US foreign policy is indeed designed to help a few Trump-friendly companies, not America or Americans

"It’s the same old playbook—appease Putin and then hope he will kindly end his invasion. It hasn’t worked before; it isn’t working now." thedispatch.com/article/trum…

Vladimir Putin is not our friend, and he is certainly no humanitarian. His relentless attacks on innocent civilians in Ukraine show his total disregard for human life. Appeasement won't end this war. Pressure will.

When you praise a mass murderer as a 'humanitarian,' you become complicit in his crimes. You insult the memory of the victims of the destruction of Grozny, Aleppo, Mariupol. You gaslight the women raped in Bucha. You mock the families of stolen Ukrainian children. You show that you share the same nihilistic universe as the perpetrator of these atrocities.

Trump admin hates Ukraine so much they are robbing allies and hurting the American bottom line to help Russia kill more Ukrainians!

This has been Putin's dream for years: That his country, with GDP per capita lower than Poland, unable to conquer Donbas since 2014, will be treated as an equal to the US and China. wsj.com/world/russia/putin-f…

Any country that doesn't want its fate decided by others needs to oppose this imperialist travesty.

It’s unbelievable that the US would side with the very country supporting Iran currently targeting and killing US service personnel.

The scariest part is how they just make things up. $350B in free aid to Ukraine. Ukraine depleted US Tomahawks stocks. Ukraine killed a million russian children. Russia wants peace. And so on. And millions of Americans believe this.

Trump only thinks that it's Zelenskyy who refuses to surrender, viewing him as the main obstacle standing between himself and a sweet dealmaking with Putin. But in reality, it's not Zelenskyy, it's the Ukrainian people who refuse to surrender. If our president decided, for some reason, to go against the people's will and capitulate by accepting Putin's conditions, he wouldn't last 20 seconds in office. ​And the notion that the Ukrainian people are "dying for Zelenskyy" is one of the stupidest things I've ever heard. I've never met a single soldier who thinks that way. They are fighting because foreign invaders would otherwise occupy their homes, kidnap their children, steal their property, and kill them. That's why, Zelenskyy or no Zelenskyy, they would still defend their country.

Reuters: The order to limit a satellite system used by Ukraine for battlefield communications and drone operations came from inside the White House, according to two US officials and a Western official briefed on the matter. Defense Department leaders were told that SpaceX’s Starshield service for the Ukrainian military needed to be slowed, the officials said.

Trump's abandonment of a democratic Ukraine and embrace of autocratic Russia during wartime will be recorded in future history books as one of the greatest, tragic mistakes in American foreign policy in our nation's history.

There was a time in the not-too-distant past when conservatives stood against the Soviet Union, stood up for NATO, and defended democratic values. The record wasn't perfect, but there was a consensus that democratic values and the global rules-based order were worth defending. Today's MAGA-dominated conservative movement is a loose bag of nationalism, nativism, isolationism, and right-wing populism blended with a nearly religious devotion to one man. Anyone who does not prostrate themselves before his altar is suspect; his every grievance is their grievance. The contortions they perform to demonstrate their fidelity are impressive. Their claim is that NATO was surrounding Russia and Ukraine brought the invasion on itself by seeking to join NATO. This is utter nonsense. Countries do not go through the difficult process of joining a defensive alliance without perceiving a security benefit, often in response to a threat. Finland and Sweden maintained their longstanding policies of military nonalignment until Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 prompted them to seek NATO membership. NATO membership provides the Baltic states with a credible deterrent against Russian aggression. Ukraine, meanwhile, was outside NATO when Russia invaded. It must also be said that NATO doesn't enlarge on its own. Countries request to join, and then every NATO member has to approve their accession. It can be a lengthy process. Nor does the historical record support the claim that Ukraine's NATO aspirations provoked Russia's initial invasion. Ukraine adopted a policy of nonalignment in 2010 and retained it when Russia invaded Crimea in 2014. Ukraine wanted closer ties to the West, particularly the European Union. In 2013, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, under pressure from Vladimir Putin, abruptly suspended preparations for an EU Association Agreement, choosing instead to pursue closer ties with Russia. Ukrainians who wanted closer ties to the EU protested in the Maidan, and Yanukovych eventually fled the country amid the ensuing political crisis. Shortly thereafter, Russia invaded Crimea. Ukraine abandoned its nonaligned status only after Russia's aggression. Russia is a hegemonic state that does not respect the sovereignty of other countries. Its track record in Georgia and Moldova clearly demonstrates this. Ukraine's alignment with the West and its desire to join NATO were logical responses to the threat posed by a ruthless and expansionist power. But now, because Trump repeatedly accommodates Putin, much of MAGA chooses to excuse Russian aggression, attacking Zelenskyy for wanting to defend his people and claiming that Ukraine will inevitably lose, even as Russian territorial gains have slowed dramatically and the Russian economy is under severe strain, compounded by Ukraine's successful campaign against Russian oil refineries. They expect Ukraine to show restraint while not applying the same standard to Russia. They claim that it is Europe's war and not America's, even as Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea are increasingly cooperating through sanctions evasion, military technology, troops, munitions, and intelligence support. They erect a pile of half-truths, outright lies, and conspiracy theories to excuse Putin, a ruthless thug responsible for extraordinary suffering and atrocities, while finding every excuse to punish Ukraine. Ronald Reagan would have been disgusted with what has become of much of the modern conservative movement. There is nothing patriotic about making excuses for a tyrant who invades his neighbours, murders civilians, and seeks to destroy a sovereign nation. Whatever their intentions, those who defend and excuse his aggression while undermining Ukraine's right to defend itself are advancing the interests of the Kremlin, not those of the United States.

Just so you understand the scale of betrayal: first, our "partners" didn't warn Ukraine about the incoming ballistic missiles, so the air raid alert wasn't activated before impact, robbing people of their chance to survive. ​Then, Starlink was restricted to stop working at speeds above 100 mph. This renders useless, first and foremost, our interceptor drones. It doesn't limit our ability to attack inside Russia, it limits our ability to stop another apartment building or school full of civilians from being hit. ​Wow, just wow.

Zelenskyy: "When our strikes reached Yandex data centers, it suddenly became little easier to breathe on many social media platforms. Many people noticed it. There was less hate, less division, fewer provocations because there were fewer bots. It's pretty clear where those bots were coming from. If they disappeared when Yandex went offline, this proves once again that Europe is not the source of the problems." The big problem is that Russia figured out how modern society consumes information a decade ago, but the West hasn't. ​There are millions of bots commenting and posting Russian propaganda. There are paid influencers spreading it, with Russian bots supporting their content. There is a gigantic machine operating to radicalize and influence Western societies, and there is not enough defense in place. It doesn't just influence elections, it sows discord, engulfs societies in culture wars, radicalizes teenagers, and shapes political decisions when elected officials fail to read the room. ​That needs to change. And fast.