Here are the next steps that President Trump and US allies can take to bolster Ukraine’s cause.

President Trump has a knack for stating the obvious with a directness lacking in any other world leader. While French and British leaders were engaged in empty gestures of recognizing a non-existent Palestine state, President Trump proclaimed on Truth Social that “Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form,” and Putin’s Russia should be treated as the “paper tiger” that it is—a bold, correct, and timely proclamation.

Some doubt Trump’s rectitude. He should prove them wrong. His critics said he would weaken NATO. He has strengthened it. He forced nearly all members to commit 5 percent of their GDP to a defense buildup. Now he has imbued the new muscular NATO with a worthy mission—to assist Ukraine with all it needs to retake its lost territories. And the United States, as NATO’s most formidable member, must do its part. 

Trump, as the commander-in-chief of the new Department of War, should lead the collective NATO effort in Ukraine to retake its territories. He has already formed an ad hoc NATO-Ukraine support group, comprising European leaders from the EU, NATO, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Finland, who convened at the White House after the Trump-Putin meeting in Alaska. He has been in regular communications with the group since. Now he should formalize this grouping by adding all European NATO frontline states, including the Baltic states, Poland, Romania, and Ukraine. 

Additional consideration should be given to including Turkey. He should oversee monthly coordination through the support group in ensuring sustained consonance between Ukraine, Europe, and NATO in strategy and resources to reclaim all of Ukraine’s lost territories, starting with Crimea and moving up the Azov Sea littoral. 

Trump has already set the stage for an empowered NATO by allowing it to purchase American military equipment needed to aid Ukraine. He should build upon it with a twenty-first-century version of the “lend-lease” and “cash and carry” agreements, which the United States employed during the Second World War to aid Great Britain and its allies against the Nazi onslaught. The United States should enter into a new and empowered “Free Europe” lease agreement with Europe and the UK to provide them all they need to resource Ukraine to the maximum extent and take the fight to the marauding Russians. 

A Free Europe lend-lease agreement in support of Ukraine is the surest way of reenergizing the American defense industrial base. The United States’ ability to project a substantial to overwhelming advantage in military assets and production over that of China is the strongest possible deterrent to a bloody conflict with the People’s Liberation Army in the South China Sea. It is nearly impossible in democratic societies with divergent priorities to ramp up defense production during peacetime. 

The United States’ full embrace of Ukraine’s war of righteousness and a fair agreement with Europe will better boost the American defense industry than the alternative of abandoning Ukraine. As part of a Free Europe lend-lease agreement, Trump should also insist that the American defense industry be given the opportunity to compete on a level playing field with its European counterparts in building Europe’s security.

Trump should put a stop to Putin’s shielding of his people from the full cost of his “Special Military Operation” in Ukraine. The president is ahead of his detractors in forming a common cause with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to close all remaining loopholes in economic sanctions on Russia. Trump has called out China and India, and should include Turkey, for sustaining the Russian war economy as it carries out untold atrocities against Ukrainian civilians. 

The forfeiture of Russian assets in Europe should be a no-brainer to assist Ukraine in fighting off Russian invaders. The transit of Russian shadow fleet of oil tankers, operating through the Baltic and Black Seas, should be a no-go starting immediately. India and Turkey are likely to benefit from a broader economic agreement with the United States. If China fails to follow suit, then Europe and the United States should work together to ensure it is isolated and held accountable. 

The right, proper, and sustainable end to the Russian invasion of Ukraine rests in Ukraine retaking all its territories. Anything short of it will fuel a persistent conflict of varying intensity. In war, there is no substitute for victory. Here, the victory amounts to making Ukraine whole again. Hopefully, a Ukrainian victory will embolden Georgia to reclaim Abkhazia and Ossetia as well. 

Trump has spoken the righteous truth—the United States and NATO should ensure Ukraine retakes all its territories. He and only he can make it happen. If he accomplishes this victory, he will go down in history as America’s boldest “no-nonsense” president of the twenty-first century. A legacy far greater than any woke bestowment from Norway on world peace.