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As Ukraine bleeds under Russia’s bombs, as children die in hospitals and schools targeted by Kremlin missiles, and as Europe wonders whether Putin’s tanks will someday roll farther west, leaders of Europe raced to Washington to try to prevent Donald Trump from selling Ukraine on the cheap and emboldening Vladimir Putin.
It shouldn’t have to be this hard, or dangerous for the world.
What if the Oval Office still held a leader worthy of the office?
Let’s imagine what a small sample of American Presidents — Ronald Reagan, John F. Kennedy, Harry Truman, or George H.W. Bush — would do if they were in the Oval Office today, it’s decor still stately and restrained, seated behind the Resolute Desk. How would they approach the realities on the ground, right here, right now?
Imagine these men of different eras and philosophies, but united by the bedrock knowledge and belief that America’s strength is both moral and military. Imagine the words they would speak today, standing beside Volodymyr Zelensky and the leaders of Europe in Washington.
Ronald Reagan knew that evil thrives when it senses hesitation. He never sugarcoated the Soviet threat; he called it what it was: the Evil Empire. Today, Reagan would look into the cameras, his voice warm but unyielding, and declare:
“Mr. Putin, the mask is off. You are not Russia’s champion; you are its curse. You are not a man of vision; you are a butcher who bombs children in their sleep.
The United States will not stand by while you try to drag Europe back into the shadows of tyranny. We will double our support for Ukraine’s defenders, arm them with the weapons they need to shatter your armies, and strengthen NATO’s eastern front until your dreams of conquest lie in ruins.
Freedom is America’s birthright, and a one people yearning for liberty hold dear to their hearts. It is our duty to defend it abroad. The people of Ukraine hold that love of freedom dear, and have sacrificed in full to protect it.
This war ends not with Ukraine’s surrender, but with Russia’s defeat. Tear down your war machine, Mr. Putin, or be witness to the end of Russia as the will of free nations is brought to bear.”
Reagan’s genius was to delegitimize the enemy; not just militarily, but morally. Applied today, his words would strip away Putin’s false grandeur and expose him as nothing more than a thug with missiles.
John F. Kennedy understood that the Cold War was about a global order defined by values, as well as hard power. He would have spoken directly to history, with both eloquence and clarity:
“Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine is not merely a clash of armies, it is a crime against humanity. It is the deliberate murder of civilians, the destruction of cities, the cynical use of civilian slaughter and terror as weapons.
The United States stands here today with our European allies to say this: we will not yield to barbarism. We will not appease aggression. We will not allow tanks and missiles to erase borders drawn in freedom’s blood.
The free world will pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to ensure that liberty survives this assault.
Mr. Putin, history will not remember you as a strongman, but as a butcher. And we will ensure that history’s verdict is delivered not in words alone, but in the ruin of your armies and the triumph of Ukraine’s freedom.”
Kennedy would have used language as a weapon, turning every line into a moral rebuke that left no room for neutrality or moral cowardice.
Harry Truman knew the nature of men like Putin. He saw it in Hitler and Stalin, and he understood that the only language they respect is resolve. Truman would have dispensed with niceties and spoken in Missouri plain talk:
“Let me make this clear: Vladimir Putin is a dictator, a killer, and a criminal. He has made Russia a prison and the Russian people his pawns. He bombs children, kidnaps families, and feeds his own soldiers into the terrible furnace of war for nothing more than his vanity.
The United States has fought tyrants before, and we know their kind. We fought Hitler. We contained Stalin. And we will not allow Putin to drag Europe back into the age of conquest, deprivation, and terror. Too many American boys have given all for us to allow a new dictator to rise in Europe.
If Mr. Putin believes his nuclear arsenal will avail him, I will remind him that America retains the power to reduce all of Russia to ash and dust.
America will give Ukraine what it needs to drive back this invasion; not scraps, not excuses, but the weapons, resources, and commitment to win. Our allies will march with us. Our resolve will not weaken.
Mr. Putin, you can destroy cities, but you cannot destroy liberty. You can kill children, but you cannot kill the will of free people to resist you. If you believe America will ever turn away from this fight, then you don’t understand America at all.
This is the line. You cross it, you pay the price. That was true in World War II and then Korea when we stood against tyranny, and it is true today.”
Truman would not have finessed the moral argument. He would have nailed it to the wall: America stands against tyrants, and tyrants fall.
You didn’t think I’d leave my old boss out of this list, did you?
George H.W. Bush was the most prepared foreign-policy president of the 20th century, and arguably ever. He knew how to build coalitions, how to strike precisely, and how to reassure allies with calm strength. His words today would have been sharp and measured, but utterly resolute:
“Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is not the mark of a leader: it is the crime of a despot. He has turned Russia into a pariah, its people into pawns, and its future into tragedy.
Today, I have spoken with each our our European allies and with President Zelenskyy directly, and made it clear: Ukraine will not fall on our watch. Not one inch of the land Vladimir Putin has stolen will be in Russia’s hands when this war ends.
The United States, with our European and global allies, will not allow him to succeed. We will continue to provide Ukraine with the intelligence, the weapons, and the resources necessary to prevail. We will bolster NATO’s defenses until every inch of Europe is secure.
The world we built after World War II was designed to stop exactly this kind of aggression. If Putin thinks he can redraw borders through terror and intimidation, he will discover the resolve of free nations united against him.
The tide of history runs against tyrants, and America will see to it that Putin’s name joins the long list of despots who believed they could outlast freedom, and failed.”
Bush’s steadiness would have reassured allies and warned adversaries: America doesn’t just talk; it endures, it does the hard work of power.
A real American president, one with Reagan’s fire, Kennedy’s eloquence, Truman’s clarity, and Bush’s steadiness, would stand before the press corps today and said something like this:
“Vladimir Putin is not misunderstood. He is not a strong leader or nationalist protecting his country or the Russian people. He is a war criminal. He is a butcher. He is the enemy of freedom, of decency, of everything America stands for. His war on Ukraine is a war on humanity itself.
Standing with President Zelensky and our European allies, the United States declares: we will not allow him to win. We will expand sanctions until Russia’s economy collapses under the weight of its own aggression. No Russian business will find a market anywhere in the world. No Russian citizen may travel to the U.S. or the E.U.
Today, I have frozen all Russia assets in America. I have instructed ICE to deport all Russian nationals within the next 24 hours, and ordered the seizure of their properties in the United States and its territories.
We will supply Ukraine not only to survive, but to triumph. We will strengthen NATO’s borders and defend every inch of Europe. We will hold Putin, his generals, and his enablers accountable.
This is not just Ukraine’s fight. It is freedom’s fight. And America, the nation that faced Hitler, Stalin, and every tyrant since, will not break faith with liberty now.
Mr. Putin, you have slaughtered a million young Russian men for your vanity. You have convinced the world your war machine cannot be defeated, but the free world is coming for you. And we will not stop until it lies in ruins, and Ukraine is free.”
That is what a real American president would do.
The contrast is glaring: Between real presidents who carried the burden of history, who understand something more than their own egos, who believe American strength and American resolve make a safer world … and today’s pretender, a cheap man who has transformed the the presidency into a stage for low criminality, self-pity, weakness, corruption, and greed.
A real American president would not merely stand with Ukraine, he would damn Putin before the world and promise that liberty, not tyranny, will write the final chapter of this era. He would never have rolled out a literal red carpet for a murderous war criminal.
As for the alternative … well, you’ll see it when Trump demands Ukraine give up and surrender to Russia
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