President Donald Trump has completely upended America’s position on the Ukraine-Russia war, shocking the foreign policy establishment by turning on the fledgling democracy while making friendly overtures to Russia, Ukraine’s invader.

The US has provided about half of the total $136 billion in military support Ukraine has received from its allies since Russia invaded in 2022. But this week, Trump made the abrupt decision to pause all US aid to Ukraine and end the two countries’ intelligence-sharing relationship following an explosive Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

That has come as a shock to the foreign policy establishment in Washington and to US allies around the world, who have long seen defending Ukrainian sovereignty as key to protecting European security and Western democratic ideals. Even Trump’s own Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a longtime Ukraine supporter, has reportedly been caught by surprise by the dramatic changes coming from the White House.

Outside of Washington, however, US support for Ukraine was never as popular with voters as it was with elected officials. And many Republicans and independents are cheering Trump on, having long been skeptical of funding a foreign war.

Trump isn’t necessarily reacting to public opinion, having personal reasons for distancing himself from Zelenskyy: Recall the infamous 2019 phone call with the........

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