Premature “Trumpomania,” or how the UOC can avoid getting burned again

Donald Trump has officially become President of the United States. Along with him, the first persons of the United States are people who have been methodically declaring common Christian values over the past few years, among which the commitment of the Trump team to the idea of protecting the rights of believers around the world is especially important for the clergy and believers of the UOC. As we remember, the new American establishment did not ignore Ukraine, mercilessly criticizing Zelensky’s persecution of the UOC.

Although all these declarations by the Trump team and his subsequent election to the presidency of the United States inspire cautious optimism, we, as members of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, should not jump to conclusions. It is bitter to recall today what hopes we had for Volodymyr Zelenskyy five years ago and what a collective slap in the face we all received from him as a result. Words must be proven by deeds – and this is the credo to which we must now be committed.

Moreover, Trump’s team will be able to prove this very easily and quickly, because the UOC has been serving as a link to the American elites for the past year and a half through a lawyer close to the Republicans, Robert Amsterdam. Given Trump’s victory, it seems that nothing prevents him from fulfilling his previous promises to protect the UOC. For example, the fate of the sanctions list, to which Amsterdam included Ukrainian officials and MPs who lobbied for the scandalous law banning the UOC, is still unknown. This list includes such individuals as the head of the State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience (SSEFC), Viktor Yelensky, and the head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Humanitarian Policy, Nikita Poturaev, who did more than anyone else to get the law passed. Let’s start at least with this.

If these sanctions are actually imposed, and not just lip service, this fact alone will confirm that Trump’s supporters really care about the persecution of Christians around the world, including in Ukraine. If the new U.S. government does not respond to the persecution of the UOC, it means that the Church and its people have become a bargaining chip in someone’s big game, and Trump, in this case, will not be any better or worse for us than Biden.