukraine to make concessions to Russia but never says what Russia must do. Not a word about how to make a settlement last, let alone to make it just.
Trump told Zelenskyy his position was weak and warned ‘you’re gambling with World War III.’
In the White House meeting, Trump told Zelenskyy his position was weak and warned “you’re gambling with World War III.” Vance instructed Zelenskyy to get a ceasefire, and when Zelenskyy pointed out that Putin broke the last one — an unambiguous fact — Vance snapped that it’s “disrespectful to try to litigate this in front of the American media.” A phone call could have told Zelenskyy the mineral deal wasn’t happening, but apparently Trump and Vance wanted to make Zelenskyy fly across the ocean to pull the rug out from under him in public.
Let’s be very clear. The phrase “gambling with WWIII” is Russian propaganda. Russia typically threatens nukes when anyone stands up to Putin’s bullying, as if it’s the victims’ responsibility to avoid risk of escalation by doing whatever Russia tells them to. As the 19th century Prussian military theorist Carl von Clausewitz wrote, “the aggressor is always peace-loving. … He would prefer to take over our country unopposed.”
The right response to Russian threats of World War III is deterrence, not appeasement or surrender. America has nukes, too, and mutual deterrence has prevented World War III for decades. Russia fears nuclear war just like everyone else, as demonstrated by Russia’s refraining from attacks outside Ukrainian territory, even as NATO countries send Ukraine weapons to target Russians. Giving in to Russia’s nuclear threats would just encourage more.
Probably not coincidentally, fear of World War III was also among Elon Musk’s rationales for refusing Starlink internet services to Ukraine when it wanted to execute a sea drone attack on Russian ships in 2023. Ukraine later pulled off a similar attack without using Starlink, and Russia didn’t start World War III; it just kept attacking Ukraine. Musk has never acknowledged how wrong he was.
When Trump and Co. assert Russian propaganda like this, critics often say they’ve been “compromised,” that Putin “has something on them.” But that lets them off the hook. It implies they don’t want to take this stance but have been reluctantly coerced into it. Except there’s no sign of that. They push Russian talking points with enthusiasm. They’re choosing it.
Rubbing that in, the head of Russia’s national security council, Dimitry Medvedev, reacted to the White House meeting by cheering what he called Zelenskyy’s getting “a proper slap down.” Repeating the propaganda that Trump aped, Medvedev posted on Elon Musk’s X: “the Kiev regime is ‘gambling with WWIII.’”
As this suggests, Trump’s call for concessions to Russia undermines his stated goal of ending the war. Ukraine has been under Russian attack for three years — 11 years, really, going back to when Russia seized Crimea in 2014 — and won’t forfeit independence just because Trump tells it to. Meanwhile, there’s no sign Russia is interested in negotiating a deal except for Ukrainian surrender, and Putin is unlikely to accept a partial victory right as Ukraine’s most powerful backer is withdrawing support.
Strength could’ve forced Putin into real negotiations. Weakness probably won’t.
But at the White House meeting, Trump told Zelenskyy that he has to “make a deal” with Putin or the United States is “out,” then ended the press conference. Afterward, a U.S. official told CNN that relations “look irreparable if Zelensky remains president.” A few days later, Trump stopped U.S. military aid to Ukraine, reportedly because Ukraine’s leaders didn’t, in his mind, demonstrate a commitment to peace.
America’s stance is now the same as Russia’s: regime change in Ukraine. There’s no sign Russia is interested in negotiating a deal except for Ukrainian surrender. The proposed minerals deal, even the most exploitative version, was never real. Zelenskyy is in a desperate situation as Russian forces slowly advance on the ground and repeatedly attack Ukrainian cities from the air. It’ll be harder to counter that without U.S. support, and peace without U.S. security guarantees is less likely to last. So Zelenskyy appealed to Trump’s transactional nature, agreed to a modified mining deal — with revenue from minerals going into a U.S.-Ukraine jointly managed fund — and went to the White House to sign it. Trump has demanded $500 billion in rare-earth minerals from Ukraine even though allocated U.S. military aid is worth about $123.9 billion — aid actually sent is even less — and most of the money went to American companies, as the United States gave Ukraine older equipment the Pentagon had wanted to replace and bought upgrades. Trump told Zelenskyy at the White House that security guarantees for Ukraine would be Europe’s responsibility, reiterating a stance Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth outlined a few weeks ago in Brussels. That makes the proposed mineral deal nonsensical. Access to resources isn’t worth much if it isn’t secure. Even if the Europeans are willing to uphold a peace agreement on their own — unlikely, since Trump cut them out of talks about ending the war — it’ll be weaker without U.S. backing or at least the possibility of U.S. support if Russia attacks European peacekeepers. The current U.S. government goal is to get Putin spoils that the Russian military has been unable to take. Ukraine is better off if everyone faces that reality rather than pretends everything is OK. In particular, Europe needs to recognize that America has switched sides — not only in the war, but in the world — and build up defense materiel and structures accordingly. Prioritizing Russian interests in Ukraine might seem like it contradicts Trump’s slogan “America First,” but it’s consistent. Actually putting America first would be standing with U.S. allies and partners, advancing U.S. interests against U.S. rivals. But the slogan “America First” came from Nazi sympathizers during World War II and originally meant “just let Hitler take over Europe.” By trying to help an anti-American dictator’s aggression against a U.S.-partnered European democracy, Trump has merely updated that slogan for the 21st century.
Nicholas Grossman
Nicholas Grossman is a political science professor at the University of Illinois, editor of Arc Digital and the author of "Drones and Terrorism." 
