The black-and-white video President Donald Trump released yesterday was, in some respects, familiar. The grainy clip, only 30 seconds long and taken from a U.S. aircraft, shows a small boat skipping across the waves, bracketed by crosshairs. The crosshairs move in closer. Seconds later, a missile explodes, engulfing the boat in fire and destroying everything and everyone on board.
Last month, a group of seven U.S. generals and admirals—including the top admiral in charge of U.S. military operations in the Asia-Pacific region—prepared to travel to the Aspen Security Forum, in Colorado. Security officials had spoken at the annual conference for years, including during Donald Trump’s first term, and were set to discuss topics such as the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, the future of AI, and threats from China.
These days, you could forgive Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for feeling like an American CEO being whipsawed by President Donald Trump’s on-again, off-again tariffs. But the Ukrainian president is not trying to maximize profits. He wants to win a war and needs a consistent, predictable flow of American weapons to do that.
He’s not getting it.
Late last month, the administration suspended a promised shipment of much-needed arms to Ukraine, saying the U.S.