Our forthcoming book is The Comeback: The 2024 Elections and American Politics. The second Trump administration is off to an ominous start.
Breaking it down: Trump has made at least five Moscow-friendly moves just in the last two weeks.
1. The White House asked Treasury and State to identify sanctions on Russia that could be loosened as part of the process of improving relations, Reuters reports.Trump didn't deny that Monday, telling reporters: "We want to make deals with everybody."
2. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly ordered U.S. Cyber Command to suspend offensive cyber and information operations against Russia.The suspension is intended to last as long as negotiations to end the Russia-Ukraine war play out, officials told the Washington Post.
3. Trump has called for elections in Ukraine, and he and his allies suggested after the Oval Office spat that Zelensky might need to go.Regime change in Kyiv was one of Putin's original objectives for invading. It remains unlikely he'll be able to install a Kremlin stooge any time soon. Still, Trump's comments denouncing Zelensky — and his moves to freeze him out after the meeting — have weakened the position of a leader the Kremlin has long sought to discredit internationally. Reality check: Ukraine has been under martial law since the invasion began, and its constitution does not allow for elections in such a scenario.
4. The U.S. voted with Russia and 16 other mostly authoritarian countries to oppose a UN resolution last week that condemned Russia's "aggression" in Ukraine.The Biden administration repeatedly used such votes to depict Russia as a pariah state. This time, the U.S. voted with Moscow and against nearly all its Western allies.
5. Suspending weapons shipments — which the Trump administration had already dramatically slowed — is the latest dramatic step.Billions of dollars of equipment committed under Biden were in different stages along the delivery pipeline, Axios' Sareen Habeshian reports.
