After spending months making concessions to Russia, Donald Trump has suddenly changed his tune on the foreign power’s invasion of Ukraine, claiming that the non-NATO ally could reclaim all of its occupied territory—and then some.
“After getting to know and fully understand the Ukraine/Russia Military and Economic situation and, after seeing the Economic trouble it is causing Russia, I think Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form,” Trump posted on Truth Social Tuesday.
Trump suggested that Ukraine had a fair shot at reclaiming its “original borders” so long as it received the financial support of Europe and NATO. Trump further derided Russia as a “paper tiger” that had, in its failure to completely decimate Ukraine, shown the international community that it was not a genuine military threat.
The president’s comments, which followed a raving speech he delivered before the U.N. General Assembly earlier Tuesday, were a stark reversal of his historically soft approach to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Trump has little to show for the profound international recognition he’s offered the Kremlin over the course of his second administration. Against the advice of world leaders, Trump invited Putin to Alaska in August—tasking U.S. soldiers to literally roll out the red carpet for the Russian dictator. It was the first time that Putin had stepped foot on U.S. soil in more than a decade.
But the unprecedented reception did not inspire the Kremlin to budge on its peace terms. The superpower has instead insisted on receiving “international legal recognition” of its 2014 annexation of Crimea, an internationally recognized portion of Ukraine, along with four regions it has claimed in the three years since it first invaded Ukraine.
“When the people living in Moscow, and all of the Great Cities, Towns, and Districts all throughout Russia, find out what is really going on with this War … Ukraine would be able to take back their Country in its original form and, who knows, maybe even go further than that!” Trump wrote, promising an uninterrupted supply of weapons to NATO allies. “Putin and Russia are in BIG Economic trouble, and this is the time for Ukraine to act.”
Notably, Trump has dramatically changed the nature of U.S. military aid to Ukraine. Since taking office, he has railed that the U.S. was getting the short end of the stick and forced the switch to a plan where Washington and its allies supply Ukraine with arms from American stocks using funds from other NATO members.
At one point, the Trump administration stopped aid to Ukraine altogether—a move that was quickly reversed when it was revealed that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had authorized the pause without actually telling Trump.
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