US President Donald Trump campaigned last year on a promise to end the Russia-Ukraine war. His efforts to achieve that goal are now rapidly reshaping the geopolitical landscape.
Trump’s commitment to securing a peace deal has clearly resonated with American voters, many of whom are tired of funding a brutal conflict now in its fourth year. Yet his apparent emphasis on rebuilding ties with Russia while pressuring Ukraine has raised growing alarm both internationally and within the U.S. domestic audience.
In the early days of his presidency, Trump’s initial diplomatic overtures seemed closely aligned with his campaign rhetoric of “peace through strength,” and included proposals to tighten sanctions on Moscow. But recent weeks have seen a dramatic shift in tone, accompanied by the landmark news that the United States intends to dramatically reduce its role in European security.
The first sign of a major shift in U.S. policy toward the war in Eastern Europe was the decision to begin bilateral talks with Russia without Ukraine or Europe. This was followed by a series of verbal attacks on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whom Trump called a “dictator,” and suggestions that Ukraine was to blame for Russia’s invasion.
This came to a head on February 28, when Zelenskyy’s visit to the White House degenerated into a bitter and very public spat in the Oval Office that sent shockwaves around the world. Although both sides have since signaled their willingness to reengage, the United States underscored its displeasure by suspending all military aid to Ukraine.
While Trump has taken an increasingly hardline stance toward Ukraine, his Russian activities have so far been marked by complimentary language, expressions of confidence, and talk of new economic opportunities. Unsurprisingly, the signals coming from the new U.S. administration have been warmly received by the Kremlin. Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted on March 2 that Trump’s rapidly changing foreign policy configurations now “in many ways coincide with our own.”
Across Europe, Trump’s push for a radical reset on Russia has seriously undermined faith in the transatlantic alliance and led to a flurry of summits calling for Europe’s urgent rearmament. Closer to home, there are growing signs of unease in the United States over what many see as the new administration’s unprecedented pivot toward Moscow.
It’s not hard to imagine why some in the U.S. might be uneasy about Trump’s approach to rapprochement with Russia. While polls show a gradual decline in public support for Ukraine, most data suggest that a majority still supports the country in its fight against Russia’s ongoing encroachment. Meanwhile, there is little evidence of American enthusiasm for Putin’s Russia.
In a fairly typical Gallup poll from February 2025, 63 percent of Americans viewed Ukraine favorably, compared with just 17 percent for Russia. Another recent poll found that 69 percent of Republican voters viewed Russia as an aggressor, while 83 percent disapproved of Putin. In a Reuters poll from early March, Republican respondents were also dismissive of efforts to shift responsibility for Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, with only 11 percent agreeing that the country was more to blame for the war.
There have been some murmurs of discontent within the Republican Party itself in recent weeks. While Republicans were largely silent during the early stages of Trump’s Russia policy shift, that may now change. When the U.S. sided with Moscow at the United Nations in late February to vote against a resolution condemning Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins called the move “disgraceful.”
His Republican colleague, Senator John Curtis, said he was “deeply troubled” by the U.S. aligning itself with Russia and its ilk at the U.N. “These are not our friends,” he said. “This position is a sharp departure from American ideals of freedom and democracy. We all want to end the war, but it must be achieved on terms that guarantee Ukraine’s sovereignty and security and deter Putin from further territorial ambitions.”
The most pointed criticism of Trump’s efforts to broker talks between Russia and Ukraine came from Republican Congressman Don Bacon, who said the US leader should not have called Zelensky a dictator and suggested he was far from alone in his views. “Many Republicans know that what the president said was wrong,” Bacon said. “Putin started this invasion. He is a dictator. He has killed all his opponents. Zelensky was elected legitimately.”
There was also pushback from prominent Trump supporters in the American media. When the president’s attacks on Zelensky in Ukraine intensified in late February, Fox News host and longtime Trump supporter Mark Levin responded by declaring, “MAGA does not support Putin.” Meanwhile, the normally pro-Trump New York Post ran a front-page story with a giant portrait of Vladimir Putin next to the headline, “President Trump: He’s a Dictator.”
The Senate's second-ranking Republican, Lisa Murkowski, was one of the few members of the party to directly express her concerns after the recent disastrous Oval Office meeting. “I know foreign policy is not for the faint of heart, but right now I feel sick,” she said. “The administration appears to be turning away from our allies and embracing Putin, a threat to democracy and U.S. values around the world.”
It is too early to tell whether there is serious domestic opposition to Trump’s Russia strategy. After more than three years of relentless bloodshed in Ukraine, many welcome his efforts to break the diplomatic impasse and would applaud loudly if he could broker some kind of deal. But recent expressions of discontent from Trump’s Republican colleagues and his own base should serve as a warning against any attempt to abandon Ukraine entirely or to impose a friendly peace on the Kremlin.
Katherine Spencer is a Program Assistant at the Atlantic Council's Eurasia Center.
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