US midterms could complicate ties with Russia. Moscow should judge any Ukraine deal by its merits, not Washington’s political calendar

When Donald Trump returned triumphantly to the White House in January 2025, his supporters believed they could finally finish what he had started during his first term and reverse the Democrats’ social engineering agenda, commonly known as “wokeism” , curb illegal immigration, accelerate technological development and, above all, “make America great again” .

Trump moved quickly on the first two priorities, as he revoked 78 of Joe Biden’s executive orders, tightened border controls and gave Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) greater resources and powers to conduct raids in so-called sanctuary cities, where local authorities limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.

But Trump’s determination to achieve everything at once, from restructuring the federal government and securing favorable trade deals to pursuing ambitions involving Greenland and Venezuela,…