Trump looks for where to go after he “walks away”
By: Rodney Jaleco | Published: May 30, 2025
Reading Time: 5 minutes
WASHINGTON D.C. – An increasingly exasperated Pres. Donald Trump accused Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin of “playing with fire” after days of unprecedented attacks on Ukraine and Moscow’s mockery of American threats to “walk away” from efforts to stop the fighting and get both sides to the negotiating table. There is now rising interest – from Capitol Hill to Brussels to Beijing – on precisely what Trump “walking away” means.
Trump’s ambiguity about what’s next in the face of Putin’s intransigence appears to signal an ongoing re-assessment and recalibration of the American response. Increased sanctions against Russia is the prominent option but as Russia masses troops and hardware for its much-anticipated summer offensive, NATO at least is eager to buttress Ukraine’s ability to repel it.
Whether Trump is ready to turn back on the weapons spigot remains an open question. Many, including key Republicans on Capitol Hill, are convinced the US should. The US, United Kingdom, France and Germany earlier this week lifted the range restrictions for the missiles they supply Ukraine, drawing a quick rebuke from Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov who warned it sets back peace efforts.
“As US-led efforts to bring an end to the war continue and with the changing security environment, both organizations have indicated that their support (for Ukraine) will endure,” NATO and the European Union declared at a May 28 meeting in Brussels. Ukraine and its allies have urged Putin to accept an immediate, unconditional ceasefire for 30 days.
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Senators Michael Bennet (Colorado) and Dick Durbin (Illinois) have filed a bill that bars the US from recognizing Russian sovereignty over Crimea and other occupied Ukraine territories. Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham and Democrat Sen. Richard Blumenthal have jointed file a bill that would impose 500 percent tariffs on any country that buys Russian oil and gas. The President has urged caution but the solons – longtime hawks – appear to be prodding Trump towards a tougher stance against Putin if and when he does “walk away”.
US arms shipments to Ukraine, including a backlog from the $1 billion approved by Pres. Joe Biden in his final days – have reportedly slowed because of the lack of clarity from the White House. The delay has been blamed as much on red tape and logistic hurdles as indecision over the extent the US should help Ukraine. “Trump does not know himself what he will do,” said one ranking Ukrainian official.
The US has provided over $65 billion worth of hardware and ammunition since Russia’s invasion in 2022. Many in Kiev and Europe are hoping that Trump “walking away” would lead to a clear signal from the US coupled with an acceleration of deliveries of much needed weapons.
Walking away, Trump could settle on the status quo – not cutting off arms deliveries but not sending any new weapons; he could keep sanctions against Russia but also not add new ones, contrary to what many in Washington and Brussels favor.
But simply retreating from his campaign promise to end the fighting in Ukraine on his first day, without triggering sanctions, speeding up military aid to Ukraine or otherwise punishing Putin for his defiance is the worst of all possible outcomes.
It’s likely to embolden China which reportedly plans to invade Taiwan in the next two years. “Wage war and the US will walk away” is a calculation that almost guarantees another conflict, this time on the other side of the world – a war that could begin under Pres. Trump’s watch and demolish one of his oft-repeated boasts about the Russian invasion never happening if he were in the White House in 2022.
The US has admitted that it currently has about 500 troops in Taiwan, a significant increase from the 41 identified in a US congressional report last year. The US is reportedly taking joint military exercises with treaty-ally Philippines, Taiwan’s next door neighbor, several notches higher, having deployed ship-killing missiles and intermediate-range missiles that can hit the Chinese mainland. The Pentagon, allaying Chinese fears, insist they are merely deterring war across the Taiwan Strait.
This prospect could be foremost in the US president’s mind, amid whispers, growing louder by the day, that Putin is “playing Trump”. The way Putin has escalated his war in Ukraine after an hours-long phone call with Trump has been an embarrassment for a president who zealously guards his public image, and who’s gone out of his way to shield his Russian counterpart from the most clamorous criticisms at home and in Europe.
Pres. Trump is in the same place his recent predecessors – from George W. Bush to Joe Biden – were in their dealings with Pres. Putin. In 2001, Bush famously said he looked into Putin’s eyes and “got a sense of his soul”; Pres. Obama expressed a desire to reset US ties with Russia but when they came face to face at the United Nations in 2015, all they could manage was a cold, awkward handshake in front of cameras.
The question has now become which way Trump walks to after he’s also had enough of Putin.
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