Kai Godsey / The Mossy Log
With the inauguration of President Donald Trump came a flurry of new policies. While a fair amount of the executive orders signed have been later blocked by courts, his realignment of U.S. foreign policy has stood thus far. Among these realignments, the new position of the United States with the war in Ukraine has been ambiguous.
The sudden shift of U.S. allegiances is a massive upset in international affairs and we are still experiencing widespread confusion. The situation has been developing day by day. Within a month in office, Trump has made aggressive statements towards our allies, using tariffs and even military threats. U.S. relations with Ukraine, previously supported by the Biden Administration, have been in limbo. Trump, on his social media platform Truth Social, accused Zelensky of talking the United States into giving $350 billion in aid, as well as calling Zelensky a dictator who refused to hold elections.
The claims made by Trump have already been thoroughly disproven, with the New York Times reporting that the amount given to Ukraine is approximately $119 billion. Under the Ukrainian constitution and law, the authority of elected positions, such as the presidency, cannot be terminated during times of martial law. As Ukraine has been under martial law since 2022, no elections have been held. It is also notable that Zelensky holds 52% support amongst Ukrainians, according to the New York Times.
In addition to changing positions on the war in Ukraine, U.S. tariffs have frightened our allies. As a campaign promise, Trump repeatedly pledged to create tariffs on all imported goods, with the exact tariff depending on the country. After his inauguration, numerous percentages have been floated for tariffs on Chinese, Mexican, Canadian and EU-imported goods. Most recently, the EU has been threatened with a 25% wholesale tariff.
The EU tariff may have been instigated by European attempts to find peace in the war in Ukraine without U.S. approval, to which Trump also responded by telling reporters that “the European Union was formed in order to screw the United States.” These tariff threats, even if not realized, will continue to widen the gap between the United States and the EU.
The sudden realignment of U.S. international policy has been a shock, and the seeming shift toward Russian interests has left many confused. Even as I write this there are new pieces of information showing more of President Trump’s foreign policy plan, such as the idea to have a “gold card” for sale which would allow the wealthy an easier route to citizenship. The cost of such a gold card would be $5 million. When asked whether these cards could be bought by Russian oligarchs, he stated “Yeah … Hey, I know some Russian oligarchs that are nice people. It’s possible.” Trump further claimed that at least a million cards would be sold, netting $5 trillion. While this gold card plan has not been officially made yet, it exemplifies the overwhelming absurdity in policy decisions the administration has made. Even at the late hour of writing this, we see this case happen again at the peace talks in the Oval Office where Trump, J.D. Vance and Zelensky spoke. After being insulted by Trump and Vance, Zelensky left the meeting early.
Only a little more than a month after his inauguration, Trump has been remarkably bad at maintaining foreign relations. We have seen this in the tariff threats to the EU and China, annexation threats to Greenland and Canada and flubbing meetings with world leaders. Foreign affairs are extremely turbulent right now — in large part due to the Trump Administration’s remarkable inability to maintain relationships with international allies and partners. Research for this article has been extremely difficult, due to the situation continuously changing day to day. On March 2, Trump stated that the tariffs on Canada and Mexico were definitely going to happen on Tuesday, March 3. This was mildly surprising, as many thought deals had been made to avoid the tariffs.
Although Trump’s foreign policy moves remain unpredictable, if the U.S. continues down this path, it may risk weakening or ending current alliances with crucial intergovernmental organizations such as NATO or essential trade agreements such as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
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