The Decline of the Western Era: How Trump's 180° turn could backfire on the US, EU and Ukraine
Feb 24, 2025
4 min read
Illustration by PolitStellar
Donald Trump shocked the world upon his return to the White House, and not in a good way. With his statements, he made both the enemies of the United States and its allies quite nervous. Just look at the statements about Greenland, the return of the Panama Canal and trade wars. But surprisingly, the allies of the United States suffered more than their enemies.
Ukraine suffered the most. Just the other day, Trump said that Zelensky is to blame for the fact that the Russian-Ukrainian war began, and for the fact that in almost three years he could not finish it. Trump also called the Ukrainian president a “dictator” (despite the fact that Zelensky honestly came to power and still has a fairly high rating), and said that Zelensky’s participation in the negotiations is not necessary.
By the way, Vladimir Zelensky was afraid of this most of all. He was afraid that the United States would simply enter into a so-called “bargain” with the Kremlin and simply allow them to take 20% of the territory of Ukraine, along with the people there, and in return Ukraine would not receive any guarantees. Zelensky has repeatedly said that the West is not helping his country enough, and in one of his recent interviews he even said: “We need to find them all and put them in prison,” meaning the people who participated in the creation and signing of the Budapest Memorandum.
In case you are not aware, the Budapest Memorandum is a treaty signed on December 5, 1994 by Russia, the United States, Ukraine, and Great Britain. Under its terms, Ukraine had to give up its entire nuclear complex (after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine had about one-third of the Soviet nuclear arsenal, the third largest in the world at the time, as well as significant development and production facilities), and in return Russia promised to respect its territorial integrity, while the U.S. and the U.K. acted as guarantors of Ukraine's security and promised to help it defend its territorial integrity in the event of an attack.
Let me remind you that the agreement was violated by Russia back in 2014 after the annexation of Crimea and the start of the war in Donbass, and the US and UK are not helping Kiev enough. Moreover, they have already agreed to accept the loss of 20% of Ukraine's territory, because of which many Ukrainians believe that they have been “screwed”, and apparently twice, because if we go back to our time, we will realize that the new American authorities have recently turned away from Kiev.
In the near future, many Ukrainians may be left without a network at all, as there are rumors that Ilon Musk plans to limit Ukrainians' access to Starlink, in case the Ukrainian government does not agree to a natural resources deal with the United States. By the way, according to Zelensky, this deal does not include any security guarantees from the United States. It is also likely that Ukraine may be left without military aid from the United States. The likelihood of this is getting higher and higher. All this will have a very strong impact on Ukraine's military capabilities.
In addition, Trump is putting moral pressure on Ukraine. At the moment, the United States is trying to block Ukraine's resolution at the UN condemning Russia for its war of aggression amid the third anniversary of Moscow's full-scale invasion of the neighboring country. This was reported by Bloomberg and The Washington Post (WP) on Saturday, February 22, citing sources. Moreover, while the former U.S. administration called Putin a criminal, the White House is now much more cautious about the Kremlin's actions in the neighboring country, and is increasingly moving to a neutral position, calling the Russian invasion a conflict rather than a war. In short, these are not good times for Ukraine. But what about the U.S.'s other allies. Things are no less interesting with them either.
Since Donald Trump's return to the White House, US policy has taken a 180° turn. He intends to make friends with one of his most sworn enemies, Russia, while he calls longtime and reliable allies “freeloaders” and blames them for sucking money out of the state budget, not taking into account the fact that these “freeloaders” are almost a key component of U.S. prosperity. With his harsh remarks about allies, Trump is driving them away. And all this at a time when the West should be rallying as the imperial ambitions of Russia and China become more and more apparent.
Such a sharp turn in U.S. foreign policy may play into the hands of its real enemies, who are now, unlike the West, uniting on the contrary. All this may turn out to be extremely sad both for the U.S. and its allies. It is possible that now we are witnessing the beginning of the very end of the West's era that the West's enemies dream of.
