Trump Surrogates Alarm NATO and EU Allies with Unabashed Abandonment of Ukraine
The Trump administration took its tear-it-all-down troupe on a European tour over the weekend, making it clear that the United States can no longer be counted on to defend Western democracy or thwart Russia’s quest to conquer neighboring Ukraine.
From a speech by Vice President J.D. Vance scolding NATO allies for a litany of imagined political sins, to the White House special envoy to Ukraine saying European allies will have no seat at the table for negotiations to end Russia’s war, the White House delegation to the Munich Security Conference left U.S. allies shaken and angry.
The newly assembled U.S. security and foreign policy team spent the weekend effectively endorsing Trump’s assurances to Russian President Vladimir Putin that his unprovoked war against a sovereign neighbor will end with the Kremlin achieving its main objectives of retaining occupied territory and keeping Ukraine out of NATO.
The upending of U.S. policy previously supporting Ukraine so alarmed U.S. allies in NATO and the European Union that the leaders of Britain, France and other EU states scrambled to summon an emergency summit to craft a new strategy for aiding Ukraine without U.S. support. The urgent gathering expected this week will coincide with top U.S. and Russian diplomats meeting in Saudi Arabia to arrange a Putin-Trump summit to coordinate strategy on ending the Ukraine war.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky got second shrift from U.S. delegates throughout the annual summit. He was informed by Trump after the fact about a Wednesday call with Putin and learned only from media reports of the U.S.-Russia start of a peace process without Ukraine.
U.S. capitulation to Putin at the 2025 Munich conference eerily echoed British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s notorious 1938 appeasement of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler in the same city. Chamberlain’s Munich speech “Peace in Our Time,” went down in history as a capitulation to Hitler’s annexation of Czechoslovakia’s German-speaking Sudetenland province that cleared the way for the first Soviet and German invasions of World War II.
With his outreach to Putin, Trump broke a decadelong Western strategy of isolating and sanctioning Putin for his violations of international law with a bloody invasion that has smashed the post-World War II order. The Kremlin leader faces an International Criminal Court war crimes indictment for his three-year-old invasion. The war has killed or injured hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians and left 20 percent of Ukraine’s territory in the hands of pro-Russia fighters and mercenaries.
“I just had a lengthy and highly productive phone call with President Vladimir Putin of Russia,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday, announcing that he and Putin were assembling diplomatic teams to start negotiations on the Ukraine war “immediately.” Trump added that Zelensky would be “informed” of the U.S.-Russian plans.
A Russian readout on the call said Putin “supported” Trump’s view that it was high time for their two countries to sit down together and talk about the Ukraine war. Trump called the conflict “ridiculous” in the call with Putin and claimed it would never have happened if he had been president at the time of the Feb. 24, 2022, invasion.
Trump posted that his later call to the Ukrainian president went “very well” and that they had discussed “a variety of topics having to do with the war.”
It is difficult to rank the severity of consequences spilling from U.S. delegates’ abandonment of embattled Ukraine. A day before the Munich conference, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told fellow NATO defense chiefs in Brussels that Ukraine’s recovering its pre-invasion borders or being accorded membership in NATO were “unrealistic” objectives of any peace process.
Vance unleashed a barrage of attacks on European allies on Thursday with a speech accusing Western allies, Germany in particular, of free speech violations and exclusion of the neo-fascist Alternative for Germany political party from what Trump considers a rightful role in government.
“The threat that I worry the most about vis-à-vis Europe is not Russia. It’s not China. It’s not any other external actor,” Vance said in his address to the Munich conference. “What I worry about is the threat from within—the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values—values shared with the United States of America.”
Vance later met with a co-leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany, Alice Weidel, instigating fresh reproach from German Chancellor Olaf Scholz as U.S. “election interference.” Vance spurned an offered meeting with Scholz.
Elon Musk, Trump’s unelected director for drastic downsizing of federal government, has held virtual meetings with AfD leaders and endorsed the party shunned by Germany’s mainstream political forces. German elections seldom result in an outright majority for any one party, forcing coalition-building that sometimes results in governance by an alliance of strange bedfellows. But AfD is angling for inclusion in the next government to evolve after Feb. 23 elections for a new German parliament, the Bundestag.
