The joke is not on America, but the complacent European leaders who are actually affected by an aggressive Russia. The fact that the carte blanche is even Trumps to give is the problem in the first place.
Thinking America isn’t directly effected by expansionist aggression into Europe really seems to be one of those “doomed to repeat” lessons of history.
Oddly enough the size of the “failed to study” crowd also seems to have a lot of overlap with the people who vote for populists, racists, and America-Uber-Alles isolationists.
We already provide security guarantees to over 20 nations in Europe. Do you think we should extend it to the rest of the world? At what point is this considered overextension, one of the leading indicators of the downfall of great empires and a source of internal misalignment, debt, and administrative burden.
Note that US was one of the 3 powers signing Budapest Memorandum, actively urging Ukraine to give up nuclear weapons in exchange for Ukrainian sovereignty and security assurances. While this document doesn't oblige US to defend Ukrainian sovereignty, I don't think US is completely off the hook here either.
