Even by the standards of fair-weather friends, the United States of America’s recent vote at the United Nations on Ukraine's defence against Russian aggression must count as one of most stunning turnarounds in modern history. Since Russia's full-fledged invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the US has been Kyiv's biggest supplier of military and civilian aid as well as the diplomatic lynchpin of Ukrainian efforts to isolate Russia globally. Yet, at the UN this week, the Donald Trump administration voted alongside Russia against a General Assembly resolution that called for Moscow to withdraw its troops from Ukraine. Then, the US pushed through a Security Council resolution that effectively drew an equivalence between Russia, the aggressor, and Ukraine, the victim. This shift coincides with Mr Trump's broader shift towards reconciliation with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and a peace deal between Moscow and Kyiv even without Ukraine on board. These moves have stoked fear and frustration in Europe whose powers are now scrambling to bolster their defences while offering half-hearted security commitments to Ukraine and trying to somehow stay on cordial terms with Mr Trump.

But as surprising as the about-turn in US policy towards Ukraine might appear at first glance, it is very much in keeping with the hypocrisy that has long marked Washington's diplomacy. Consider what Mr Trump's predecessor, Joe Biden, did when it came to Israel's brutal war on Gaza. Even as rights groups around the world and UN experts accused Israel of genocide, Mr Biden’s administration stood rock solid behind Israel, arming it with the world's deadliest weapons it used to kill Palestinian civilians and shielding it with vetoes at the UN. In many ways, the US is now doing to Ukraine exactly what it has consistently done with Gaza — ally with the occupier against the occupied. The only difference is that Mr Trump has demonstrated a brazenly transactional, billionaire-minded approach.

On Friday, he hosted the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, at the White House to sign a deal that Mr Trump argues will give the US access to hundreds of billions of dollars-worth Ukrainian critical minerals and rare metals. This, Mr Trump has said, is to compensate the US for all of its support to Ukraine during the war. In exchange, the US is not known to have offered any concrete security guarantees. Critics have called it a mafia deal. In synchrony with that approach, Mr Trump released an Artificial Intelligence-generated video that showed Gaza as a Riviera with fancy beachside resorts, and the US president lounging by a hotel pool with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Missing in the video are any Palestinians.

Mr Trump has often spoken of his desire to evict Palestinians from Gaza and build beachfront properties there. The ethnic displacement of Palestinians and the plunder of Ukraine's minerals are, of course, immoral. But it is also a foreign policy approach that is destined to fail. Peace is only possible through justice, not humiliation.