by Dimitris Konstantakopoulos
Feb 23, 2025
In a previous article (https://www.defenddemocracy.press/a-first-look-at-trumps-foreign-policy/) we highlighted the (apparent and at first glance) contradictory nature of Donald Trump’s foreign policy. On one hand, we observe an extreme expansionism reminiscent of the 1930s (Greenland, Canada, Palestine, Panama), and on the other, a significant push for peace in Ukraine and an end to the terrible tragedy that has struck this country.
Trump’s overtures to Moscow regarding Ukraine are, in principle, the most promising for the Ukrainian people, who are dying needlessly in the trenches by the hundreds of thousands, watching their country being destroyed. They are also promising for humanity as a whole, given the increased risk of nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction being used, as well as the ongoing massive direct and indirect environmental destruction caused by this conflict.
Trump has acknowledged that Ukraine will never join NATO—a position that, if adopted by Biden or even Trump during his previous term, or by the supposedly democratic imperialist Europeans, would have prevented the war and the destruction of the second-largest country in Europe.
Trump also stated that Ukraine would not regain the territories of Donbass and Crimea, thereby respecting the will of the Russian majority in those regions. It is worth noting that Ukraine would not have “lost” Crimea if the Americans had not orchestrated a coup in Kyiv in 2014. Similarly, it would not have “lost” Donbass if Kyiv, Berlin, and Paris had honored their commitments under the Minsk 1 and Minsk 2 agreements, and if Mr. Biden or even Mr. Trump during his previous term had pressured Kyiv to implement them. Not only would Ukraine not have “lost” these territories, but it would also have avoided the greatest catastrophe in Europe since World War II.
As we argued in our previous article, by making these statements and significantly reducing his support for the Zelensky regime, Mr. Trump is effectively acknowledging that NATO has been defeated by Russia and that its goals—overthrowing Putin’s regime and dismantling Russia—are unattainable.
Therefore, rather than continuing a war that cannot be won and that fuels anti-Western sentiment and alliances worldwide, it is better for the new leaders of the US to acknowledge reality and attempt a new, large-scale strategic maneuver.
At the same time, Mr. Trump is demanding, in a rather piratical and mafia-like manner, to seize Ukraine’s mineral resources—the concession agreement Zelensky is now being pressured to sign is worse than the war reparations Germany was forced to pay in 1918 at the end of World War I https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2025/02/18/7498843/ .
By the way, why do these European governments, who claim to want to continue the war because they supposedly care about the rights of Ukrainians, say nothing and fail to protest the plunder Mr. Trump is orchestrating in plain sight?
In reality, the United States itself and its allies should compensate Ukraine for the destruction it has suffered, primarily due to their own policies and the war they pushed it into (without underestimating the responsibilities of the local neo-fascist element and extreme nationalism, particularly in western Ukraine). What is happening now has never happened before. The CIA stages a coup in a country, drags it into a war with a neighbor and unimaginable destruction, and then the United States demands reparations on top of it all, instead of helping it recover in any way!
This “detail” is revealing of the true intentions of the United States under Trump, and it is good to keep it in mind for those who have illusions about the type of policies the new American president intends to implement. Policies that are certainly very positive in the case of Ukraine, as they end a terrible catastrophe, but which risk being extremely destructive in other regions of the world.
Incredible Armaments in Europe. Preparing for the Next War!
On the other hand, regarding Europe itself, Mr. Trump’s policy is not without contradictions. For example, on one hand, he appears to be working for peace on the old continent, while on the other, he is demanding an increase in European defense spending to totally absurd levels, up to 5% of GDP (an increase that, if realized, will be the final blow to any attempt to fight for the preservation of the natural environment and what remains of the European welfare state).
However, no one is truly threatening Europe (**), but even if it were threatened, the solution would obviously not be the defense systems it plans to purchase—systems that, if used, would guarantee not only the destruction of the adversary but also of those who use them. These systems are, in reality, designed not to defend Europe but for America’s global wars.
Russia has only once, and on a very limited scale, launched an expedition to the west (we are not counting, of course, instances where it reacted to an attack it had suffered). On the contrary, since the 13th century and the invasion of the Teutonic Knights, it is Russia that has continually been attacked from the west, including Napoleon’s campaign, the intervention of 21 countries in the Russian Civil War, Hitler’s attack, and NATO’s attack using Ukraine as a proxy. Most of those attacks were perpetrated through Ukraine. Not only is Russia the one constantly under attack from the west, but it is also the one that unilaterally dissolved the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union itself.
The primary and foremost use of this European armament, therefore, can only be a future war against Russia, under better conditions. Secondarily, it can also serve to support NATO, that is, the Americans in other missions outside Europe.
We are not claiming that such a war will necessarily happen. We are simply pointing out that Trump’s policy in no way implies—and it could not be otherwise—any renunciation by the United States of Western imperialism and militarism, which are structural elements of the Western system. Without them, it is impossible to ensure the necessary transfer of a significant portion of global surplus to the West, without which Western capitalism could not function properly. The primary cause of wars is economic, not ideological. Ideologies are invented to serve interests, even if they retain a certain autonomy from the initial causes of their creation.
In our next article, we will examine Trump’s plans for a new “Star Wars” and the new strategic framework in which the Americans are operating, which may explain the apparent contradictions in their policy.
(*) An interesting proposal to restore the flow of Russian gas to Europe and introduce a special tax for Ukraine’s reconstruction was made in a recent article by Greek-French university professor Dimitris Skarpalezos https://www.defenddemocracy.press/a-kapodistrian-agreement-for-ukraine/. Normally, the United States and its allies should also contribute to compensating Ukraine for the destruction caused by their policies.
(**) Only two countries in Europe face a real military threat, Greece and Cyprus. They are not threatened by Russia, but by a NATO member and EU candidate member that recently almost invaded Syria, has occupied half of Cyprus for fifty years, and periodically invades Iraq, without this overly disturbing the leaders of NATO and the EU! The same leaders who claim to be so concerned about Russia and its alleged threat to Europe.
Translated from Greek by Christian Haccuria
