Commentary: Donald Trump's actions against Ukraine betray Ronald Reagan

Bob Kustra, Chicago Tribune on Oct 23, 2026

Published in Op Eds

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy holds the toughest job on the planet. And it just got tougher. Donald Trump has made a cottage industry out of offering Russian President Vladimir Putin strategic advantages in his assault on the people of Ukraine. Just recently, he lifted the sanctions on Russia that the late U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham convinced Trump to sign into law. Now Trump gives Putin revenue to bolster his struggling war economy.

Trump also demanded that Zelenskyy halt the bombing of Russia’s oil refineries, a considerable contrast to Putin’s choice of Ukrainian targets — hospitals, schools and apartment buildings where he kills noncombatant men, women and children. Trump claims the skyrocketing gas prices will fall if Zelenskyy lays off Russia’s oil supplies, but it’s Trump’s war on Iran that is the real culprit responsible for rising gas prices. It is also responsible for America’s short supply of Patriot missiles that Zelenskyy needs to defend against Putin’s missiles.

Over recent years, Zelenskyy has dodged Trump’s insulting and demeaning behavior in a herculean effort not to lose U.S. support, but he ignored Trump’s request and continued the bombing, one of the few cards left in Ukraine’s hand to counter Putin’s war.

As if Zelenskyy doesn’t have enough to keep him awake at night, an order by Elon Musk, as confirmed by The Wall Street Journal, recently slowed down the Starlink internet connection Ukraine uses. Regardless of who gave the order, the restrictions hampered the country’s ability to defend against Russian drones and missile attacks on civilians.

Can you imagine how you would feel as Ukrainian president if, amid Trump giving comfort to Putin, you heard the American president called Putin to wish him a happy birthday as he hammers you for responding to Russian attacks on your civilian constituents? And then, to pour salt on the wound, Trump offered to buy Putin’s diesel fuel that Trump claims will also lower gas prices before the midterms, but which only covers a few days of use in America.

Trump also suggested Zelenskyy step down from office, which must have been music to Putin’s ears. It’s a sad twist of history that the U.S., a major ally of Western European democracies, is now an accomplice of Putin’s as Ukrainians fight off the terror of Putin’s war machine. Forcing Zelenskyy out of office would then allow Trump to cut a deal with Putin, which would surely include business deals for the Trump family.

Zelenskyy’s challenge of defending Ukraine against Putin and adjusting to Trump’s complicity in Putin’s deadly assaults reminds us of that adage about history not repeating itself but rhyming. Putin’s expansionist Russian strategy seems eerily like Adolf Hitler’s advances across Europe and certainly reminiscent of Soviet Russia building an Iron Curtain around Eastern European nations after World War II.

In a blunt assessment of the war, Zelenskyy called U.S. failure to support Ukraine a “historic mistake” that would not allow Ukraine to prevail.

By Trump waving a white flag for Ukraine, he trounces on the remarkable achievement of Republican President Ronald Reagan, who won the Cold War with sharp ideological rhetoric, military strength and diplomatic skills in his dealings with Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev.

Trump tells the media that “Russia, frankly, has been fine on Ukraine” around the time that Putin sent a missile into a Ukrainian park killing six people, including a 1-year-old girl next to her mother. The upcoming midterms must be a referendum on Trump’s despicable behavior with the killing of that 1-year-old girl as a prime example of the depths of Trump and Putin’s inhumanity.

The midterms must give the House and Senate the extraordinary majorities it takes to impeach and convict Trump.

Time is running out for a Republican Party led astray by a president whose treacherous behavior mimics those assigned to the lowest level of Dante’s hell. There is still time for the Republican Party to awaken from its slumber and stand up in the history of our nation for freedom-loving peoples across Europe.

No matter how it is written, our children and grandchildren will read it in their history books. Let’s hope it’s a proud moment for future generations.

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Bob Kustra served as Illinois lieutenant governor and 10 years as an Illinois Republican state lawmaker before serving for 15 years as president of Boise State University. He is host of the “Readers Corner” podcast.

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