IF IT WEREN’T OBVIOUS ALREADY, the past two weeks have once again demonstrated that Donald Trump dislikes, if not detests, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, while he admires and wishes to befriend Vladimir Putin.

Trump’s animus toward Zelensky dates to his first term and the extortionate “perfect” 2019 phone call that led to Trump’s first impeachment. Explaining Trump’s unseemly infatuation with Putin is more challenging. But the outcome is all too clear: While pretending—not very convincingly—to negotiate with Putin, Trump is surrendering to America’s adversaries to the expense of its friends, all to the profound detriment of American national security.

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