From Greenland to Gaza, from the Panama Canal to Mars, Donald Trump’s territorial ambitions span the globe. Once described as an isolationist, Trump\u2019s rhetoric increasingly resembles that of a 19th-century imperialist. Nowhere is this colonial mindset more evident than in his latest demand – that Ukraine hand over its mineral wealth in exchange for continued American military support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump\u2019s demand for Ukrainian minerals exposes how history repeats itself through new forms of colonialism. While he presents himself as an isolationist focused on \u201cAmerica First,\u201d his territorial ambitions – from Greenland to Gaza to Ukraine\u2019s resources – echo 19th-century empire building. This story reveals how rewriting the narrative about American isolationism serves to mask age-old colonial impulses, with profound consequences for nations caught between empires. As Ukraine trades its mineral wealth for survival, we see how little has changed in the dynamics of imperial power.\u00a0 When he declared last week that Ukraine should “secure what we’re giving them with their rare earth and other things,” he inadvertently exposed a bitter truth: gauzy Western rhetoric about sovereignty and self-determination doesn\u2019t apply to countries that neighbor a colonial power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was a lesson I learned for myself, reporting from Georgia in 2008 as Russian tanks rolled towards my hometown.By the time a ceasefire was called, Russia had invaded and seized 20% of Georgian land, the territory of America’s most loyal non-NATO ally in the region. And Georgia had suffered a wound that would prove fatal. Just months later, Hillary Clinton, Obama’s newly minted Secretary of State, presented her Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov with a red \u201creset\u201d button in Geneva. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite the recent Russian aggression, there was Lavrov, laughing and joking with Clinton about a mistake in the transliteration from English to Cyrillic of the word \u201creset.\u201d Every Georgian, Kazakh, or Ukrainian who had experienced Russian colonialism first hand, knew that what he was really chuckling about was the fact that Moscow had just gotten away with murder. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump has exposed a bitter truth: gauze Western rhetoric about sovereignty and self-determination doesn’t apply to countries that neighbor a colonial power.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n In 2022, when Russia launched its full-scale invasion, Ukraine was positioning itself to be a key player in the global green technology transition. The country’s vast deposits of lithium and various minerals – including 22 of the 34 minerals that the European Union deems to be \u201ccritical\u201d \u2013 promised a pathway to genuine economic sovereignty. But that future was stolen by Russia’s invasion, with a significant percentage of Ukrainian minerals now under Russian control, including half of its rare earths reserves. <\/p>\n\n\n\t\t\t\t
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