Trump’s special envoy on Ukraine, retired Army Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, said at an event on the sidelines of the Munich conference that the peace talks being designed by Russia and the United States “can have the Ukrainians” at a later stage. But when asked about a role for European allies the 80-year-old envoy responded: “I think that’s not going to happen.”
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas alluded to the appeasement of Hitler in calling out Trump for breaking with allies in isolating Putin in hopes of forcing him to negotiate in good faith.
“What is up to us right now is to decide and discuss how we support Ukraine right now in this endeavor because our values haven’t changed, the goals of Russia haven’t changed either, so we need to stick to our ground and really see what is at stake here,” Kallas said.
Zelensky has called for European allies to raise their own army independent of the United States to sever the continent from dependence on a now-fickle Washington ally.
Some U.S. officials in Munich hedged answers on why Europe, or even Ukraine, might be excluded from forthcoming negotiations supposedly aimed at ending the war.
U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-TX, told reporters that Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and White House special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff would meet with yet-to-be-named Russian counterparts in Saudi Arabia “in the coming days.” It wasn’t clear why Kellogg would not be among the U.S. officials at the opening stage of Ukraine peace talks.
Rubio, the son of Cuban migrants and once a fierce opponent of authoritarian regimes, does not appear to be playing the lead role in the Trump administration’s handling of Ukraine peace talks. He arrived in Munich after Hegseth and Vance had already laid down the new White House agenda, delayed from takeoff from Andrews AFB Thursday night due to his aircraft having “experienced a mechanical issue,” according to the State Department. He left Munich early Saturday to begin a Mideast trip with a visit to Israel. He is expected to be in Saudi Arabia by week’s end for the meeting of U.S. and Russian diplomats’ drafting of Ukraine peace talk plans.
Before departing for his Mideast trip, Rubio called his Russian counterpart Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in what the State Department’s terse statement described as a follow-up to the Trump-Putin call to reiterate the administration’s “commitment to finding an end to the conflict in Ukraine.”
On Saturday, it was disclosed at the security forum that U.S. and Russian diplomats would meet later this week in Saudi Arabia to start talks on ending the Ukraine war. Zelensky said Ukraine was not invited to the Saudi gathering aimed at setting up a Trump-Putin meeting to prepare talks where the fate of his country would be decided.
In an onstage interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Zelensky conceded he was unhappy with Trump’s call to Putin and warned Western allies not to let their guard down as the Kremlin leader prepares for continued war-fighting. He said the Russian Defense Ministry was calling up another 150,000 soldiers for training in Belarus in what Ukraine sees as obvious planning for the next assault on former Soviet territories now part of NATO.
Zelensky displayed his mischievous propensity in telling Amanpour “I told Trump that Putin is afraid of him,” provoking laughter from an audience recognizing the dubious claim as likely to appeal to Trump’s vanity.
“Putin is weak. We must use that,” the Ukrainian president said in a more serious tone during his address to the conference on Saturday.
“Ukraine will never accept deals made behind our backs without our involvement, and the same rule should apply to all of Europe,” Zelensky said, adding that “not once did (Trump) mention that America needs Europe at the table.”
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said he would remind Trump of the U.S. pledge to stand with Ukraine “as long as it takes” to secure Kyiv’s peaceful independence.
“The credibility of the United States depends on how this war ends—not just the Trump administration (but) the United States itself,” Sikorski warned.
Thank you, Ms Williams. Here is what confuses me: The EU has three times the population as Russia and ten times the GDP. With these advantages, why can’t European countries take the laboring oar to push Russia out of Ukraine and defend Europe’s Eastern front?
That’s a valid question but one where the response can’t be mustered on short notice. As NATO has been structured over the past 74 years, collective security means collective decision-making and when the alliance’s largest country, the US, abandons the basic principles of global security — borders can’t be changed by force — the EU doesn’t have it’s own collective army to replace US forces deployed to Europe. EU states have already provided Ukraine $60 bln in aid and weapons, vs $66 bln from US. It’s not the huge discrepancy the current WH purports. Also, since 2022 the number of NATO countries meeting or exceeding defense spending goals has risen from 7 out of 30 to 23 out of 32 (with new members Finland and Sweden spurred out of neutrality by Russia’s violation of international law in invading Ukraine).
