Doorstep Sympathy

Understanding their feelings

Doorstep, ©2025 William L. Brown

NATO “on their doorstep” is one of the many pieces of Russian misinformation regurgitated by US President Donald Trump.

"And somewhere along the line Biden said, 'No. They should be able to join NATO.' Well, then Russia has somebody right on their doorstep, and I could understand their feelings about that,” Trump said on January 7, 2025. He repeated it recently.

Yet the 23 other countries sharing borders with at least one NATO member—some are completely surrounded on all sides—are not so bothered by it. Not bothered enough to go to war over it, certainly.

NATO is a defense alliance. The only possible objection to having a neighboring country joining a defense alliance is that you plan to invade it.

Other bits of Kremlin misinformation Trump repeated are that Ukraine had “started” the war with Russia, and that a “deal” could have been made in the first few weeks. These are false claims commonly made on social media by Russian trolls, bots and tankies.

He usually overstates the amount of U.S. aid for Ukraine and incorrectly says U.S. gave more than Europe. Europe has given a bit more than U.S. The figures do not include aid to refugees, who were welcomed into Europe by the millions.

Trump claimed Zelensky “admits that half of the money that we sent them is missing.” which is a distortion of Zelenskyy’s statement, “So, when people talk about $177 billion or even $200 billion, we’ve never received that. We’re talking about tangible things because this aid didn’t come as cash but rather as weapons, which amounted to about 70 billion.” He said “I don’t know where all that money went,” but he was speaking of what happened in America where most of the cash was spend on making new weapons.

Trump called Zelenskyy a “dictator” who “refuses” to have elections. The country is under martial law and according to the Ukrainian constitution, cannot have elections until martial law ends. There are several practical obstructions to having elections as well, such as air attacks, occupied territories and millions of refugees being unable to vote. Even if a vote was held, these conditions would shed doubt on the outcome.

Trump spoke to Russian dictator Valdimir Putin on the phone February 12, and they were chummy, according to Trump and the Russian accounts. Today, February 28, Trump and US Vice President JD Vance met with Ukrainian Volodymyr Zelensky. The purpose of the meeting was to sign an agreement on Ukrainian mineral rights, and to discuss peace negotiations. The meeting dissolved into a shouting match.

Zelensky began the publically aired portion of the meeting by showing Trump photos of mistreated POWs. But, Trump was averse to criticizing Russia, saying Zelensky’s “hate” for Putin was an obstacle for peace. Vance and Trump scolded Zelensky for not expressing enough gratitude to America. Zelensky tried to correct their misinformation and misrepresentation—which only prompted louder claims that he was being ungrateful and disrespectful.