c/o Samuel Loeb
Last Friday, President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance engaged in an act once thought unconscionable towards an ally of the United States. In front of the American media, the two took turns rhetorically flogging Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The two sounded less like the leaders of the free world and more like Newman, the mailman from Seinfeld, who once said Ukraine was a “sitting duck.”
“The Ukraine is weak, it’s feeble,” Newman remarked.
Zelenskyy came to Washington D.C. with plans to sign a mineral deal with his American counterpart in hopes of retaining American support for Ukraine’s ongoing conflict with Russia. Instead, he was reprimanded by Vance for not saying thank you, kicked out of the White House, and forced to leave with no agreement signed. Like it was an episode of “The Apprentice,” Trump ended the meeting by noting it would be “great television.”
Trump’s quarrel with Zelenskyy took place in the Oval Office beneath a painting of Ronald Reagan and beside a bust of Winston Churchill, but the 47th president is not cut from the same cloth as those conservatives. Trump is not even reminiscent of Mitt Romney, the last pre-Trump Republican nominee for president, who declared Russia was our “number one geopolitical foe” in 2012. Back then, Democrats ripped Romney for attacking our new post-Cold War “ally”; President Obama said his foreign policy belonged in the 1980s. Today, many of those same Democrats have the Ukraine flag in their Bluesky bios while the face of the Republican Party defers to Russian intelligence over the recommendations of the FBI.
However, on the foreign policy front, Trump and Vance are not simply clueless. This is all part of their America First (last) agenda. Just like China, they want to remake the international order. Trump wants to go from an international order centered around an alliance of Western nations based on mutual values into one of transactionalism—tariffs, payments for defense, and potential territorial expansion.
“We’re gonna win so much, you may even get tired of winning,” Trump said when running for president in 2016—except after Trump’s encounter with Zelenskyy, the only people who may be sick of winning are our adversaries.
If Russia can invade Ukraine with few repercussions from the new administration, what does that signal to China? They are not shy about their goal of wanting to conquer Taiwan and have just recently conducted military drills off the shores of Australia. Does North Korea feel empowered that the United States may not live up to our defense treaty with their neighbor to the south? Could Iran be emboldened if the United States lacks the leadership to forge the same international coalition used to help defend Israel from missile attacks in 2024?
This foreign policy position from the Trump administration will not only make our allies weaker, but America weaker. Some countries, including Canada, are discussing reducing trade reliance with the United States, which only hurts our workers and economy. In a 21st-century that will be decided between the United States and China, the Trump administration’s foreign policy risks reducing international markets that are receptive to American artificial intelligence and 5G technologies.
Trump may think this is simply another business deal, but American foreign policy isn’t a casino deal in Atlantic City. The stakes are much higher than a dispute at the roulette table or buffet. The future of the free world is on the line.
Blake Fox is a member of 2026 and can be reached at bfox@wesleyan.edu.