Trump has railed against the dangers posed by US support for Ukraine since February 2022, when Russia launched its special operation in Ukraine and NATO rushed to prop up the Ukrainian military. He’s far from being alone in that, as critics from across the political spectrum and from many NATO states have warned of a variety of dangerous consequences from the conflict, ranging from fuel shortages to the outbreak of thermonuclear war.
Path to Peace
Trump's Record on Escalation
Ironically, when Trump was president, he was often accused by critics of attempting to start World War 3, variously with Iran, China, and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). In August 2017, amid a tense showdown with US ally South Korea, Trump threatened the socialist state with “fire and fury like the world has never seen” if it continued to make threats against the US. Weeks later, Pyongyang tested its first thermonuclear weapon, and Trump soon proposed creating the W76-2 “micro-nuke,” which analysts warned was extremely dangerous because it lowered the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons.
Trump also oversaw the continued basing of US forces along Russia’s western flank, weapons sales to Ukraine, and pushed ahead plans for the Aegis Ashore base in Redzikowo, Poland, and the overhaul of a similar base in Deveselu, Romania, which are capable of firing offensive strike missiles deep into Russia. He also signed the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), a law passed by the Democrat-controlled Congress that punishes states for buying advanced military equipment from Russia and China, among other makers.