Trump’s Ukraine U-Turn - on the Same Day He Told the World: “Your Countries Are Going to Hell”

It was a day of contradictions such as only Donald Trump can stage. At noon he berated heads of state and institutions alike in a 56-minute speech before the United Nations General Assembly. He called climate change “the greatest con job ever,” mocked environmentalists who supposedly wanted to “kill all the cows,” insulted the Muslim mayor of London and provocatively asked: “What is the purpose of the United Nations?” Finally, he summed up his worldview in a sentence that shook the hall: “Your countries are going to hell.”

Only hours later a completely different Trump could be heard. After a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky he suddenly declared that he believed Ukraine, with the support of Europe and NATO, could “regain all of its original territory.” In a post on his platform he wrote: “With time, patience, and the financial support of Europe and in particular NATO, the original borders from which this war started are very much an option.”

Thus the US president carried out a remarkable U-turn. Only a few months ago he had urged Kyiv to make “realistic concessions” to Moscow in order to end the war. Now he was speaking of a complete victory over Russia - however without concrete pledges from Washington. He did not promise new aid; instead he offered to sell weapons to Europe, which they could then pass on to Ukraine. His closing words sounded distant: “I wish both countries well.”

In European delegations this turn caused head-shaking. A senior military official spoke of a “headspinning” message: “In the morning he calls the United Nations dead and declares our countries lost - in the afternoon he claims we could lead Ukraine to a complete victory.” In Brussels it was said behind closed doors that the words were tailored more for headlines in the United States than for a consistent strategy. Skepticism also prevailed in Berlin and Paris. While the new rhetoric was welcomed as an “encouraging signal,” the question remains: Is this a reliable line or just a snapshot? For Ukraine the contrast is unmistakable: a president who at noon mocked the United Nations and declared the world to be going to hell - and who only hours later held out to Zelensky the prospect of recapturing all occupied territories. Whether this represents a real change of course or merely another expression of Trump’s political volatility will only become clear if his words are followed by deeds.