The Telegraph: Ukrainian Drones Have Changed MAGA's Attitude Toward The War

Trump's supporters have begun to view Ukraine and Russia differently.

It takes courage to admit you were wrong. For Laura Lummer, a MAGA influencer, it took a night in a Ukrainian bomb shelter and a trip to a burned-down McDonald’s.

Lumer’s extraordinary turnaround—from a provocateur who often claimed she didn’t care about the Russian invasion to a supporter of Ukraine, who has grown close to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy—has become the clearest sign to date that the MAGA movement has changed its stance on the war, writes The Telegraph.

“I just experienced my first air raid alert in Ukraine. The sirens are wailing. This is what every day is like for every Ukrainian,” she wrote in a post on X to her nearly two million followers. “I often said that I didn’t care. Looking back, it wasn’t very nice of me to say that. We need moral clarity.”

Subsequently, Lumer interviewed Zelenskyy in the garden of the presidential palace, where he acknowledged that his face-to-face conversation with Donald Trump on the sidelines of Pope Francis’s funeral in April 2025 turned out to be a major breakthrough in their relationship.

“Republicans in the MAGA community have come to harbor this reluctant respect for Ukraine, and now a rapprochement is taking place,” said Glen Howard, president and chairman of the Saratoga Foundation.

The MAGA Shift

Lumer is one of a growing number of MAGA influencers who believe that Russia was insincere in its pursuit of peace. Ukraine, by contrast, has emerged as a military underdog that has weathered four years of onslaught and become a leader in modern warfare tactics.

Two years ago, Tim Pool, an American right-wing political commentator and podcast host, called Ukraine “an enemy of this country” and demanded that Washington withdraw its military aid and support.

On Friday, he called on Trump to support Ukraine’s military efforts.

“Ukraine is fighting for its very existence against an evil dictator,” he wrote on X. “I now see the importance of a Ukrainian victory over Russia. I hope Trump and the people of the United States will lend their support.”

MAGA’s shift in position coincided with the administration’s growing confidence that Ukraine now has the upper hand in the conflict, which has been dragging on for four years.

One person changed the mindset

One person played a decisive role in changing Trump’s view of Ukraine. During a recent visit to Kyiv Dan Driscoll, the U.S. Secretary of the Army, was struck by how far Ukraine had surpassed the U.S. in drone warfare and the integration of AI on the battlefield.

He was so impressed that he described the Ukrainian Delta system—which integrates drones and other weapons into a single network—as “absolutely incredible,” while acknowledging that the U.S. has almost nothing comparable.

“Ukraine’s Delta integrated operational system—their command-and-control system with a modular, open architecture—is absolutely incredible. It fully integrates every single drone, every sensor, and every fire platform into a single network. Ours does not,” he noted.

Combined with the fact that he spent some time with Ukrainian soldiers—which, according to sources familiar with the visit, awakened the “Army Ranger” within the Secretary of the Army— he returned to Washington convinced that it is necessary to work with Kyiv, not against it.

Cooperation with Ukraine

Ukraine is no longer a recipient begging for aid, but an experienced technology partner.

For its part, the U.S. is now seeking to purchase drones from Kyiv and establish joint production of its own unmanned aerial vehicles. On Wednesday, it was reported that six Ukrainian companies received authorization to export approximately 100 drones each for military testing in the U.S.

“The MAGA community has developed a grudging respect for Ukraine, and I think Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll likely paved the way for this,” Howard said. “The war with Iran has brought home the importance of Ukrainian drones, and Ukraine helped the U.S. by providing assistance when Trump asked allies to come to the rescue.”

According to him, there is a certain degree of technological acceptance within the MAGA community of technologies such as drones—they see it, appreciate it, and understand it.”

Ukraine in the Context of the U.S. War Against Iran

At the height of Trump’s conflict with Iran, Western intelligence agencies discovered that Russia was sharing drone technology, tactics, and satellite imagery, helping the Islamic Republic target U.S. troops.

Any attempts by the U.S. president to warn Tehran’s allies, including China, against intervening appear to have failed.

Ukraine instinctively sensed an opportunity to use this cooperation to push Trump toward a tougher stance toward Kremlin dictator Vladimir Putin.

In March, Zelenskyy stated that his country’s military intelligence had “irrefutable evidence” that Moscow was sharing information with Tehran.

He did not disclose the exact nature of this intelligence, but said it came from allies in the Middle East whom Ukrainian forces were helping to defend against incoming attacks by Iranian drones.

“Russia is using its own radio and electronic intelligence capabilities, as well as some of the data obtained through cooperation with partners in the Middle East,” Zelenskyy said.

The CIA and Trump himself have since acknowledged that Russia was assisting Iran.

By reinforcing these claims, Ukraine and its allies hoped to convince the U.S. president and his MAGA supporters that Russia is a greater enemy than previously thought.

It appears to have worked on Lumer, who stated in a social media post that the Kremlin was helping Tehran.

“Russia is funding Iran and supplying it with explosives to kill American soldiers, while Iran has called for the assassination of President Trump,” she wrote.

At one point, it seemed that Ukraine was doomed, abandoned by its most important ally after the most spectacular quarrel in the Oval Office. Sixteen months after that clash between Trump and Zelenskyy, it appears that MAGA is leading the effort to bring the two men closer together.

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