Why Are People Surprised that Trump Continues Biden’s Ukraine Policy?

10 September 2025, by Eric Zuesse. (All of my recent articles can be seen here.)

Back on 4 December 2024, I headlined “Trump is set to continue Biden’s policies on Ukraine” and cited a Reuters news-article that day as having reported this but hadn’t made it explicit — which I did in that news-report. The gist of the article, as I pointed out (including what was unsaid in but proven by its evidence), is that Trump had just hired Keith Kellogg as his specialist on Ukraine policy, and Kellogg was someone who refused to take seriously Putin’s red line that Ukraine will never become a NATO member, never become a U.S. colony, a location for U.S.military bases and nuclear weapons placed there against Russia. Ukraine is the closest of all countries to The Kremlin (a mere 300 miles away), and Keith Kellogg’s Ukraine policy is just like that of Joe Biden and Barack Obama, in that his goal with regard to Ukraine is to use it to ultimately conquer Russia and add it to the U.S. empire. Trump’s Ukraine goal is consequently no different from his predecessors’. Ukraine is, and will remain, the U.S. Government’s chief way to do this — the U.S. Govenment’s primary path to ultimately taking Russia. So, since Trump, with the Kellogg appointment, obviously shared Kellogg’s neocon goal (ultimate conquest of Russia), it was already clear then that Trump’s Ukraine policy — his ultimate objective there — was no different than Biden’s and Obama’s was, to continue further with that goal (the goal ultimately to defeat Russia). That path is the likeliest path to World War Three, because Russia won’t, under any circumstances, allow it ever to be achieved; but it is Trump’s goal, just as it had been his predecessors’ goal.

Now, at long last, the retired Col. Douglas Macgregor (whom I had urged in 2024 to run for the Presidency, because he is the most articulate advocate for the anti-imperialist, anti-neocon, progressive, foreign policy, which I advocate for and support 100%), has reluctantly come to the conclusion that Donald Trump is a neocon, a U.S. supremacist imperialist, just like all U.S. Presidents except JFK have been after World War Two. It amazes me that someone as committedly anti-neocon as Macgregor is, didn’t recognize until now that Trump’s Ukraine policy is essentially the same as Biden’s and Obama’s was: to place U.S. nukes there, in order to checkmate and thus conquer Russia.

Here is the September 8th youtube in which Macgregor explains why he ultimately became compelled to this conclusion — he finally now is writing-off Trump (and, so, his reasons for this ought to be able to convince ANYONE who is anti-neocon, that Trump is simply another neocon — toxic to the entire world; and, for this reason, I provide his presentation:

“Col Doug Macgregor Ukraine Russia War: Trump's Catastrophe”

0:01

DANNY DAVIS: As another air attack happens from Russia into Ukraine that sets yet

0:06

another record and facilities are burning all over Ukraine, the front line

0:12

continues to crumble. We still have Western leaders and Ukraine leaders just

0:17

unwilling to acknowledge simple reality. Though fortunately some Western countries, some NATO members are

0:23

starting to come closer into focus on what reality is. And to try to help us

0:28

make some sense out of what in the world some of these senior leaders on the disconnected side are saying and what that really means, we have Colonel Doug

0:35

McGregor back with us today. Defense and foreign policy analyst, former adviser to the Secretary of Defense, highly

0:41

decorated combat veteran and big friend of the show. Doug, as always, welcome to the show. DOUGLAS MACGREGOR: Happy to be here, Dan. Well, listen. Uh

0:48

I I mean we we keep having physical evidence that shows in increasing

0:53

numbers that this war is lost already. That the the Ukraine side has lost it. The Russian side has won it. And the

1:00

only thing that still has to be determined is how big the casualty count will be on the Ukraine side before the

1:05

end is is manifest on the ground. And, and how, how much longer we'll go to

1:11

disbelieve that. But we have evidence on the ground with this huge strike again overnight. 800 drones uh and and I think

1:17

40 some odd missiles that were involved with all of that. Uh, allegedly a lot of those are shot down, but now even the

1:23

Ukraine's admitting a bunch of them are getting through. We have lots of video evidence. The actual parliament building

1:28

was hit. For the first time, Russia attacked that. They're moving in on the ground. General Syrski himself admitted

1:34

that Russia has a threetime advantage that Ukraine cannot overcome.

