President Donald Trump likes to complain about allies who don’t pull their weight when it comes to defense. This week, Trump is being visited by two allies who bear more than their fair share—the leaders of Israel and Ukraine. Both countries are taking on America’s enemies, spending lavishly on defense, and sustaining civilian and military casualties—at an incredible rate, in Ukraine’s case. As threats to the U.S. converge in surprising ways, the time seems right for Trump to re-embrace these allies and switch from restraint to wholehearted support.
Netanyahu and Zelensky both came to Washington to attend the memorial for the late GOP senator Lindsey Graham, who helped persuade Trump for years to support their nations’ war efforts. But they also came with urgent business, seeking to extract commitments from the president: for Israel, a plan to eliminate Iran’s remaining and restored nuclear facilities; and for Ukraine, U.S. assistance, including access to Patriot missiles, to counter Russian attacks.
Both meetings on Tuesday remained closed, as Trump chose not to invite the press into the Oval Office as he often does at the end of visits from world leaders. Yet the early signs suggest that this confidentiality is a positive sign. Trump keeps his most important “working meetings” private, and officials from all three countries called the talks comprehensive and productive. Netanyahu said his session was “one of the best conversations I’ve ever had with a president of the United States.”
And the day before the visit, news broke of a Ukrainian action that showed exactly how the alliance with the U.S. can be mutually beneficial. Ukrainian forces targeted and sank an Iranian vessel in the Caspian Sea over the weekend, whittling down the Islamic regime’s arsenal that has bedeviled U.S. efforts to keep open the Strait of Hormuz.
