Wars abroad do not become irrelevant to Americans because they are fought far from our shores. The question is not whether Ukraine matters more than our border, our debt, our military readiness, or our working families. It is whether the outcome of Russia’s war will make those challenges easier or harder for the United States.
President Donald Trump’s actions show that he believes Russia’s war against Ukraine matters profoundly to the U.S., despite recent comments that suggest otherwise. At this week’s NATO summit in Ankara, Trump agreed to allow Ukraine to manufacture Patriot missiles at a critical time as Russian airstrikes are pummeling Kyiv.
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Trump is right to resist the old Washington habit of writing blank checks, outsourcing strategy to slogans, and confusing moral sympathy with national interest. America First demands a higher standard. It asks whether a conflict changes the balance of power, strengthens our enemies, weakens our alliances, drains our arsenal, or raises the future cost of deterrence.
Russia is not only fighting Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin is testing whether a major power can invade a neighbor, seize land, target civilians, deport children, and wait for the West to lose interest. If that strategy succeeds, every American adversary will study the result.
The war has also exposed an anti-American axis in practice. Iran supplies drones to Russia. Russia provides intelligence to Iran to target American soldiers and interests in the Middle East. North Korea supplies Russia with weapons and manpower. Russia gives North Korea advanced weaponry, satellite technology, and assistance with nuclear and missile programs. China sustains Russia economically and diplomatically. These regimes do not need to love one another to cooperate against us. They need only a shared interest in weakening American power.
The threat is also moving closer to home. From intelligence facilities in Cuba, Russia intercepts American military communications and electronic signals from the Florida-based commands overseeing U.S. operations in the Middle East, Central Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Moscow is collecting against the headquarters responsible for countering Iran, terrorist networks, criminal cartels, and hostile foreign influence from 90 miles off America’s shore.
Geography does not protect us, and oceans do not shield Americans from Russian cyberattacks, energy shocks, nuclear coercion, migration crises, supply chain disruption, or adversarial propaganda.
A June 2026 Independent Women’s Forum poll found that 61% of registered voters agree that taking a tougher stance on Russia is consistent with an America First foreign policy. That matters because it punctures the false choice too often presented to conservatives: either care about America or recognize Russia as a threat. Most voters understand that strength toward Russia can be an expression of putting America first.
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That does not mean endless aid, no scrutiny, or Europe hiding behind the American taxpayer. It means accountability, burden sharing, tougher sanctions on Russia, a military hardening of Ukraine’s front and energy grid, and a clearly sequenced strategy to end the war from a position of strength.
Ukraine matters because our enemies have decided it matters. It seems Trump has drawn the obvious conclusion.
Meaghan Mobbs is the director of the Center for American Safety and Security at the Independent Women’s Forum.