1:40

And yet we don't seem to accept that that's the case. And our actions both

1:45

Europe and the United States and certainly Ukraine with Zalensky, still seem to be acting like there's choices

1:51

to make. DAVIS: What do you what do you make of this? MACGREGOR: I think, to some extent uh we failed to

1:58

read the signals that were that are frankly very clear from Moscow,

2:04

Moscow has concluded that they can no longer bet on any sort of reasonable

2:11

approach from Washington DC. I think the uh offensive to finish off the Ukrainian

2:18

armed forces has not necessarily been paused, but certainly slowed by the

2:25

hope, frankly, that the meeting with President Trump would have delivered something. I listened to some remarks by

2:31

President Putin recently and hearing what he had to say about the future and

2:37

whether or not there would be any meetings, was really a comment I think on what happened in Alaska, because he said

2:43

if if a meeting is to be held and it and it involves preparation by both sides,

2:50

meaning systematic study, detailed proposals, then we're certainly happy to meet, we

2:57

have never rejected any request for a meeting. He said but there has to be preparation. There has to be serious

3:04

study, and serious a serious proposal, before we get together. And I think what

3:09

he's really doing is he's talking about what happened in Alaska. Alaska was exactly what many of us thought it was,

3:16

Dan. It was another uh Trump reality TV show. It it was designed to wow people

3:24

to make them see this great and powerful president surrounded by combat aircraft

3:29

that we were signaling to the Russians that we're strong and people that don't know any better were saying, "Well, he's

3:36

being strong to Russia. He has to do that. You know how the Russians are." I think that that's over now. And I think

3:43

what the, what Putin and his inner circle have decided, with the full backing of the Russian population, we're going to

3:49

have to sort this out on our own. And if the Americans or anybody else wants to talk to us, well then we'll talk to

3:56

them, but not seriously until we see evidence that they've studied our proposals and have their own. So I think

4:04

that's really what the attack was all about. The attack was a, a wakeup call. This thing isn't over. If you think that

4:10

we've been lulled into a false sense of security by the meeting with Trump, you're wrong. We are pressing ahead and

4:16

you have a choice. But there's something else too that's not too subtle here. The attack on Kiev, particularly in

4:22

proximity to the cabinet meeting, was a signal that the game is over. If you think you're going to sit there with

4:29

splendid immunity from prosecution by the Russian armed forces, it's over. You

4:35

know, you're fair game now. You're no longer legitimate in our eyes. you won't you won't talk reasonably, so we'll kill

4:42

you if necessary. Well, that message doesn't seem to have gotten through, at least not yet. Uh

4:48

this is uh President Trump, of course, he was, had a lot of optimism that he could get this deal done, that he could end

4:54

the war. Uh you know, that started the whole series of things with the Anchorage meeting, with the Washington meeting that happened after that. Then

5:01

the, you know, the alleged deadlines and the deadlines keep coming and going and nothing ends up happening. And so now

5:06

some of the cameras and some of the reporters are starting to press Trump a little bit more on okay, what's going to

5:12

happen next, because none of this stuff you've talked about so far has materialized into any movement whatsoever from the Russian position

5:19

going back to June of last year and on the tarmac yesterday. Trump got a little aggravated at the question again. Are

5:26

you ready to move to the second phase of sanctions against Russia or punishing

5:31

Putin? To Russia, when do you plan to speak to President Putin next? And what second?

