We Have Effectively Switched Sides in the Russia-Ukraine War

On the menu today: Apologies for the late send, but I’m on my way back to the U.S., and it’s possible that if I return to Ukraine again, it will look quite different the next time. The U.S. government has effectively switched sides in the war. President Trump is pursuing Pentagon budget cuts of 8 percent per year for the next five years, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered an end to U.S. cyber-operations against Russian hackers, and the U.S. voted with Russia, North Korea, and Syria at the United Nations. We now have a foreign policy that is aligned with the Russian state against its enemies. After the infamous Oval Office blowup on Friday, Vladimir Putin is more on track to win this war than to lose it, and the single most important moment in the war may well have been the 2024 U.S. presidential election.