1. Signal Displeasure With Putin
Trump believed that his friendship with Putin would help him mediate peace, but that hasn’t happened because Putin didn’t want to make military-strategic concessions in Ukraine in exchange for promised US investments. Trump also showed no interest in coercing Zelensky into the same in exchange for Putin allowing these investments into Russia’s resource sector. Trump’s post was therefore a way of signaling displeasure with Putin over this zero-sum dilemma that Trump himself is responsible for creating.
2. Signal Pleasure With Ukraine & NATO
At the same time, his post also signals pleasure with Ukraine and NATO after each bent to his demands in their own way, the first by agreeing to an amended minerals deal in spring and the second by agreeing over the summer to purchase new US weapons at full price for transfer to Ukraine. Paying lip service to those two’s shared goal of inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia is thus the least he could do in return. It also serves to encourage them to comply with his future demands whenever he decides to make them.
3. Promote The Military-Industrial Complex
Building upon the above, his arrangement with NATO will further expand the US’ role as the world’s largest arms supplier by far, which SIPRI estimated to be a whopping 43% of the global share between 2020-2024 compared to second-place France’s 9.6% and third-place Russia’s 7.8%. Accordingly, Trump probably expects that NATO orders of US arms will spike after he lent false credence to the political fantasy of inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia, which showcases the business acumen behind his post.
4. Respond To Warmongers’ Whispers
Zelensky, Lindsey Graham, and other warmongers have been whispering in Trump’s ear for a while already so it can’t be ruled out that he’s finally responding to them after they successfully manipulated his perceptions. After all, he prefaced his post by specifying that it was made “After getting to know and fully understand the Ukraine/Russia Military and Economic situation”, which suggests that he was finally disabused of his hitherto comparatively pragmatic views about the conflict in favor of escalating.
5. Create More Opportunities To Exploit