5:38

TRUMP: Look, I we're going to get it done. The Russia Ukraine situation, we're

5:44

going to get it done. I have confidence we're going to get it done. DAVIS: You know, in that, in that same interview there when

5:49

he was sitting on the tarmac, he he kept going back over and over to this I've solved seven wars already and they were

5:55

a lot harder than this one was. I thought we'd get this one done, but but we're going to get it done and we’re, we're going to make an issue here. But

6:02

as you just mentioned there right before we showed that soundbite, there has been no actual diplomatic work done so that

6:09

you can even find out what the contours would be. Trump never talks about how the war is going to come to an end, upon

6:15

what conditions, and so where does that leave us? MACGREGOR: Well, President Trump has actually done

6:21

the complete 180° turn uh and join President Biden and his administration

6:26

and its hostility to Russia. If you listen to Trump, he's interested and of

6:32

course with his Treasury Secretary, in a new round of sanctions. And part of that

6:37

involves threats and not only to Russia in terms of harming Russia, it's also

6:44

about threats to people that otherwise would trade with us and work with us. Turkey, India, Brazil, and of course,

6:51

China. Either you stop trade with Russia in oil and gas or

6:58

we're going to harm you as well. And I think it was Bessen who said, "We're

7:04

quite confident with this new second round of sanctions. If our allies and

7:09

partners," and that's a big if. If our allies, partners, and friends go along with this, we can quote unquote collapse

7:15

the Russian economy. I think we've heard that one before. DAVIS: Yeah. Yeah. In fact, I for for anybody

7:21

who may have missed it, Doug, I I just could not believe my ears with what I

7:26

heard on US television yesterday. Here is Secretary Bessen making that claim:

7:31

BESSEN: “President Trump, Vice President Vance had a very productive call with EU President Ursa von der Leyen on Friday.

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She followed up with a call with me. Uh and we are talking about what can the

7:44

two uh EU and the US do together ,and we are prepared. We are prepared to

7:50

increase pressure on Russia, but we need our European partners to follow us because if the US and the EU do this

7:58

together, we are in a race now between can the how long can the eur Ukrainian

8:05

military hold up versus how long can the Russian economy hold up? And if the US

8:11

and the EU can come in, do more sanctions, secondary tariffs on the

8:17

countries that buy Russian oil, the Russian economy will be in full collapse,

8:22

and that will bring President Putin to the table.” DAVIS: I I I I'm I'm staggered that

8:28

anyone after three and a half years of war when we have tried everything in the book to your point a second ago, they're

8:35

trying to re replay what Biden tried to do and destroy the Russian economy and

8:40

it utterly backfired. Not only did it fail, but it backfired and now we're talking about doing it again. I mean,

8:46

Doug, let me just ask, first of all, if if the European Union actually did what Besson is saying here, and he puts these

8:53

sanctions that uh Lindsey Graham has called bone crushers, if they actually applied those on India, Brazil at all,

9:01

what would actually happen to our economies? MACGREGOR: Well, our economy is already suffering as a result of these tariffs. Anybody

9:07

who thinks the tariff war has somehow or another benefited us is uh, you know, on a very bad set of drugs. Uh the truth is

9:15

that it's harmed us already. This is going to make matters much worse. But let's be frank. He needs to understand

9:21

something that I guess is not widely understood in Washington. Ursula non der Leyen

9:26

is the captain of the Titanic. The EU is finished as an organization. So is NATO

9:32

for that matter. But the EU is probably going to go under first. It's about as popular as the plague. Uh, it

9:39

was supposed to be an an institution that would facilitate trade and cross-border

9:45

travel and so forth and it became effectively an unelected dictatorship in which decisions would be made on how

9:52

everyone in Europe would live in a uniform manner and behave in a uniform manner. What have we seen? We've seen

9:59

lots of EU members have said, "Listen, we don't want millions of uh people from the Middle East and North Africa and

10:05

Central Africa pouring into our countries. No, thank you very much. Number two, there are EU agreements

10:12

already in place with China and Russia, and most members want to see those honored. I mean, the world the world is

10:19

waking up to something, and we have not wakened up to it yet. That we are actually living on a much smaller planet

10:26

than we originally thought. In other words, everybody really desperately needs and wants to do business with each

