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Louise Thomas
Editor
Former prime minister Boris Johnson has claimed that Donald Trump “will be strong and decisive” in his support of Ukraine and in “defending democracy”.
The Conservative ex-premier was in Washington this week to attend the Republican National Conference in Milwaukee, where Mr Trump was named the party’s official candidate in the upcoming US presidential elections.
After a photograph circulated showing him giving a speech to a near-empty room at the conference on Tuesday, Mr Johnson later shared an image of himself meeting with Mr Trump, just days after the ex-president survived an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania.
“Great to meet President Trump who is on top form after the shameful attempt on his life,” wrote the former PM. “We discussed Ukraine and I have no doubt that he will be strong and decisive in supporting that country and defending democracy.”
Mr Johnson’s government was viewed in Ukraine as having been a staunch ally in its existential fight against Russia, after Vladimir Putin launched his invasion in February 2022.
Mr Johnson was ousted by his own party five months later over a series of domestic political scandals.
But his buoyant remarks run in stark contrast to alarm that has been raised over the potential impact of a second Trump presidency on vital military aid for Ukraine in its war against Russia, which intensified on Monday as he announced isolationist senator JD Vance as his pick for vice-president.
One senior EU official told Politico on Monday that the appointment of Mr Vance was a “disaster” for Ukraine, as a former senior British defence official told Sky News they feared a Trump-Vance White House would lead to the “immediate termination of all financial and military aid for Ukraine”.
Mr Vance, who came to prominence with his 2016 memoirHillbilly Elegy, was one of the biggest opponents of sending more money to support Ukraine, insisting that Washington does not have the financial or manufacturing capabilities needed to sustain Kyiv in its defence against Moscow’s full-scale invasion.
And echoing Mr Trump’s own rhetoric during his time in the Oval Office, Mr Vance has worried Washington’s Nato allies by asserting that the US has “provided a blanket of security to Europe for far too long”, describing “the money Europe hasn’t spent on defence” as “an implied tax on the American people”.
As the US Congress debated the heavily contested aid bill for Ukraine passed in April, which was opposed by several of his key supporters, Mr Trump himself had repeatedly complained that Washington’s Nato allies were not stumping up more money for Ukraine.
While Mr Trump has publicly touted the importance of Ukraine’s survival, his former security adviser Fiona Hill has claimed that, as president, “he really could not get his head around the idea that Ukraine was an independent state”, in views reminiscent of Mr Putin’s justification for invading.
The 78-year-old has repeatedly claimed that, if re-elected, he could stop the fighting in Ukraine within 24 hours, sparking concerns that he could pressure Kyiv to permanently concede Crimea and the Donbas to Russia.
David Cameron, foreign secretary at the time, warned in April against “appeasing” Moscow as he rejected such a move, while Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has dismissed the suggestion as “primitive”.
Mr Johnson has previously said he endorsed Mr Trump’s presidential bid on the condition of support for Kyiv, writing for the Daily Mail that, “if he does the right thing and backs the Ukrainians, and I believe he will, a Trump presidency can be a big win for the world”.