Russia invaded Crimea and Donetsk and other parts of Ukraine in 2014 and then attempted to take Kiev three years ago. Europe has had plenty of time to muster a response. I question Europe’s strategic commitment to Ukraine. Also, the collective security provisions of NATO technically don’t apply, as no NATO country was attacked.
Exactly how UK Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain justified dismissal of Hitler’s Sudetenland annexation as “A quarrel in a faraway country between people of whom we know nothing.” Ukraine is the bulwark against Russia’s territorial seizures that threaten peace and stability on a global scale.
Agreed. But begs the question why Europe can’t or won’t handle the laboring oar in helping Ukraine. The US has interests in the Pacific that aren’t covered under the NATO treaty. So yes, the US should help Europe in Ukraine, but by now, Europe should take the lead and do most of the work and carry most of the expense. I do acknowledge the problem is vastly more difficult because Russia has nukes. It’s tricky, and risky, but I’m inclined to think that Ukraine’s allies have shackled Ukraine through overly restrictive rules of engagement. It looks like the goal all along has been to hold the line, not win the war.
Can we please stop calling this Trump-Putin meeting “peace talks”? Let’s identify it consistently as what it is, “Putin appeasement planning”.
I am more and more appalled that my country is now led by a would-be king, whose incoherent brain believes this is the year 1625 and colonial acquisition of other sovereign nations is acceptable. 400 years ago, we dealt with Mad King George. Now our Congress needs to wake up, stand up, start shouting, and deal with Mad King Donald, and his megalomanic whisperer Musk.
Preach it! The disingenuous-ness of “peace talks” leaves me ill. Can no one stop this madmanTrump?
Agree Trish and CJR. And today Trump blamed Ukraine for the bloody, unprovoked Russian invasion of this sovereign democratic country. This illegal act of ruthless aggression was a war crime launched by bloodthirsty Russian tyrant Putin, a war criminal who should be arrested and tried by an international tribunal—and not dictating the terms of any agreement as Ukraine—thanks to Trump—is left out of the negotiations. Heartbreaking.
Robin, there should be a limit to how many millions of hearts Trump and Putin can break, between the two of them. Unaccountable! That Zelensky should be reduced to reminding the two tyrants not to go behind his back!
And today Trump called President Zelenskyy a dictator. Nice stab in the back as US tirelessly works to appease a war criminal and destroy another Peace in Our Time?
Thanks Carol for the chilling update on the downward spiral of US foreign policy in just four weeks under the new autocratic Musk-Putin-Trump triumvirate. Vance’s embrace of NeoNazis was especially shameful in Europe, a continent that suffered horribly under Nazi domination. And Musk, as you note, is a fellow traveler with his abhorrent sympathies for a Fourth Reich. Especially shameful that US leaders oppose democracy and the rule of law when we remember the millions of US and allied troops who sacrificed to end fascism eight decades ago. And now our new regime has laid the foundation for a fascist state with whirlwind speed as the complicit GOP applauds and endorses every illegal and unconstitutional action of the regime. Sorry for the rant but I’ve read German history since childhood and believed fascism would not be tolerated by most Americans who seemed to despise bullies, rich megalomaniacs, jerks, pathological liars, sadists, and Nazis. Never forget those who fought to preserve democracy. Grateful for your powerful words Carol.
As Ms. Williams pointed out, it was announced that Rubio and Waltz will be in attendance in tomorrow’s meeting with Lavrov in Riyadh to discuss a deal to end the war.
Former NATO Commander Stavridis made these remarks when interviewed by Smerconish on Saturday:
“Watch for Mike Waltz, the national security adviser, very capable fellow North Floridian, to kind of get this process pulled into place, I think it will.”
