Why Trump Prefers Russia

A year has not been well spent unless you have changed your mind about something crucial during it. For me, 2025 was well spent. But more on that later.

first, to Ukraine. If the US now prefers Russia to democratic Europe, it is important to pin down exactly why.

One theory is that American conservatives are drawn to Russia’s Christian nationalism. But this is truer of the wider Maga movement then of Donald Trump himself, who is not one for abstract ideas, much less spiritual ones.Another guess is geopolitical: that he wants to detach Russia from China. But Trump is far from consistently anti-China. He has let Nvidia export its H200 chip there. He is sketchier about whether he would defend Taiwan than Joe Biden ever was. In all the fuss about its Europe section, the national security strategy‘s mildness towards China got lost. Trump has a narrow fixation with the two countries’ trade relations, to the pique of colleagues who see the contest as strategic and even civilisational.

Consider a more prosaic description. Trump is a commercial animal.So is his envoy Steve Witkoff. By “commercial animal”, I don’t just mean someone from the private sector, such as Mitt Romney, but someone who views the whole world through a business lens. Understand this, and the Russia bias makes sense. For one thing, a speedy and Kremlin-amiable peace would open the door to moneymaking opportunities in resource-rich Russia.