Nothing better illustrates US President Donald Trump’s whimsical approach to dealing with America’s key allies than his latest dealings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, both of whom he met at the White House on 28 July.
Only recently, Trump was talking of Netanyahu as one of his closest allies, working closely with him to implement his plan to end the war in Gaza. Since then, relations between the two men have soured considerably, to the extent that the American president has not shied away from lambasting the Israeli leader in public, especially over their differing approaches to the war against Iran.
Trump’s attempts to rein in Netanyahu, who insists the war against Iran can only end once the country’s nuclear programme has been completely destroyed, has led him to claim that Netanyahu will ultimately bow to his wishes. “He’ll do whatever I want him to do,” Trump said.
Warming to Kyiv
Zelenskyy, by contrast, has at times been at odds with the Trump administration. Both President Trump and Vice President JD Vance gave the Ukrainian war leader a public dressing down in the Oval Office last year, including for Zelenskyy’s attire and gratitude. For most observers, this represented an all-time low in relations.
At the heart of Trump’s fractious relationship with Zelenskyy has been the American leader’s belief that he could use his personal relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war, a belief that led Trump to initiate numerous diplomatic overtures aimed at agreeing a ceasefire.
The high point of these efforts to persuade Putin to compromise came in August last year, when they met in Alaska. But Putin has refused to engage seriously in peace talks and continued his large-scale attacks against Ukraine, including during Zelenskyy’s White House visit. This has led Trump to conclude that he is wasting his time with the Russian leader.
Cue a change in his approach to Zelenskyy, which was very much in evidence at the White House. Ukraine’s president and Israel’s prime minister were both in town to attend the funeral of highly regarded Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who was a staunch ally of both Tel Aviv and Kyiv.
Reconciliation gift
The Trump administration has been reluctant to grant Kyiv a licence to produce its own Patriot missiles, which the Ukrainians desperately need to protect vital infrastructure from Russian missiles. Yet to judge by the comments, the US has gradually shifted its position, opening the way for Ukraine to gain access to sensitive missile technology that could have a profound impact on its war effort.
Trump had suggested he may be amenable to the Ukrainian leader’s request at the NATO summit earlier this month. The Patriots are currently one of the only systems that can defend against Russia’s ballistic missiles and stocks of the interceptor are precious, so the Ukrainian leader was beaming with this development. “He accepted that he will give us licences,” Zelenskyy told Fox News after the meeting.
