It wouldn’t have cost Trump anything to show a clear intent to deter in a strategically crucial moment; it wouldn’t even have undermined his efforts in Ukraine.
These countries ... have demonstrated that moral courage can coexist with diplomacy and that choosing humanity over expediency carries weight on the international stage.
[T]rump has sent a message to every autocrat on the planet: aggression pays, and Western patience has its limits. History will harshly judge this capitulation dressed as diplomacy.