10:34

other. The world is not really organized into hostile camps, armed to the teeth,

10:39

ready to go to war. Uh, and I think the Europeans collectively are beginning to

10:44

figure that out. And as a result, the globalist leaders who have pinned all of their hopes on this war with Russia as a

10:51

way to quote unquote break not only break Russia, but break Europe as well and drive everyone into this new

10:58

globalist utopia, places without borders, governments with

11:04

overweening power over its populations. All of this is failing badly. So what

11:10

you get is a return to hostility. Look at Hungary. Look at Slovakia, Croatia,

11:15

even little Slovenia. Everybody's looking at this and saying, "This is not really what we want." The

11:20

Austrians certainly don't want it. Uh the president of Finland was interviewed recently and he got as close to

11:27

renouncing this dumb decision of joining NATO as as I think he could at this point. [When I asked Macgregor what his source was on that, he told me that he had heard this from one of his confidential sources, whom he has found to be reliable.] But he raised the issue, said

11:35

perhaps what we've done isn't really sensible. Maybe it wasn't necessary. This is happening right now.

11:42

Von der Leyen has no power whatsoever. She's increasingly a figurehead. Paris

11:49

uh Paris, London, and Berlin are the only ones really listening carefully to

11:55

von der Leyen. The Dutch, the Norwegian, well, the Norwegians aren't in it, but the Dutch are there, but the Dutch are,

12:02

shrink to almost total insignificance in the context of this whole strategic development.

12:07

The bad news is that we don't seem to understand that this sinking ship cannot

12:13

be righted. We can't fix it. They're deeply in debt. There is, they're on the road into economic disaster just as we

12:21

are. So, you put the whole picture together, it's it's a it's worse than a clown show because some of these people

12:28

are seriously delusional. They don't seem to understand they're not living in the world they think they live in. And I

12:34

that was that's that's where we are. I I don't know how you fix this. Uh because President Trump is right there with him.

12:41

He's decided to hitch his uh boat to the sinking EU Titanic. What a waste of

12:48

time. DAVIS: Yeah, it's really quite quite stunning. Um and and in fact uh it's interesting

12:55

while while we continue in the west to demonize Russia and I've shown Mark Rutte

13:00

here many times uh Kier Starmer merits especially just you know called him a

13:06

thug and a war criminal and all that when you see what the Russian side is saying to this, especially about this

13:12

this new threat of sanctions here they still seem pretty calm and pretty

13:18

professional and respectful. Here's uh Dmitri Peskov addressing the threat of more sanctions.

13:24

PESKOV: This unprecedented number of sanctions that have been imposed against our country over the past well one can say

13:31

almost 4 years 4 years already have had no effect and they have proven to be

13:36

absolutely useless in terms of putting pressure on Russia. Russia consistently welcomes the point of view repeatedly

13:42

voiced by the head of our state that it would be preferable for us to achieve our goals and ensure our security by

13:48

political and diplomatic methods. But at a time when this is impossible due to the lack of reciprocity on the part of

13:55

European states, on the part of the Kiev regime, we continue a special military operation and no sanctions will be able

14:02

to force the Russian Federation to change this consistent position which our president has repeatedly spoken

14:08

about. We intend to continue moving in line with the peacekeeping efforts that the United States of America, President

14:14

Trump personally, is making. DAVIS: So, they're still trying to reach out to Trump. They're still trying to say,

14:20

"Hey, we're willing to talk to you guys." But they are unequivocally saying, and Putin himself said this a couple of days ago, we'll

14:28

achieve our security objectives at the negotiating table or on the battlefield. As simple as that. And and one thing I

14:34

think Doug is just appears to be lost on many westerners at least that's how I it

14:39

seems to me that this is an existential issue for Russia even if they actually had economic pain or something. I I

14:47

think the idea and the belief and tell me if you think this is different is that well if it gets financially painful

14:53

enough then Russia will just stop. But I don't think there is any pri uh pain pressure that will cause Russia to stop

15:00

what they're doing until they achieve it because they view this as an existential threat.

