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I went through Trump's cabinet picks' stance on Ukraine. Only one person is pro-UA and anti-Russia, the rest are various degrees anti-UA, pro-RU. This leads me to ~~believe~~ hope that the aid to Ukraine from the US will stop soon after Trump becomes president, and soon after the war. HOWEVER !!! this does not mean that these people are "good" or should be supported, it's still a cavalcade of fascists, racists, nationalists, China hawks, bigots, Zionists, etc. !!!
I apologise for the poor formatting, the person's stance is in the spoiler below their name.
CABINET:
- Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence (obviously anti-UA, NATO-skeptic, became infamous after her support of Assad)
- Matt Gaetz as Attorney General (anti-UA, he's actually on the myrotvorets list)
- Marco Rubio as Secretary of State
anti-Ukraine aid
Rubio's public statements on Ukraine appear to be very much in line with Trump's broad plans for the war — a swift end to it.
Rubio's statements and actions have been very much geared towards negotiation and an end to the war rather than giving Ukraine what it needs to evict Russian forces from its territory.
Rubio was among the 15 Republican lawmakers in the Senate who voted against the $61 billion military aid package for Ukraine, which eventually passed in April 2024. Its delay severely hampered Ukraine's fight against Russian forces.
- John Ratcliffe for CIA Director
China hawk
As director of national intelligence, Ratcliffe focused on space issues and on China, which he labeled as America’s primary threat.
John Ratcliffe was one of the sharpest critics of former Attorney General Robert Mueller, who led the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. - Kristi Noem as Secretary of Homeland Security
anti-Ukraine aid
RBC-Ukraine pointed out that Kristi Noem had opposed US assistance to Ukraine in the context of her potential appointment as the next Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. - Doug Collins as Secretary of Veteran Affairs
anti-Ukraine aid
Collins balked at the suggestion the military aid would have saved Ukrainian lives and that "this money did not stop that." He later referenced the testimony of under secretary of political affairs David Hale, who in November said the military aid for was "future assistance ... not to keep the army going now." - Doug Burgum as Secretary of the Interior <-- only pro-UA
pro-UA aid, anti-RU
Doug Burgum (R) bluntly stated that the United States is “actually at war with Russia.” What is his take on the House not including military aid funding for Ukraine in the stopgap measure?
When it comes to sending Ukraine military aid, Burgum points to Ukraine’s ability to have already taken “out a huge chunk of [Russia’s] capability,” adding, “I don’t call that irresponsible spending, I call that a bargain.” The Republican governor did add a caveat, though: “There’s no blank checks — there has to be accountability. We have to track every dollar.”
- Lee Zeldin as Head of the Environmental Protection Agency
all I could find on his stance on UA
(doesn't think US should send troops to defend Ukraine - Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as Head of Health and Human Services
anti-UA, geopolitic realist, blames NATO for war in Ukraine
"He’s in Ukraine because he warned us he was gonna go in Ukraine if we put NATO in Ukraine, and the Russians, not just Putin, the Russian leadership have been warning us of that since 1992, when we promised we would never do that. ... And James Baker famously said to him, 'We will not move NATO one inch to the East.' Now we’ve moved it 1000 miles to the East, 14 countries. We put nuclear-ready weapons, missile systems, remain in Poland, 12 minutes from Moscow. So we could decapitate the entire soviet leadership in 12 minutes, and we walked away from the two nuclear weapons treaties unilaterally, we had two intermediate weapons treaties with Russia, and we unilaterally walked away from both. So we’re sending a message to Russia, you were the enemy, we are surrounding you and we’re going to put NATO everywhere. Russia has always said this, what you’re doing, is wrong, it is hurting our national security, it is hurting our sovereignty, but the one thing you should never do is go into Ukraine because if you go into Ukraine, we gotta get you out. And they have good reason for that. Russia has been invaded three times through Ukraine, ..."
WHITE HOUSE:
- Susie Wiles as Chief of Staff (she was the head of Trump's campaign)
- Mike Waltz as National Security Adviser
China hawk, pro-NATO, pro-peace in UA
Waltz is also on the Republicans' China Task Force and has argued the U.S. military is not as prepared as it needs to be if there is conflict in the Indo-Pacific region.
Waltz laid out a five-part strategy to preventing war with China, including arming Taiwan faster, re-assuring allies in the Pacific, and modernizing planes and ships.
On Ukraine, Waltz has said his views have evolved. After Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, he called for the Biden administration to provide more weapons to Kyiv to help them push back Russian forces.
But during an event last month, Waltz said there had to be a reassessment of the United States' aims in Ukraine.
"Is it in America's interest, are we going to put in the time, the treasure, the resources that we need in the Pacific right now badly?" Waltz asked.
Waltz has praised Trump for pushing NATO allies to spend more on defense, but unlike the president-elect has not suggested the United States pull out of the alliance.
- Tom Homan as Border Czar (lol what a dumb title)
can't find anything on Ukraine
Because he's super into "border security" so probably doesn't have a stance on UA. probably an "against aid to UA until the border is fixed" type. Not pro-UA, probably couldn't find Ukraine on the map tbh and he probably doesn't care about Ukraine. - Stephen Miller as Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy
anti-immigration, pro-USA nationalist fascist
Can't find anything on his stance in Ukraine, probably doesn't think about or give a fuck about Ukraine. - Dan Scavino as Deputy Chief of Staff (Trump's former Goebbels, moving up in the world)
Trump sycophant, anti-UA if Trump is
Scavino was the longest-serving aide in the Trump Administration. He remained as Director of Social Media until the end of Trump's term as president.
AMBASSADORS:
- Steven Witkoff as Special Envoy to the Middle East
Zionist
His selection, which requires Senate confirmation, was widely welcomed by Israeli officials who oppose a Palestinian state, a longstanding U.S. goal.
Steven Witkoff, who was named on Tuesday as the incoming administration’s Middle East envoy, raised a vast amount of money for Mr. Trump’s campaign — including from Jewish voters after the Biden administration stopped shipping some bombs to Israel. - Mike Huckabee as Ambassador to Israel
pro-Israel
the right wing of Israeli politics has welcomed the president-elect’s appointment of Huckabee, seeing it as predicting another term of American policy highly favourable to their longstanding aims of holding on to territory in the West Bank and expanding settlements.
The appointment was greeted with joy by two far-right ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich messaged his congratulations to “a consistent and loyal friend", while Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister, wrote "Mike Huckabee" with heart emojis.
- Elise Stefanik as Ambassador to the United Nations
changed from pro-UA to anti-UA now that Trump picked her
New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for US ambassador to the United Nations, is now refusing to stand by her previous push for Ukraine’s NATO membership — a stance she once framed as critical to regional stability.
Her office also declined to say whether she still believes Russia committed genocide in Ukraine, as she said in 2022.
But they're not currently at war with China, they're at war with Russia. According to some experts, US doesn't have the ammo for an all-out war with China. China also outproduces the US in ship tonnage 100:1, since a war with China would also be waged at sea, China has an advantage both of being close to home and being able to produce more ships.
I think the anti-China crowd wants a trade war: tariffs, pushing them out of the market like with EVs, then outright bans for Huawei, Tiktok, etc., hindring China's diplomacy, in Africa for example).
An all-out US-China was is unlikely cause China is a peer to the US (in every way) plus China has an AI/drone advantage, they're making a tank with a built-in UAV now. US may have a chance of "winning", but it would be so destructive to the US that it just doesn't make sense. That kind of war would be hugely unpopular too.
An economic/trade war is more likely, which BRICS countries already recognise as happening so they're selling US bonds, moving away from the dollar, trading in their own currency and so on.