Is Trump Unnecessarily Alienating His Political Allies?

I support Trump’s efforts to end the Ukraine war. 

I supported the initial efforts to defend Ukraine against the Russian invasion, although I never bought the “democracy vs tyranny” argument. I agree that the war was unnecessary, at least partly caused by a failure of the West to understand that Ukraine membership in NATO was a red line and that our commitment to Ukrainian sovereignty should have remained softly spoken and not loudly proclaimed, but I thought the Russian invasion crossed a red line.

My view was simple: preventing a Russian takeover of Ukraine was in our interests, but a forever war or even a return to the status quo ante 2014 was unrealistic. A fantasy stoked by a transnational elite that was using the war–and the deaths of over a million people–to conduct a massive money laundering operation. 

In other words, the war was not black and white but lighter and darker gray. 

Trump is right to push for an end to the war, but the extremity of his rhetoric about Zelenskyy–who I also don’t think is pure as the driven snow and who has been stumbling in his diplomacy over the past year–is driving away political allies and harming his image with people who have helped Trump achieve some others of his goals. 

The article struck me as similar to a previous article on why Trump’s tariffs are bad economic policy and then seeing it was really political strategy, not economic. Trump sees the Ukrainians as resisting peace so he’ll go so far as to toss them aside because the peace will come…

— Tim Conrad (@TimConradB623) February 20, 2025

People like Niall Ferguson and Douglas Murray–intellectuals who broke with the liberal consensus and helped pave the way for moderates giving Trump a lot of running room in his second term–are furious over Trump’s rhetoric about Ukraine and seeming embrace of Putin. 

And it was actually Zelenskyy’s idea to begin with. But what is Ukraine getting going forward for giving that away? Zelenskyy has expressed “deep gratitude” before, so Trump suggesting otherwise is just a lie. https://t.co/RiUjjk8aSA

— dʒeɪ 🇺🇸🇺🇦 (@UKFellas) February 21, 2025

All this may be a negotiating strategy for Trump–I think it is–but I think it is suboptimal. Many in the semi-realist/semi-idealist camp who had supported the war were coming to terms with the failure to kick Putin out of Ukraine and the need to end the war, but Trump’s insistence that Zelenskyy caused the war, that the Ukrainian leader is the real dictator, and that Zelenskyy has a 4% popularity rating in Ukraine serve no good purpose that I can see. 

‘Putin is THE dictator and 10 Ukraine-Russia war truths we ignore at our peril.’ My column in today’s ⁦@nypost⁩ https://t.co/DTgRuRcpnF

— Douglas Murray (@DouglasKMurray) February 21, 2025

Mostly because they are clearly false, there may be a reason to throw these provocations out there–mostly to give Putin some breathing room to make concessions and to bully Zelenskyy to make necessary concessions to reality–but the domestic cost in support for Trump is, in my judgment, too high a price to pay. He could achieve these goals without burning so much political capital. 

Yes, there are reasons for Trump to be angry at Zelenskyy. We don’t have to treat him like Churchill–better than Churchill, actually–but we can deal with him in ways that don’t harm Trump here at home. 

OK, this is interesting.

Douglas Murray is a superstar for the US right.

Here he is directly contradicting Trump/Musk. https://t.co/pvknV1YR45

— Christian JB (@christianjbdev) February 21, 2025

The Ukraine war is, in the end, a side issue for MAGA. We want the war to end, and the grift ended, but the reform and remaking of our government and culture are far more important. The Free Press wing of the political spectrum has been a small but vital element to Trump’s success in moving forward on these vital issues, and a slight moderation of Trump’s rhetoric would do wonders to mollify this faction. 

I, too, am cheering Trump on for his assault on the administrative state. It is my top priority, in fact. So count me among the people who think that Trump could tone it down on his attacks on Zelenskyy. He can achieve his ends without descending to calling Zelenskyy a dictator, so why do it?

On this matter, I dissent. Not because I think the war is a fight for democracy but because I think the real fight for democracy is right here at home and Trump is wasting political capital unnecessarily.