Boris Johnson has exploded the myth that a Trump victory would be disastrous for Ukraine

The former president may have doubts about the current approach to backing Kyiv, but his unpredictability gave dictators pause for thought

Boris Johnson has suggested that, had former US president Donald Trump still been in office, Vladimir Putin would not have risked launching his so-called “special military operation” against Ukraine. He is most likely right. 
One of the defining characteristics of Trump’s presidency was his unpredictability, especially in terms of his approach to global security threats.
Not knowing how he would respond to a specific challenge, whether it involved Iranian-backed terrorists or authoritarian regimes such as Russia and China, acted as its own unique form of deterrent. Trump’s ability to confound the West’s enemies by sowing doubt in their minds as to his true intentions proved to be a very useful tactic in terms of preventing conflicts across the globe.
Indeed, compared with the lamentable record of Joe Biden during his four-year-term in the White House, the Trump presidency was, relatively speaking, a success.
On Trump’s watch, the brutal reign of terror established under the auspices of Islamic State’s so-called caliphate was destroyed, not least because Trump lifted the restrictions applied to the US-led coalition’s rules of engagement by the previous Obama administration.
Attempts by authoritarian regimes in Moscow and Beijing to subvert the Western alliance were, meanwhile, held in check by Trump’s willingness to call them out, especially over their blatant designs to interfere with critical infrastructure. Beijing’s disingenuous plan to involve itself in the development of the UK’s 5G telecoms network was brought to an abrupt halt after the Trump administration highlighted China’s true malign intent.
And Iran’s constant campaign to destabilise the Middle East was seriously compromised after Trump authorised the assassination of Iran’s master terrorist, Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Revolutionary Guard Quds Force, who was killed in a drone strike at Baghdad airport.
By contrast, Biden will finish his stint in the White House with two major global conflicts having erupted on his watch, starting with Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and culminating with the Middle East being set ablaze by the barbaric attack against Israel carried out by Iranian-backed Hamas terrorists on October 7.
In each case, the Biden administration incompetence has been a key contributing factor. Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine was taken not long after Biden presided over America’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, while Iran’s ability to help fund Hamas would have been severely limited had the Biden administration not released billions in dollars in frozen assets as part of its naive attempt to agree a new deal on Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
If the palpable weakness of the Biden administration has encouraged the world’s miscreants to pursue their goals through violence, they will certainly think twice before engaging in such action if Trump is re-elected to the White House.
Trump may have his doubts about maintaining America’s support for Ukraine’s war effort at its current level. But he surely would never have tolerated the absurdity of Washington’s current policy towards Kyiv, whereby the US provides military support while denying the Ukrainians permission to use it.
From Moscow to Tehran, and from Beijing to Pyongyang, the world’s tyrants will have second thoughts about resorting to violence to achieve their ends if Trump is successful in his bid to serve a second term at the White House.