Thomas B. Wilner: Trump Sells Out Our Allies
And in doing so makes the world a far more dangerous place.
By Thomas B. Wilner
Of all President Donald Trump’s actions since assuming power, the ones that are likely to cause the greatest harm to U.S. interests over the long run are the changes he has made to our foreign policy, particularly with respect to Ukraine. The post-World War II order was based on alliances undergirded by U.S. security guarantees. The so-called U.S. security umbrella fostered U.S. leadership throughout the world while enabling allied nations to pursue economic development and trade without engaging in costly arms races, including in many cases development of their own nuclear weapons.
It is amazing how quickly a world order built over decades that has generally been successful in securing peace and prosperity can be destroyed.
That system has generally been successful in securing peace and prosperity. But it depends, most importantly, on the credibility of the United States—or, more precisely, on the willingness of other nations to believe that they can count on the United States to keep its word and follow through on its security commitments. Every past U.S. president since World War II, and even before, has emphasized that we are a nation of honor that will stick by our commitments. Trump’s actions in belittling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and excusing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aggression have changed that.
Ukraine, of course, is not a member of the 32-member North Atlantic Treaty Organization and we are not bound by Article 5 of the NATO agreement to defend it. But we gave Ukraine separate guarantees to defend its territory against aggression. Following the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine found itself with the third largest nuclear arsenal in the world. We and Russia, then led by Boris Yeltsin, convinced it to give up those weapons. It wisely asked at the time: How will we defend ourselves without them? In response, we and Russia promised to respect Ukraine’s sovereignty and its existing borders and to defend it against aggression. It is doubtful that Ukraine put much weight on Russia’s commitment, recognizing that a change in Russian leadership might well wipe out that commitment. But the commitment of the United States was different; U.S. commitments have always been something other nations can count on over the long term, regardless who is president at the time.
I played a minor role in effectuating that agreement negotiated by two great American statesmen, former Sens. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) and Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), and I still have many friends who served in top foreign-policy and security positions in Europe and Asia. They have told me, without exception, that Trump’s statements and actions on Ukraine have had a profound impact on the world. As one wrote me recently, “Everyone has given up on belief in the U.S. security umbrella. ... We must make other arrangements.”
It is amazing how quickly a world order built over decades that has generally been successful in securing peace and prosperity can be destroyed. As another wise friend, long a student of foreign policy, wrote: “Peace, honor and reputations are fragile. People take them for granted. Our children will pay the price for their entire generation as this alters everything.”
I am confident someday that we will be able to remedy whatever damage the Trump administration might do domestically. But I am unsure we will ever be able to remedy the damage it is doing to us internationally. Once you break a commitment, everyone knows you might do it again. The credibility of the United States is at stake.
There is no doubt, as Trump and his foreign-policy team often claim, that our withdrawal from Afghanistan during the Biden administration hurt our credibility among allies. But we had never agreed to maintain boots on the ground there, or to defend the existing Afghan government, indefinitely. And, as a practical matter, our withdrawal was necessitated by the precipitous downscaling of the U.S. footprint throughout Afghanistan during the first Trump term and by his decision to reach a “deal” with the Taliban before he left office requiring the complete withdrawal of U.S. forces by May 2021—a deal he reached, by the way, in direct negotiations with the Taliban excluding participation by the Afghan government. And he is doing it again—excluding President Zelensky from his talks with Russia, and even going so far as to call the democratically elected Ukrainian leader a “moderately successful comedian” and a “dictator.”
If that weren’t damaging enough, on Monday the U.S. voted with Russia, North Korea, Iran and 14 other Putin-friendly countries against a U.N. resolution condemning Russian aggression in Ukraine and calling for the return of Ukrainian territory. By ordering the U.S. delegation to do so, Trump has brought shame to his office and is courting further aggression from Moscow and authoritarians the world over.
As President Woodrow Wilson famously said in 1917 on the eve of U.S. entry into World War I, “The world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted upon the tested foundations of political liberty.” In the years to come I fear it will be our duty to make our democracy once again safe for the world.
Thomas B. Wilner, a former managing partner of Shearman & Sterling’s International Trade and Global Relations Practice, represented the high-profile human rights cases of a dozen Kuwaiti citizens detained in the United States naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, including in the U.S. Supreme Court cases Rasul v. Bush and Boumediene v. Bush in which the high court ruled in favor of the petitioners’ right to habeas corpus. To read TFP’s May 11, 2023, conversation with the author, “Why Gitmo Still Matters,” click here.
TFP IS A PROUD MEMBER OF THE IOWA WRITERS COLLABORATIVE
Honored to publish this piece by Thomas B. Wilner, a great American who has perhaps done more than any other individual in the past quarter century to protect and ensure our rights under the Constitution and basic rights such as habeas corpus. He makes clear that President Trump’s betrayal of Ukraine at the U.N. has damaged U.S. credibility and made the world a more dangerous place. That betrayal was made all the worse because the United States had made guarantees to Ukraine after it gave up its nuclear weapons to protect its sovereignty. That betrayal, also highlighted in the Washington Post piece below, is a betrayal that all Americans should be ashamed of.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/02/26/donald-trump-new-world-order-strongman/