Donald Trump’s hostility toward Ukraine is no accident. It is part of a long-standing pattern, a vendetta born from personal grievance, political self-interest, and his alignment with Vladimir Putin’s authoritarianism.
This week, Trump once again showed his hand. Following Russia’s barbaric Palm Sunday missile attack on the Ukrainian city of Sumy, which targeted and killed civilians, including children going to Palm Sunday services, Trump didn’t condemn the attack. He just shrugged it off, dismissing it as “a mistake.” Worse, he actively rejected a joint G7 statement that denounced the strike and reaffirmed support for Ukraine. A missile that tore through a city on a holy day, launched by a regime known for targeting civilians, was met not with outrage from the American president, but with indifference and obstruction. This wasn’t diplomacy. It was complicity.
At the same time, during a meeting with El Salvador’s president, Trump repeated his now-familiar line: blaming Ukraine for the war that Russia started. He even publicly rejected Ukraine’s proposal to purchase Patriot missile systems, denying the country the possibility to defend its skies from the russian genocidal invader. This, despite the fact that there are at least 12 Patriot systems in Poland, just this side of the Ukrainian border waiting to be brought into Ukraine where they could be of actual use. Ukraine isn’t looking for handouts. Ukraine is trying to buy air defenses with its own funds to protect its people. And Trump has made clear: he won’t allow it.
Why?
Because Trump doesn’t just oppose Ukraine. He hates it.
Ukraine stands as a symbol of everything Trump cannot control and does not understand. It is heroic, resilient, defiant, and committed to democratic ideals. It refuses to bend the knee, whether to the Kremlin or to the Mar-a-Lago strongman.
His 2019 extortion attempt, when he tried to coerce Zelensky, Ukraine’s newly elected president, into manufacturing dirt on Joe Biden, was not the beginning of that hatred. It was simply the moment it became obvious. That scheme, which led to Trump’s first impeachment, revealed how far he was willing to go to punish a country that refused to serve his personal ambitions. Ukraine stood its ground. Trump was exposed. And in his mind, that was an unforgivable offense.
But the roots of his hatred go even deeper. Trump has long admired authoritarians and strongmen. He envies their unchecked power and resents democratic systems that hold leaders accountable. Putin is not just an ally in Trump’s worldview. He’s a role model. And Ukraine, by resisting Putin’s invasion, by surviving his attempted decapitation strike, by continuing to fight against tyranny, exposes the banality of that admiration.
Ukraine’s commitment to democracy is a mirror Trump can’t stand to look into.
Trump hates Ukraine because Ukraine represents sacrifice, honor, and resistance to imperial power, values he neither respects nor possesses nor even understands.
He hates Ukraine because it stood up to him when he tried to use it for political gain.
He hates Ukraine because it defies Putin, while he has spent years groveling before him.
He hates Ukraine because its very existence is proof that courage can overcome fear.
But this isn’t just about Trump’s psychosis anymore. Because he is president, his hatred has become policy. By refusing aid, blocking international statements of support, and echoing Kremlin narratives, Trump is not just expressing personal resentment; he is actively aiding Russia’s war effort. Despite all of his protestations of desiring peace, his genuine motives are transparent. He is isolating a democratic ally under siege to empower a genocidal imperialist, his new ally.
This is a betrayal, not only of Ukraine but of America’s values, its alliances, and its standing in the world. Trump’s actions make it clear that the United States will no longer stand with the free world. It will side with dictators.
But Ukraine’s struggle is more than a foreign crisis. It’s a warning and a mirror for us. In Ukraine’s resistance, Americans are reminded that democracy is not guaranteed and that strongmen can be resisted. And that despite everything Trump is doing to turn America into a reflection of Putin’s Russia, we need not and must not let that happen. And this too is a reason that Trump hates Ukraine.
History will remember Trump’s hatred for Ukraine.
But history will also remember whether we allowed his hatred to define America.