“Putin will probably end up with about 20 percent of present day Ukraine, but the other 80 percent will sail on free and democratic. And I think maybe not immediate NATO membership but certainly security guarantees and perhaps ultimate NATO membership. He ends up with 20 percent of Ukraine, most of which he held onto from 2014. He has got no control over the other 80 percent. Last time I checked, when you get a 20 percent on a test, that’s an F.”
“I am remain cautiously optimistic about NATO. And in fact back to messaging, what I’m hearing at every level from the incoming administration is, hey, we’re going to push NATO to spend more on defense, the European wing, Canada, but the value proposition of NATO remains quite significant. If they can get their defense spending up and I think they can up toward 3 percent, I think that value proposition keeps NATO in the game.”
https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/smer/date/2025-02-15/segment/01
In the concluding quote in this piece, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski recalls the president’s statement that the United States will stand with Ukraine for “as long as it takes.” That president, however, was Joseph Biden, a man of diminished mental capacity following a policy that was not working. The Polish foreign minister wants Trump to keep following the Biden policy, so he plays the guilt card by saying the credibility of the United States is at stake. He’s trying to shame America to continue a no-win war that’s grinding up appalling amounts of dollars and lives. Trump is right. If the Europeans think that Ukraine’s fight is such a good investment, they should fund it themselves.
I remember the “credibility” argument from the Vietnam War. When it became obvious that victory was not to be had, the argument for continuing the war (and there is ALWAYS an argument for continuing a war) was that admitting defeat would damage U.S. credibility. It would make us look weak. Other countries wouldn’t believe our open-ended promises “do what it takes.” My answer to that is: Good. I hope they don’t believe such promises. Really I don’t think any person smart enough to become the foreign minister of Poland ever did believe it, fully. Sikorski is just doing his best to get what his government wants. And it’s not in our interest to give it to him.
Credibility is gone now, in any case. As Sikorsky must have noticed.
Of course the problem Neville Chamberlain was referring to was Great Britain’s, not America’s, the way many Americans saw it. It took a pretty long time for America to see otherwise, and eventually Germany had to declare war on the US to get things going. What a fool Roosevelt was, eh? Should have left it to Europe to deal with Europe’s problems, and China et al. to deal with theirs. (By the way, the US had not broken the code the Japanese military was using at that time – in case you believe that stuff.)
“And I think maybe not immediate NATO membership but certainly security guarantees and perhaps ultimate NATO membership.”
Hope so; think not. People like Waltz and Rubio might see what a key point this is, but America as represented by Donald Trump and Elon Musk doesn’t care. Need a deal. Putin won’t likely agree to anything that really bars him from rolling over Ukraine at his convenience. He’s spent a million Russians on this, and 20% and the rest lost to NATO isn’t much of a prize.
The rest of the world – Europe, mainly – has to decide whether they can live with losing Ukraine. If Europe can go it alone against Russia, America can’t sell a Ukraine they don’t own.
Carol – excellent analysis, as I would expect. Can Congress stop the appeasement and exploitation? Can international law constrain Trump’s efforts to negotiate the fate of a soverign nation with the invader of that nation?
Sadly, I don’t think international law can constrain Trump from surrendering Ukraine to Putin. The U.N. Security Council couldn’t even produce a note of censure, given Russia’s veto power (and that of the United States). NATO has the power to act to defend Ukraine but Trump has made clear he won’t support that effort. He is totally under the spell of Putin for whatever quid pro quo he’s been promised. I don’t buy the right-wing pundits’ claims that this is just Trump being disruptive and that he’ll eventually broker an end to the war. He can force an end to the fighting by cutting off aid and handcuffing NATO allies but it won’t be to Ukraine’s benefit or that of the other former Warsaw Pact territory Putin covets.
Thanks for the grim and sobering update Carol. I appreciate your insights. Trump now stabs democratic Ukraine in the back to appease a rapacious, cruel war criminal. And today, Trump called President Zelenskyy a dictator and yesterday he blamed Zelenskyy for the bloody, unprovoked Russian invasion. Nice take on history from our proudly Know-Nothing president. Peace in Our Time under the new antidemocratic Musk-Trump regime, alas. I feel a need to apologize to my relatives and friends in Europe for the actions of our cruel new government.