Enough of the ‘Trump-Proofing’ NATO Talk

This op-ed originally appeared in American Greatness on July 12, 2024. 

Two issues dominated this week’s NATO summit in Washington, hosted by President Biden: the war in Ukraine and Donald Trump’s likely reelection. NATO members badly misplayed both issues.

The summit went off course at the start when President Biden insisted in his opening address that Ukraine can “prevail” in the war with Russia if it receives the arms it needs. Biden claimed Ukraine “can and will stop Putin.” The president announced that the U.S. would send Ukraine five new strategic air defense systems and F-16 fighters. Biden first made this promise in May 2023, but the jets never arrived.

In his speech, Biden was again in denial about the state of the war. Ukraine had a chance to push back Russian troops and recover its territory in the spring and summer of 2022. However, the United States and other NATO members limited their military aid to Ukraine in 2022 out of fear of escalating the conflict. As a result, Ukraine’s arsenal ran low by October 2022, which gave Russian forces a chance to regroup and heavily fortify their lines. Ukraine never regained a strategic advantage in the war, and the conflict became a stalemate by late 2022.

Read the full op-ed in American Greatness here.