This was the week that the United States joined Russia in dismembering Ukraine, a nation that both superpowers had promised to protect in 1994 in exchange for the surrender of its nuclear arsenal. MAGA sophists and apologists variously claim that this is either about bringing a speedy peace or about withdrawing the U.S. from an ungrateful Europe.

A case can be made for both those positions, but neither is advanced by limiting the satellite system on which Ukrainian drones rely, unfreezing Russian assets, or buying diesel from Vladimir Putin. No, what we are seeing is what we have seen all along. When the chips are down, President Donald Trump sides with Putin.