On Monday, President Trump announced a surprising about-face, declaring at a White House ceremony, alongside NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, that the U.S. will provide new offensive weapons to Ukraine, including Patriot missile batteries, which will be delivered through NATO allies.
Trump also promised new secondary tariffs on countries that buy oil from Russia if Russia doesn’t agree to a ceasefire within 50 days.
Per Politico, and in line with what Trump has said, the idea is to force a peaceful end to the war.
Can Trump Make Russia Change Course in the Ukraine War?
Trump has declared that the new initiative is not a contradiction with his long-held “America First” ethos, in part because it doesn’t represent new military spending.
“We’re not buying it, but we will manufacture it, and they’re going to be paying for it,” Trump said of the European allies in the appearance with Rutte on Monday. “They feel very strongly about it, and we feel strongly about it too, but we’re in for a lot of money, and we just, we don’t want to do [it] any more.”
“Russia is Going to Win”
One anonymous White House official went even further.
“The president’s view is Russia is going to win, it’s a matter of how long it takes,” a senior White House official told Politico.
“Russia has the bigger economy, has the bigger military, has more than enough bodies to throw into the meat grinder, and just doesn’t care. And although they are making slow progress, they are still making progress. The president just wants to stop the killing.”
“Central to President Trump’s common sense, America First message is that our alliances have to be fair and equitable for them to be sustainable,” Undersecretary of Defense Eldridge Colby, an influential adviser, said on X, quoting a White House announcement.
“This is eminently reasonable but was treated for many years as heresy. Yet now with the historic NATO commitment we see that it can work — and will leave not only Americans but our European allies better off.”
Russia Responds
According to ABC News, Russia didn’t appear deterred by the announcement of the new weapons for Ukraine. Russia “continued its nightly bombardment of Ukraine overnight into Tuesday.”
“The U.S. president’s statements are very serious,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, per the report. “Some of them are addressed personally to President Putin. We definitely need time to analyze what was said in Washington.”
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev also spoke about the change in policy from Washington.
“The world shuddered, expecting the consequences,” Medvedev said on X, according to a translation by ABC News. “Belligerent Europe was disappointed. Russia didn’t care.”
Reaction from Congress
The “secondary tariffs” proposal had been the basis of a bipartisan effort, led by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), in recent months, although Graham had proposed even more punishing tariffs on Russia’s energy partners.
Graham, on X this week, praised Trump’s move, declaring that the president had “put the countries who fund Putin’s war machine on notice: stop financially supporting the war in Ukraine or face 100% tariffs. If I were them, I would take President Trump at his word,” over a video of himself appearing on Fox News declaring that Trump “changed the game today.”
There was some skepticism, however, from the Democratic side of the aisle in the Senate.
“This announcement, by itself, will not be enough to bring Putin to the negotiating table and finally end this war,” Senate Foreign Relations Ranking Member Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) told ABC News in a statement.
“President Trump needs to commit to a sustained flow of security assistance to Ukraine over the long-term,” the New Hampshire senator told ABC. “And we must move immediately on the tough sanctions package in the Senate, which has overwhelming bipartisan support and will make it harder and harder for Putin to prop up his economy and sustain his illegal war.”
About the Author: Stephen Silver
Stephen Silver is an award-winning journalist, essayist, and film critic, and contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review, and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. For over a decade, Stephen has authored thousands of articles that focus on politics, national security, technology, and the economy. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @StephenSilver, and subscribe to his Substack newsletter.
Military Concepts
A 7th Generation Fighter Is Coming
Jim
July 15, 2025 at 12:10 pm
Trump repeatedly states, “It’s not my war, it’s Biden’s.”
(I’ve argued it’s now Trump’s war as he continues the Biden policy six months into office.)
But take Trump’s statement at face value.
Okay, it’s not his war so he has no obligation to win it.
His obligation is to end it… at least he campaigned to end the war during the election.
See, Trump doesn’t want the big “L” on his record and faces tremendous political pressure from the warhawks to continue the war (which has been effective).
