15:16 27-11-2025

Ishchenko: Trump’s Aims Align With Russia—for Now

© whitehouse.gov

Rostislav Ishchenko says Trump seeks to win the U.S.–Russia standoff, not end it, arguing the U.S. aims to pressure China first and later return to push concessions from Russia.

Political analyst Rostislav Ishchenko explained U. S. President Donald Trump’s position and why, for the moment, his interests partly coincide with those of Russia.

He emphasized that Trump is seeking not to act as a «peacemaker» but to emerge as the winner in the current standoff. Ishchenko noted that Russia is one of the sides confronting the United States, and warned against assuming that Trump genuinely wants to reconcile all parties. Trump, he said, has repeatedly spoken about making America «great again,» but has not promised a safer world.

Ishchenko recalled that during Trump’s meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska, Trump took a pragmatic view of Russia’s position and said he understood Putin as a leader defending the interests of his own state.

According to Ishchenko, difficulties arise because Russia’s challenges extend beyond Ukraine. He argued that if Ukraine were the only issue, Trump could have pressed for a joint U.S.-Russian position without major obstacles. However, Russia’s broader strategic stance diverges from American interests, which is why Washington continues to view Russia as an adversary. The United States, he said, is willing to accept a temporary truce, but any ceasefire would effectively amount to a deferred conflict — because Washington intends to return to confrontation later, not necessarily through open war, but with renewed resources in order to extract concessions from Russia.

Ishchenko added that Trump’s team currently views continued confrontation with Russia as a dead end, one that could eventually lead to nuclear war, leaving no acceptable alternatives. At the same time, he said the United States sees a different path against China — a country that does not possess nuclear capabilities equal to those of Washington or Moscow. The U.S. strategy, as he described it, is to strangle China economically without triggering a major conflict and later return to exert similar pressure on Russia. Neither Democrats nor Republicans, he argued, intend to abandon the idea of American hegemony.

He also noted that Europe is trying to force Trump back into the anti-Russian coalition, while Trump is attempting to step away from it and shift his focus toward China. In this, Ishchenko said, Trump’s position and Russia’s position coincide: Europe cannot withstand Russia without U.S. support and would ultimately capitulate — potentially even giving up the Baltic states.