You Want Peace? This Is How You Get Peace

We support our Publishers and Content Creators. You can view this story on their website by CLICKING HERE.

President-elect Donald Trump will continue military aid to Ukraine after his inauguration, according to “three officials familiar with discussions” the Financial Times spoke with late last week — and that’s not the only peace through strength measure you can expect during Trump 47.

According to the non-paywalled Yahoo! summary of the FT report, keeping Ukraine armed won’t end with the peace deal Trump hopes to negotiate between Moscow and Kyiv: “British officials noted that Trump sees providing weapons after a ceasefire as aligning with his ‘peace through strength’ philosophy.”

Well, good.

Better, Trump remains opposed to NATO membership for Ukraine. As I’ve reminded readers here repeatedly in the nearly three years since Putin began his stupid war, NATO doesn’t import wars. Moldova, Georgia, and Ukraine would all dearly love NATO membership, but none will get it (or ought to get it) until their border issues (all with Russia) are resolved. That’s effectively a “never” for all three, absent some radical changes on the European scene.

Perhaps best of all, Trump is bringing his tough-love style back to our NATO dealings.

And Another Thing: Presidentish Joe Biden’s Ukraine aid packages — despite the big but misleading price tags — have been late, hamstrung, and, one presumes, filled with graft and self-dealing. Under Trump, I suspect the DOGE boys — Elon and Vivek — will treat Ukraine aid no differently than any other part of the federal budget, attempting to weed out duplication, waste, and corruption.

When Trump took office for the first time, only three of NATO’s 32 members met the alliance’s pledge of spending 2% of GDP on defense. This year, 23 NATO member countries are expected to meet or exceed that goal. You can thank two people for that: Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. Putin for launching his “Special Military Operation” against Ukraine, and Trump for threatening to leave NATO if the other members didn’t get serious about their own defense.

Much like his threatened 25% tariffs on Canadian and Mexican goods, Trump hopes to get other countries to cooperate — not to impose the tariffs or leave NATO.

But 2% is a feeble amount to spend on defense, even when there isn’t war raging in Eastern Europe.

“Trump’s foreign policy team also informed European officials that he plans to push NATO allies to raise their defense spending to 5% of their GDP,” Yahoo! reports. Trump will demand 5%, probably accept 3.5%, and hope slackers like Germany someday get to 3%. Any improvement would be welcome in today’s climate.

Along the way, Trump will be accused by some of being a warmonger and by others of being an isolationist, but neither description is apt. On foreign policy, Trump is most like Ronald Reagan.

There is a path to peace in Europe, but it never went through appeasement. Reagan would have understood that, and Trump certainly does.

Thank you once again for your VIP support. If you aren’t yet a member, enjoy tons of exclusives and take advantage of our 60% Christmas savings with this FIGHT code. VIP is a lovely gift, too!