But if its not Trump’s war… treat it that way.
And treating the war as a failed policy from a repudiated & tossed-out Biden administration which he, himself, defeated in the recent Fall election with the Ukraine War as an issue of contention in that election.
Trump won.
Treat it as such and act like a winner; end the money, weapons and intelligence sharing because it’s not your war and it’s a failed policy.
Period.
Act like a winner and prove it, end the war now and make your case to the American People.
My bet.
They’ll back Trump because the majority want the war over… that’s why they elected Donald Trump in the first place (one of the reasons).
But you have to be a winner to get that kind of backing; winners take their case directly to the American People, they don’t get held-up by the Beltway Crowd, but instead provide clear, logical, and forthright reasoning for ending the war.
(With Ukraine neutral as they were from 1996 to 2014, remove the coup plotters & executions from power, and go back to a small constabulary force which they had from 1996 to 2014.)
The People will support that from a winner.
Can Donald Trump grab the brass ring of ending the war and being a winner at the same time?
He can if he doesn’t vacillate.
403Forbidden
July 15, 2025 at 1:04 pm
Moscow’s gonna win against the nazis.
But first, the Russians need to get rid of Putin. Putin has been very badly and thoroughly compromised by Donald trump.
He’s seen as weak and inept due to exactly that.
Putin, as a result of being compromised by trump, is simply not up to the task of defeating the nazis.
Putin almost led Russia to great disaster, but it was averted thanks to kim jong-un.
Thus Russia needs to get rid of Putin if it wants to defeat the nazis.
It must be done now, immediately.Without any delay.
Perry
July 15, 2025 at 2:11 pm
The only people afraid of Donald Trump are Americans.
Swamplaw Yankee
July 16, 2025 at 3:56 am
The op-ed seems fatally flawed. There is zero mention of the eternal war of muslims and jews. Should the state of Israel get special USA cuddling and keep its ancient soil? Hey, the op-ed seems to be very happy that huge parts of ancient Ukraine get stolen by ancient predators of Ukraine. The thousand year old cultural genocide of Ukraine by orc muscovite peasants seems to be approved by the above.
How about if every square foot of Ukraine that is proposed to be lost to russians is equalled by the same square foot of lost Israel? That is very fair and just straight math. Yes. The real estate of Israel should be redistributed as freely by the op-ed’er.
The MAGA POTUS Trump seems totally unconcerned about lost Ukrainian soil. The POTUS makes it clear that he want to first save russian pedophiles and give them a life to safely enjoy “Lolita” time with mass abducted Ukrainian children. The MAGA POTUS seems OK that PUTIN is now stealing + blatantly freely redistributing Ukraine to his ethnic group, pedophile or not.
Some how, it becomes ok, acceptable to the MSM, for the MAGA POTUS to ignore hundreds of thousands of human trafficked + tortured Ukrainians for 11 years now. But, a relatively few Israeli citizens get tortured +, voila, Israel gets massive USA tax funded military assistance out the yah hoo. Where is the equality?
The pretence is that these facts will erupt again and soon. As the various muslim forces re-equip, re-arm, re-propagandize, the very near future will again have this small state demanding that Ukraine be denied as their need is self-perceived as greater.
Ukraine has been victimized by ruskie sex traders for a thousand years. The Christian Ukrainians would be sexually abused then sold by orc rukie peasants for Ottoman gold to muslim sex traders. Or, were all the sex trade buyers of Christian Ukrainians actually exclusively muslim?
Congress + the White House tragically err. There is no end to the re-conquest psychology of the orc muscovite ethnic ruskie. The WEST is only victorious if every inch of illegally occupied Ukraine is returned. That means that the state of Israel must vocalize internationally much way above its human population number, today now, that the concept for MAGA POTUS Trump is the orc ethnic ruskie returns this stolen + illegally occupied Ukrainian land.
Keep their very democratic mouths shut, and the muslims in Canada and the USA will accurately remind them of their demand that Ukraine be illegally stolen by force. The Lord even warns them of GOG in advance. -30-