15:08

MACGREGOR: If you're sitting in Brussels or Berlin or Paris or London and you objectively

15:15

look at how money has been invested over the last 20 years and I'm talking about

15:20

money globally, you know that the Chinese have invested roughly a trillion dollars in this one belt, one road

15:28

project. And this project is all about transportation, infrastructure, pipelines, trying to knit together in

15:36

some reasonably organized and integrated fashion all the potential

15:41

trading partners on the Eurasian landmass and Africa together.

15:46

That's a trillion dollars. The United States alone has spent somewhere between 9 and 14 trillion dollars depending upon

15:54

whom you want to uh refer to as as a source on what? On crushing Afghanistan,

16:02

crushing Iraq, advancing into Syria, crushing Libya. Uh, in other words, we

16:09

we've wasted trillions and trillions on unprofitable [escept to billionaires] wars of intervention that have brought

16:17

us nothing but grief in Europe, nothing but a an invasion of people that they

16:22

don't want and can't maintain. So at some point somebody in Europe and

16:28

I think Orban is leading the charge on this, but I think the rest of them are going to wake up and say this is a this

16:33

is a dead end, especially when it becomes clear that the Russians are not interested in marching all the way to

16:39

the Polish border. Not to say that they won't do it if they're forced into it. But the bottom line is that's not what

16:45

they they've been about. They've never been about well, we just want to capture more and more territory. Russia is

16:51

already the largest country in the world. How much more territory do they do they need? And I think the answer is not much. But they've effectively

16:58

reconquered or retakened or reenexed what was new Russia under Katherine the Great. Uh that's something that made

17:05

sense because the people that live in those areas were Russians culturally, linguistically. They're happy to do

17:11

that. We don't seem to want to recognize any of that. We seem to want to maintain

17:16

this artificial construct called the Cold War in new form. It's a dead end.

17:24

It's not going to work. And I think the Europeans who are now approaching a depression, frankly, total destruction

17:32

in industrial and scientific terms are are simply going to wake up, put new people into power. They're coming. It

17:38

doesn't matter how hard Merz tries to keep the Alternative for Germany out of power. Doesn't make any difference.

17:44

They're going to come to power. And when they come to power, they're going to reverse all of this. And the first place

17:49

they're going to go is Moscow. They're going to have a meeting right away. and they're going to throw out all this

17:55

nonsense. And you're going to see the Germans march out of NATO at high speed. And remember that one of the arguments

18:01

for all of this nonsense was we have to keep the Germans in NATO. That's part of

18:06

the rationale for hostility to Russia because that means Germans and Russians won't cooperate. And if Germans and

18:13

Russians don't cooperate, we can live with the status quo in Washington in perpetuity. Everyone is vasilized in

18:20

subordination to us. All of this is failing [but succeeding enormously for U.S.-and-allied billionaires]. It's all going to collapse.

18:26

You know, you you mentioned uh this cold war mentality and even a a lust, if I

18:33

can use that term, to go back to uh the cold war mentality, go forward into a

18:38

new one. One of the ways that the current leadership, they may get out of power one day. They're not yet. And

18:44

these guys that are in power keep talking about this uh coalition of the willing or this reassurance force and

18:50

they keep going down this path and and there still are to this day trying to get Trump to agree to not only agree to

18:56

it but to participate in it with some kind of whether it's air support logic logistics etc. They keep saying, "Hey,

19:02

whenever this is brought to some kind of negotiated settlement, we want our troops in this uh demilitarized zone of

19:09

soort," which is odd because if you have military there, it's not a demilitarized zone. But nevertheless, they want those

19:14

in there. Well, Putin, again being very plain and and plain spoken, said a couple

19:20

of days ago that that ain't happening. If some troops appear there, especially

19:26

now while the fighting's continuing, we proceed from the premise that these will be legitimate targets for destruction.

19:37

[Applause]

19:42

…

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Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s latest book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.