Trump's equidistance between Russia, an aggressor, and Ukraine, an aggressed country

While the disputes between Donald Trump and Elon Musk are capturing the attention of many, there is one fact that shouldn't go unnoticed.

Trump continues to justify Putin after Russia's rejection of any peace plan
The USA votes with Russia at the UN against a text because it rejects the invasion of Ukraine

Trump compared Russia's invasion of Ukraine with a “tango”

Yesterday, Trump welcomed the new German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz, to the White House. You can watch the video of their press conference here. At 27:20 in the video, a reporter asks Trump if he's considering imposing more sanctions on Russia. In his response, Trump said the following:

"When I see the moment where it's not going to stop and I'm sure you're going to do the same thing, we'll be very very very tough and it could be on both countries to be honest. You know, it takes two to tango, but they'll be we're going to be very tough whether it's Russia or anybody else."

So, after letting week after week go by without imposing new sanctions on Russia as he had announced (the US president keeps giving the Russian dictator time, repeatedly postponing any pressure measures against him), Trump is now threatening retaliation against Ukraine as well. Why, for not giving up? This is something we can deduce after hearing Trump compare an invasion to a tango, saying that "it takes two to tango." This isn't a dance: it's a military aggression, and if Ukraine doesn't defend itself, it will disappear from the map. It seems unreal to have to explain something so basic, but Trump's level of argumentative indigence makes it necessary to explain.

Trump also compared the invasion to a fight between two children

Then, further elaborating on this argumentative poverty, Trump compared the Russian invasion of Ukraine to a fight between two children:

"Sometimes you see two young children fighting like crazy. They hate each other and they're fighting in a park and you try and pull them apart. They don't want to be pulled. Sometimes you're better off letting them fight for a while and then pulling them apart. And I gave that analogy to Putin yesterday."

With this statement, Trump distances himself from Russia, an aggressor country, and Ukraine, a country under attack, equating the two to two children fighting because they hate each other. This comparison is as deceitful and false as the tango. The appropriate comparison would be an older child attacking a younger one to steal something that belongs to him, a type of abuse that is unfortunately very common in schools around the world. Trump's "solution" is to ask the victim not to fight back, or he will punish them.

An immoral attitude that serves to legitimize the aggressor

Obviously, as with any violent aggression, be it a military invasion or a terrorist attack, equidistant attitudes like Trump's always favor the aggressor, since they legitimize him by equating him with the victim, placing the blame for having defended himself against an attack on the victim, as if self-defense were morally comparable to an unprovoked aggression.

It is extraordinarily serious that the US president adopts this vile equidistance. What is Trump proposing to children attacked by bullies in their US schools is that they let themselves be beaten if they don't want to be punished? Because this is, in practice, what he is proposing to Ukraine: that it surrender to the invader if it doesn't want to suffer sanctions for defending itself. The most astonishing thing is that a section of the right has decided to embrace this garbage argument simply because they see Trump as a powerful partner who must be agreed with even if he takes such immoral positions. I refuse.

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Photo: The White House / Daniel Torok. U.S. President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz during their joint press conference at the White House on Thursday, June 5, 2025.