A Priest’s Warning to Trump Regarding Ukraine

On the day of President Trump’s near-assassination, July 13, 2024, I was the priest who met him, spoke with him, and prayed for him. In that private moment, I witnessed firsthand a man who spoke with conviction about the struggle for justice for the long-suffering Ukrainian people, particularly regarding Ukraine’s sovereignty and the need to resist tyranny with strength. His words then reflected a clear moral vision—one that I, like many others, found compelling enough to support. Inexplicable events that day seemed only to confirm Providence’s favor.

However, President Trump’s comments regarding Ukraine on February 18th and 19th have shown that our president is all too human, like King Uzziah before him. “When heaven’s hand lifts a man high, let him not gaze at the sky—lest he stumble on the earth below.” As Uzziah’s fortunes turned against him through the effects of his own pride, it fell to the priests to warn him: “It is not right for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord…” (2 Chronicles 26:18). As a priest, I say to President Trump, “Sir, it is not right for you to lie before God and man.”

As time has passed, it has become clear that Mr. Trump’s stance on Ukraine has shifted in ways that I can no longer, in good conscience, ignore. What he once condemned, he now excuses; where he once stood firm, he now wavers. This change has led me to withdraw my support for him, not out of political expediency but out of fidelity to Christ whom I represent: He who is the embodiment of justice, truth, and the good. My decision is based on four primary reasons.

St. Thomas Aquinas, in his Summa Theologica and De Regno, lays out a vision of political leadership rooted in justice, the common good, and the moral law. He argues that rulers must govern according to divine and natural law, seeking the well-being of all people, not just their own nation. He strongly condemns tyranny, which he defines as rule directed toward private interests rather than the common good.

If Aquinas were addressing someone today who is conflicted over supporting a politician with some positive pro-life domestic policies but who nevertheless facilitates genocide abroad by indulging and overly placating a bloodthirsty despot, the Angelic Doctor would likely make several points:

1. The Unity of Virtue—Aquinas would reject out of hand the idea that a leader can be truly pro-life while simultaneously and knowingly facilitating a compact the outcome of which is the destruction of innocent life on a massive scale. He emphasizes that justice and virtue must be consistent across all areas of governance. A ruler cannot be good in one sphere while gravely unjust in another.

2. The Common Good is Universal—Aquinas does not see national boundaries as an excuse for moral equivocation. He argues that rulers have a duty to justice not just for their own citizens but for all humanity. If a leader supports or enables genocide, they fundamentally violate the moral order.

3. Legitimacy and Tyranny—In De Regno, Aquinas argues that a ruler who governs unjustly is a tyrant and is, in a sense, illegitimate. If a leader’s foreign policy leads to mass slaughter, that leader may fall into the category of a tyrant, even if they enact good policies domestically.

4. Moral Responsibility of Supporters—Aquinas holds that people are morally responsible for the actions of their rulers, especially if they knowingly support grave evil. He would likely call on such supporters to withdraw their endorsement. Failing that, they share in the guilt of unjust policies.

Given these considerations, the informed and morally attuned conscience cannot ignore President Trump’s recent transgressions against justice, truth, and the good. His brazen lie that Ukraine started the war against Russia in 2022 is an act of violence against truth itself, a shameless inversion of reality. His disreputable declamation of Zelensky as dictator because he’s been in office beyond term limits amid martial law (in conformity with Ukraine’s own Constitution) is an offense against reason, especially when one considers Mr. Trump’s uncharacteristic silence vis à vis Putin’s twenty-five-year dictatorship in nuclear-mad Russia. 

It is a sin against justice for him as head of a nation uniquely positioned to execute justice and peace to inexplicably cede to the aggressor-state major concessions before negotiations. This is a grave offense against justice toward the aggrieved party, Ukraine; whose sovereignty and territorial integrity we pledged to defend when we demanded they surrender their nuclear weapons to Russia in 1994. To wit, all this with no assurance whatsoever of restitution for the hundreds of thousands of innocent lives lost, for the 19,500 children abducted, for the hordes of permanently maimed, for the lost homes, destroyed lands, tortured pastors, and for the poor raped women. It is a sin against justice for [Trump] as head of a nation uniquely positioned to execute justice and peace to inexplicably cede to the aggressor-state major concessions before negotiations. Tweet This

All the above clearly fall under the category of unjust governance. If this translates into an actual foreign policy facilitating the annihilation of the entire Ukrainian nation, as articulated by Putin, Sergeytsev, and Medvedev, then such a leader may well fall into the category of a tyrant as described by Aquinas. This designation stands, even if said ruler were to enact good policies domestically, such as legislatively restricting grave moral evils such as transgenderism, abortion, and homosexual propaganda.

I urge my fellow Catholics to pray for President Trump while opposing any gestures that appease tyrants. We must do so until he proves unwavering in resisting true tyranny and upholding justice, truth, and the good. Our faith calls us to defend the common good by holding leaders accountable when they stray from moral clarity. We are not merely against the godless Left that has eroded our institutions—we stand for our allies and love them enough to call them to a Godly standard.

In summary, St. Thomas Aquinas would argue that a leader cannot be selectively moral; and supporting them solely for one policy while ignoring grave injustices elsewhere is not morally justifiable. For him, true pro-life leadership must be coherent, valuing all human life, from conception to Kyiv.