Trump’s Betrayal of Ukraine

Podcast audio:

In this episode of The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast Ziemowit Gowin interviews Elan Journo and Onkar Ghate on Trump’s stance on the Ukraine-Russia war, which led him to call President Zelensky a dictator and publicly berate him in the Oval Office.

Among the topics covered:

• What America’s approach to the Ukraine-Russia war should be;
• How Trump’s Oval Office blowup at Zelensky reveals his amorality;
• The mindset driving Trump’s sympathy for Putin and his approach to negotiation;
• When it would be proper to negotiate with an aggressor;
• The long-term consequences of America’s pro-Russia shift.

Mentioned in this podcast is Ayn Rand’s essay “The Anatomy of Compromise” in Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal. Recommended for further reading are Elan Journo’s essay “Why John Mearsheimer Gets Ukraine Wrong,” Ziemowit Gowin’s essay “European Appeasement Emboldened Putin’s Aggression,”and Journo’s and Ben Bayer’s essay “Putin’s War Embodies National Conservatism’s Ideology.”

The podcast was recorded on March 5, 2025 and released on March 7, 2025. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here.