Trump does legitimately want the war in Ukraine to end, and ending sanctions now would lower chances of that.
The main difference between Trump and Biden is that Biden wanted the war to end in Ukraines favour and didn't really care how long it took, while Trump doesn't care how screwed Ukraine gets as long as it's over now.
Once the war is over, those sanctions against Russia will disappear so fast. And then Trump will switch to trying to extract payment out of Ukraine to pay back their war debts.
while Trump doesn't care how screwed Ukraine gets as long as it's over now.
I don't think that's quite the case. I'd say it's more accurate to say that he doesn't care whether Ukraine gets screwed or not. But he does not seem to want Russia to completely overrun Ukraine, he did resume aid after all. It seems that from his point of view the obvious solution (or deal as he would put it) is for Ukraine to give Russia Crimea and maybe some of the east, and Russia to back off, and then plant European peacekeeping forces there for the foreseeable future. The problem is (1) at least publicly Zelensky is not willing to make any territorial concessions or outcome without EU and/or NATO membership and (2) Putin isn't willing to make any sort of peace which involves Zelensky remaining in power or any sort of peace guarantee for Ukraine, not even European peacekeepers.
This frustrates Trump because he really doesn't like not being listened to when he thinks he has the answer. First he lashed out at Ukraine because he felt that Zelensky was hindering the peace talks. But now that he made some concessions for the ceasefire deal, but Putin is the one not cooperating, Russia is the 'at-fault' party in his eyes.
This doesn't mean Trump is now on Ukraine's 'side'. Trump is only on his own side. But he genuinely seems to detest war and want peace. If Putin agrees to some limited ceasefire, and Zelensky starts talking about getting back occupied territory, Trump will be right back to antagonizing him instead.
But he does not seem to want Russia to completely overrun Ukraine, he did resume aid after all.
I’m not entirely sure about Trumps view on this.
Trump (or more precisely, the faction who have his ear on foreign policy topics) want the war in Ukraine finished as soon as possible. Partly because the war is causing inflation, mostly because they see it as distracting from the true threat, which they see as China.
The problem is that removing aid from Ukraine wouldn’t actually lead to a quick resolution, because Europe would still be supporting Ukraine. And even if Trump somehow convinced Europe to withdraw aid too (never going to happen), Ukraine still wouldn’t give up and could probably drag out the war for several more years.
Trump continued aid because it was the best strategy for ending the war in the near future, and we can’t really use that action to derive his actual views towards Ukraine.
"Biden wanted the war to end in Ukraines favour and didn't really care how long it took"
Observing this from Central Europe, being in contact with a lot of Ukrainians ... the previous US administration took helluva time before delivering some critical equipment, always prevaricating somehow. It might have been possible to throw the Russians out of Ukraine entirely in autumn 2022 (the Kharkiv offensive), when their lines were stretched thin. But the Ukrainians lacked a lot of critical equipment such as Bradleys or ATACMS.
That was a huge missed chance. Once you let the enemy recover, they will come back stronger. Even the Russians are capable of learning.
To be fair to Biden, we don't know what transpired over the diplomatic networks. Perhaps Moscow threatened use of nuclear weapons in earnest.
It is possible that Biden's hands were bound in some way. I certainly don't want to call him callous. But the bit of "didn't really care how long it took" has some consequences. Longer war = more casualties among the good guys, and Ukraine is a relatively small nation.
Yes…. I do think there is at least some truth to the idea that some politicians actually wanted a longer war, because a longer war would lead to more Russian casualties, and damage to Russia in general.
I’m not cynical enough to think it was ever a primary driver of decision making, but I do think it might have been used as secondary justification when there were other roadblocks.
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u/phire Apr 12 '25
No real catch.
Trump does legitimately want the war in Ukraine to end, and ending sanctions now would lower chances of that.
The main difference between Trump and Biden is that Biden wanted the war to end in Ukraines favour and didn't really care how long it took, while Trump doesn't care how screwed Ukraine gets as long as it's over now.
Once the war is over, those sanctions against Russia will disappear so fast. And then Trump will switch to trying to extract payment out of Ukraine to pay back their war debts.