Sometimes Donald Trump says he didn’t mean what he said. His repeated promises to end the Russia-Ukraine war on Day 1 of his second-term or sooner were an “exaggeration” that he “said in jest,” he told TIME in April. “I said that figuratively.”
Other times, Trump has shown that he meant what he said. Despite noncommittal responses on the campaign trail when pressed about whether he’d halt U.S. military support to Ukraine, he insisted that “Europe is not paying their fair share.” (Europe has allocated more total aid to Ukraine than the U.S. has since Russia’s invasion in 2022 and surpassed the U.S. in total military assistance earlier this year, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy’s Ukraine Support Tracker.)
On Thursday, Trump announced that he “just made a deal” to make that happen, telling NBC News that the U.S. will be “sending weapons to NATO, and NATO is paying for those weapons 100% … then NATO is going to be giving those weapons [to Ukraine].”
The arrangement was reportedly first floated during the recent North Atlantic Treaty Organization Summit, where NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte referred to Trump as Europe’s “daddy” and alliance member states agreed to an increase in defense spending.
About the plan to use NATO as a middleman for U.S. weapons shipments to Ukraine, a Trump Administration official told Axios that the U.S. is “not sending weapons to Ukraine” but rather “sending defensive weapons to NATO” and “NATO can decide what to do with it.” Another source told Axios that the weapons sold to NATO could include offensive weaponry, not just air defense support.
Hours before Trump’s interview with NBC News was published, Rutte posted on X: “Russia’s continued massive attacks against Ukrainian civilians are deplorable. Earlier today I urged leaders to go further so Ukraine has more ammunition & air defences. I’ve just spoken with President Trump & am now working closely with Allies to get Ukraine the help they need.”
The deal to allow European allies to act as an intermediary for U.S. weapons appears to have come at the suggestion of Ukraine, which Politico reported earlier this month had asked the Trump Administration about the potential for such an arrangement despite usual restrictions on the resale of U.S. weapons.
The request from Ukraine came amid a surprise halt by the Pentagon of direct military support to Ukraine, which apparently even blindsided Trump. The Trump Administration has since resumed sending some weapons to Ukraine directly, as Trump has increasingly expressed frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the war’s continuation.
“I’m disappointed in Russia, but we’ll see what happens over the next couple of weeks,” Trump told NBC News, teasing: “I think I’ll have a major statement to make on Russia on Monday.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who met with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov at a Southeast Asian diplomatic summit this week, told reporters: “We need to see a roadmap moving forward about how this conflict can conclude.”
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