A Finnish factor enters the Russia-Ukraine war

National Post, 24 August 2025

Donald Trump and Finnish President Alexander Stubb have become buddies. Hopes are that the U.S. president will listen to his new friend

The utter singularity of Monday’s White House assembly requires book-length treatment to explain exactly why and how such an extraordinary emergency meeting took place. What went on during the hours of meetings between U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as well with the heads of government of the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Finland, not to mention the secretary general of NATO and the president of the European Union? Apparently, Trump used a lifeline, too, calling his friend President Vladimir Putin during the goings-on.

Was it all an impressive display of transatlantic solidarity against Russian aggression? Or was it a desperate overseas intervention to prevent the American president from blundering his way toward rewarding Russian aggression? Was it a diplomatic summit or adult supervision?

For now that astonishing picture from the Oval Office speaks volumes. Trump has the habit of having his senior cabinet secretaries attend him when receiving foreign visitors, and the courtiers themselves never like to be physically distant from the aged president, lest he forget who they are, as he sometimes does.

It is customary then for the vice-president, secretary of state and secretary of defence to wedge themselves onto the presidential couch. With eight European leaders crammed into the Oval Office on Monday, other courtiers feared getting lost in the shuffle, so the treasury secretary, commerce secretary and press secretary jammed in, too, so much so that poor Marco Rubio, secretary of state and acting national security adviser, didn’t even get a seat.

It was all a bit much for the president’s capacity. When introducing his guests around the conference table, he looked for President Alexander Stubb of Finland, who was directly in front of him, beside Zelenskyy. Large place cards were helpfully deployed, but were not sufficient for Trump to recognize the man sitting a few feet away from him, in his direct line of sight.

“President Stubb of Finland … and he’s somebody that we’re all … where, where?” Trump asked.

“I’m right here,” Stubb deadpanned.

Lapsing back to his beauty pageant days, Trump recovered with a compliment: “Oh, you look better than I’ve ever seen you look.”

The non-courtiers had some amusement with that, as the American press is now realizing that it is more fun to mock a president’s senior moments than to cover up for them, as they did under the past diminishing president.

Yet that Finnish detail bears reflection. Why was Stubb placed right across from Trump? Partly because he had played golf with Trump at Mar-a-Lago and they had bonded. If Trump’s affection for Putin is an obstacle to a just peace in Ukraine, then perhaps Ukraine might benefit by offering Trump an alternative buddy.

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