From 2017 to 2021, Trump did his best to undermine liberal democracy, sabotage longstanding U.S. alliances, and normalize authoritarianism both at home and abroad. While he failed to cling to power in 2020, Trump was able to ride popular discontent over the Biden administration into the White House once again, even as observers warned that a second Trump term would be far more harmful than the first.
Unfortunately, just three months into his second tenure, the U.S. President has already vindicated his fiercest critics. In 2017, Americans were subject daily to headlines about the Trump administration’s crowd size lies and gaffes like the “Bowling Green” incident. Without underplaying the immense damage of Trump’s first term, this era feels practically tame in comparison to the present. On any given day in 2025, Americans are overwhelmed as they try to keep track of the Trump administration’s latest exercise in cruelty and illegality: Between Canada annexation threats, torture prisons in El Salvador, and refusals to obey the judiciary, it’s inevitable that some issues will fail to garner the attention they deserve.
Nevertheless, amid the chaos, it’s crucial that liberals and progressives in the United States keep Ukraine in their sights. Three years ago, Western leaders and businesses were adamant in their support for Ukraine’s sovereignty against the Russian invasion. But today, Trump’s decision to sell-out a nation that has been subject to genocide and other war crimes barely registers in the press — the President and Vice President’s abhorrent behavior at their February meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy perhaps the sole exception.
This is not to say that Democratic leaders have failed to publicly affirm their support for Ukraine, because they have. Unlike on issues like immigration and criminal justice, where the party has pivoted to the right to match a shift in public opinion, leading Democrats have not floated a shift on Ukraine policy in Trump’s Washington. But the Democratic Party is famously malleable when it comes to public opinion. As we’ve seen in the past decade, Trump has normalized a litany of once-unthinkable policies, forcing Democrats to play on his turf. This very much includes the mainstreaming of pro-Kremlin narratives on Ukraine among Republican voters, something completely unthinkable a decade ago.
In 2025, just as in 2022, the fate of Ukraine should be seen as linked with the fate of the liberal world order, or at least what remains of it during the second Trump presidency. Progressives in Congress and beyond must be steadfast in their support of the Ukrainian resistance at a time when the Kremlin (and its new allies in Washington) remains committed to the nation’s destruction.
In an interconnected world, a Russian victory in the war won’t just mean the proliferation of its crimes in occupied territory: crimes that, it must always be emphasized, include sexual torture and the kidnapping and murder of children. Since 2022, it’s been widely understood that, should Vladimir Putin be allowed to conquer Ukraine, it will empower other authoritarians to pursue their own wars of annexation, with Taiwan the most obvious flashpoint. Indeed, this impact can already be felt today, where a far-right White House feels empowered to push for the annexation of Canada. Proposals like Trump’s “peace plan”, which would force Ukraine to accept the theft of national territory, would certainly embolden Russia to launch more attacks in the future.
The Democratic Party has long had a reputation as a party afraid of its own shadow. Last century, the party was collectively traumatized by the landslide victories by Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan; it’s no surprise that two separate elections resulting in President Trump have made the party more sensitive than ever when it comes to public opinion. Over the past few years, the far-right has increasingly monopolized the conversation over Ukraine’s future, and apologia for Russian war crimes have become widespread on social media. If the perception that Americans oppose aid for Ukraine holds, this risks a future in which Democrats in 2028, still reeling from Biden’s unpopularity, hesitate to take a clear stand on the issue.
But as always, it’s important to remember that social media echo chambers don’t neatly align with public opinion. Gallup polling released in March, for example, shows that a plurality of Americans stand with Kyiv, with the data showing a clear trend in Ukraine’s favor. NBC News polling released in March paints an even starker picture: 61% of Americans indicated they had more sympathies with Ukraine in the conflict, with just 2% indicating solidarity with Russia. While the future is never certain, it’s easy to imagine that another four years of Trump will lead many Americans to sour on isolationism and appreciate the value of supporting allies like Ukraine.
2028 may feel like a lifetime away, but it’s never too early for Democratic presidential hopefuls to affirm their leadership on foreign policy. Democrats must not cede so much as an inch to Trump’s framing of his effort to throw Ukraine under the bus as a “peace plan”. By vocally standing up for Ukraine, Democrats will also signal to European allies that they are serious about rebuilding America’s relationships once Trump is out of office.