An Embarrassed American in Europe

Trip report from the 2026 Munich Security Conference

Spending time with Ukrainian warriors in Munich.

When I was a graduate student at Oxford decades ago, I remember seeing the armies of young college tourists marching through the streets every spring. Canadian students often had Canadian flags stitched on their backpacks. I once asked one of them why. At the time, I didn’t think of Canadians as a particularly patriotic group. He explained that it was simply to let everyone in the UK and across Europe know that they were not Americans. I was a little offended by the idea. Yes, President Ronald Reagan was pursuing foreign policies that many Canadians and Europeans at the time opposed—I did too. (My views on some of Reagan’s foreign policy have changed since then.) And yes, American tourists could be loud and rude at times. But were we really that bad?

While attending the Munich Security Conference last weekend, I gained a deeper appreciation for those Canadian tourists who may have looked and sounded like Americans but wanted to make sure that everyone knew they were not. There were many moments in Munich last week when I felt embarrassed to be an American.

Most of the chatter in the hallways and subsequent hot takes from Americans at the conference focused on the “rupture” in transatlantic relations that Prime Minister Mark Carney discussed in Davos a few weeks ago. That’s an important topic, worthy of deep analysis. In fact, it’s a major theme of my last book, Autocrats vs. Democrats, especially chapter 13. And it’s also the subject of a recent Substack essay, which you can read here. Like many Americans at the Munich Security Conference, I too am deeply worried about the damage that President Trump has done to our transatlantic ties and the international order more generally. As I have written and said before, Trump’s idea to invade and annex Greenland ranks as one of the worst foreign policy proposals ever in American history (read more here).

But my deepest feeling of embarrassment came not from debating that idiotic idea. Rather, it came from Trump’s abandonment of Ukraine in 2025. As I usually do, I spent most of the Munich Security Conference with Ukrainians—old friends, government officials, drone company CEOs, members of parliament, journalists, ambassadors, and warriors.

I attended only two of the formal speeches: one by President Zelenskyy and the other by California Governor Gavin Newsom. (I still believe that climate change is a security threat; that’s what Newsom addressed in his remarks.) At the meals, events, and conversations with Ukrainians, all I could feel was shame and embarrassment. At one dinner, sitting across from four Ukrainian soldiers and between two former European prime ministers whose countries still provide aid to Ukraine, I was asked to give a speech—as I do every year at this event. This time, however, I struggled to say anything coherent, other than to apologize for my country’s abandonment of Ukraine. I’ve attended this conference for more than a decade; they were the worst remarks I’ve ever delivered there.

Why was I embarrassed? Why was I struggling to speak in Munich? Let me explain.

First, Secretary of State Marco Rubio—the most senior Trump official attending the Munich Security Conference—did not even mention Putin’s barbaric invasion of Ukraine in his speech. The conference is devoted to security. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 represents the greatest security challenge in Europe in this century. Russia’s annexation of Ukraine is the most frontal assault on the international rules-based order since 1945. Putin is committing crimes against humanity every day in Ukraine (during the conference, European governments also confirmed that Putin murdered his most formidable political opponent, Alexey Navalny). As an American, that was embarrassing.

Second, I’m embarrassed by the lack of support we now give to Ukraine. Since my participation in last year’s conference, Europe has vastly surpassed the United States in its financial and military support for Ukraine. We are now giving next to nothing. Our only contribution to the fight for freedom in Ukraine is when we allow American companies to sell weapons to European governments, who then transfer these weapons to Ukraine. In other words, U.S. companies are making money off the war in Ukraine, but the U.S. government is not sharing the burden with our European allies in aiding Ukraine. In conversations with Ukrainian soldiers and government officials, I heard horror stories about shortages of missiles for air defense systems (the Pac-3 interceptor for the Patriot Missile Defense system is especially in short supply), rockets for HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems), and ammunition for howitzers. These are American weapons, provided by the Biden administration, that are now less useful due to these missile and ammunition shortages.

As my long-term readers will know, I sometimes criticized President Joe Biden for not providing Ukraine with weapons fast enough. (See, in particular, my article in Foreign Affairs in January 2023, “How to Get a Breakthrough in Ukraine: The Case Against Incrementalism.”) But President Biden worked closely with Congress to provide tens of billions in military and economic aid to Ukraine. He and his team should be applauded for that. Trump has reduced this aid to near zero. And as we cut our military aid to Ukraine, Putin has vastly increased his drone and missile attacks during the first year of the Trump administration, leading to a major spike in civilian casualties in 2025. As an American, this is embarrassing, especially when sharing a meal with Ukrainian soldiers. And this lack of American support is especially appalling because American citizens support arming Ukraine, including millions who voted for Trump. If Trump ever allowed the U.S. Congress to vote on a new aid bill for Ukraine, it would pass with solid majorities in both the House and Senate.

Third, I was embarrassed listening to U.S. members of Congress talk about a new sanctions bill that was just “weeks away” from passing. They have been saying that for many months now. But more importantly, Trump does not need a new law to impose new sanctions. He did not seek congressional approval when he rightfully imposed new sanctions on Russian oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil. He does not need it now to impose new sanctions on the shadow maritime fleet exporting Russian oil, or on the refineries processing it in third countries.

Fourth, I’m embarrassed by the role that my country is playing in so-called peace talks. As you might imagine, the peace negotiations led by the Trump administration were discussed at almost every event I attended in Munich. As I have noted a hundred times, I applaud Trump’s engagement to mediate an end Russia’s war in Ukraine. But the way he and his negotiators are trying to end the war is embarrassing for me as an American. For over a year now, all they have done is pressure Ukrainians to accept concessions without obtaining a single concession from Putin in return. Not one. According to what I heard from Ukrainian interlocutors in Munich, Putin has now asked Trump to put pressure on Zelenskyy to give up the parts of Donbas in eastern Ukraine that are still under Ukrainian control. In return for this tremendous concession, Putin has offered … nothing to Ukraine. But Putin has floated the possibility of a multi-trillion-dollar (yes, “trillion”, not billion) business deal to Americans. As an American, I find this American mediation strategy embarrassing.

Private American citizens and organizations are still helping Ukraine. American businessman Eric Schmidt’s company is providing Ukraine with drones that are highly effective at intercepting Russian-made Shahed drones. That’s real assistance. Howard Buffet has provided roughly a $500 million in non-lethal aid to Ukraine. That’s amazing. US-based non-governmental organizations like Nova Ukraine and Razom also provide major humanitarian assistance, as do many other US-supported NGOs working inside Ukraine, such as the International Renaissance Foundation, the R.T. Weatherman Foundation, and the Spirit of America. (Please support them all!) Some American investors are starting to do deals with Ukrainian drone makers. That helps too.

But right now, the U.S. government—my government—is absent in helping Ukrainians fight for their democracy and independence against Putin’s imperial, autocratic regime. Imagine if the French made a similar decision and abandoned our freedom fighters during the American War of Independence? Or if the United States quit on Great Britain during World War II? As an American citizen, I am deeply frustrated by the Trump policy. It’s immoral and does not serve Americans’ security interests. As an American in Munich, I was embarrassed for my country. I hope it is not too late to reverse this current imprudent course and get my government back on the side of democracy and sovereignty against tyranny and imperialism. I’m a patriotic American. I want to feel proud of my country again.