For the third time in less than six months, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has moved to suspend munitions shipments to Ukraine, and President Donald Trump has reversed the decision.
Trump announced on Monday night that the United States will resume weapons shipments that the Pentagon paused last week. This previously happened in February and May. In all three cases, the Pentagon’s weapons freeze surprised Trump allies and Congress, and Russia pounded civilian targets in Kyiv before the president changed the administration’s course.
Hegseth and his team have once again poorly served the nation, embarrassing the president and projecting lack of resolve to Russia.
The best corrective would be for Trump to recommit the United States to Ukraine’s cause — ramping up arms shipments to Kyiv, rather than just restoring U.S. support to preexisting levels.
In a phone call on Friday, Trump told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that he was not responsible for the pause. The president says he directed the Pentagon to review U.S. munitions stockpiles after American airstrikes on Iran, but he appears not to have realized in advance that defense officials would halt Ukraine shipments. That is why he initially didn’t acknowledge it had happened.
During his first term, hawks routinely boxed Trump into positions he wasn’t comfortable with. He sidelined many of them.
This time, the doves — who fancy themselves “restrainers” — have sought to manipulate the president to advance their isolationist agenda by overstating the limits of American power. Trump needs to bring them to heel.
After promising during the 2024 presidential campaign that he would end the Ukraine war on his first day back in office, Trump has become clearer-eyed about Russian President Vladimir Putin, who started this war and is the biggest obstacle to ending it.
Sensing leverage in Trump’s desire for peace, Putin strung along the president and issued maximalist demands that Kyiv could never accept.
At long last, Trump’s patience appears to be wearing thin. On Tuesday, days after another fruitless conversation with Putin, the president accused his Russian counterpart of “a lot of bulls—” as Russia wages a summer offensive.
The Pentagon, of course, must constantly assess its stockpiles to make sure enough weapons are available in case conflicts break out elsewhere. Trade-offs are required to support Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan. But a Joint Staff analysis found that the materiel headed to Ukraine would not jeopardize America’s own ammunition supplies.
Over the past week, Ukraine has endured some of the worst aerial bombardments since Russia’s full-scale invasion 40 months ago.
Zelensky said on Monday that Russia launched 1,270 drones, 39 missiles and almost 1,000 glide bombs during that period. Kyiv needs interceptor missiles for the Patriot air defense system, precision-guided artillery shells and missiles for Ukraine’s F-16 fighter jets.
Trump complained on Tuesday that defense contractors make equipment “too slowly” and need to produce necessary armaments faster.
He’s correct on that.
Fortunately, the U.S. military has already quadrupled its procurement targets for Patriot interceptors, and contractors are moving to speed up intricate supply chains. Lockheed Martin, which makes about 500 Patriot interceptor missiles a year, plans to increase production to 650 a year by 2027. When NATO ordered up to 1,000 Patriot rounds last year, the United States struck a deal allowing some of them to be produced in Germany.
