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So Wait: Trump ❤️ Ukraine Now?

From no cards to all the cards.

Jonathan V. Last's avatar
Jonathan V. Last
Sep 24, 2025
∙ Paid
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky with U.S. President Donald Trump at U.N. headquarters on September 23, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Ukranian Presidency / Handout / Anadolu via Getty Images)

1. Card Counting

Our president made a pretty important announcement yesterday: His administration’s position on Ukraine has changed, completely:

This statement raises more questions than it answers, obviously.

  • By his own admission the president says that his previous analysis of the war was incorrect because he did not “know and fully understand” the situation.

    • So why did he make those analyses at the time?

    • And why should we assume that this time he is fully briefed and knows what he is talking about?

  • Are the people who defended Trump’s faulty analyses at the time going to apologize for their mistakes now that Trump has admitted his error?

  • How long will this new U.S. policy last?

  • What does it mean to wish “good luck to all” combatants in a war?

And then there’s the big one:

  • Are people going to sit up and clap for Trump’s new Ukraine Can Win posture like a bunch of trained seals? Has Trump’s mismanagement of the government broken our expectations of professionalism to such a degree that instead of being outraged by his incompetence and malice, people will just be grateful that he finally stopped openly rooting for Putin?

Oh boy. You’re not going to like the answer.

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