𝘾𝙃𝙍𝙄𝙎𝙏𝙊𝙋𝙃𝙀𝙍 𝙅. 𝘽𝘼𝙆𝙀𝙎

𝘼𝙩𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙣𝙚𝙮 | 2020 𝙒𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙀𝙡 𝘾𝙖𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙤 𝘼𝙫𝙚𝙣𝙪𝙚, 𝙎𝙪𝙞𝙩𝙚 700 | 𝙎𝙖𝙘𝙧𝙖𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙤, 𝘾𝘼 95833

Oct 2, 2025

I wrote to both based on my calculation that if the husband isn’t listening, the wife will see to it that he does. It helps that the First Lady and I share Slavic roots.

As a child of the 1960s and of Baby Boomer age, I was raised to know that Marxism and Fascism were our enemies, that they had much in common, and that they often came together when opportunity presented itself. These two political forms were, I was taught, best embodied in wartime National Socialist Germany and Soviet Russia (our term for the USSR). Israel, I was also taught, was born of wartime horrors and deserved our utmost protection and respect. And while National Socialist Germany and its virulence were defeated into the grave in 1945, Soviet Russia and its horrors lived on. Marxism never really got its comeuppance and would eventually torment us repeatedly.

Soviet Russia, co-starter of the Second World War alongside National Socialist Germany in 1939 in their joint invasion of Poland, ultimately got a seat at the victors’ table in 1945. This is why Russia counts its “Great Patriotic War” as having started not in 1939, but in 1941. Lopping off those first two years allows Russia to escape association with its onetime ally, National Socialist Germany. Postwar, Soviet Russia promptly betrayed its wartime “allies” by occupying the countries it had just “liberated.” It didn’t leave them until Soviet Russia’s collapse 44 years later in 1989. The Russia we know today is a mutant product of this twisted history. It has never reformed, as its invasion of Ukraine and threats to the US and its allies today show.

These are the messages I carried into my letter to the President and the First Lady. I’m sure it’s merely coincidence that the President has now publicly declared that Ukraine must win.

𝘾𝙃𝙍𝙄𝙎𝙏𝙊𝙋𝙃𝙀𝙍 𝙅. 𝘽𝘼𝙆𝙀𝙎

𝘼𝙩𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙣𝙚𝙮 | 2020 𝙒𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙀𝙡 𝘾𝙖𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙤 𝘼𝙫𝙚𝙣𝙪𝙚, 𝙎𝙪𝙞𝙩𝙚 700 | 𝙎𝙖𝙘𝙧𝙖𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙤, 𝘾𝘼 95833

𝙀𝙢𝙖𝙞𝙡 𝘾𝙝𝙧𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙥𝙝𝙚𝙧.𝘽𝙖𝙠𝙚𝙨@[𝙧𝙚𝙙𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙚𝙙].𝙘𝙤𝙢* | 𝘿𝙞𝙧𝙚𝙘𝙩 916-[𝙧𝙚𝙙𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙚𝙙] | 𝘾𝙚𝙡𝙡 415-[𝙧𝙚𝙙𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙚𝙙]

𝙎𝙚𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙢𝙗𝙚𝙧 19, 2025

VIA OVERNIGHT EXPRESS DELIVERY

The President and Mrs. Donald J. Trump

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Northwest

Washington, District of Columbia 20500

Re: Justice in Israel; Justice in Ukraine

Dear Mr. President and Mrs. Trump:

I began drafting this letter prior to the death of Charlie Kirk. I finish it now with that horrific tragedy in mind.

So, in memory of Mr. Kirk, I’ll deploy the best of my Catholic education to chart how Israel and Ukraine provide America with a single path to the same end: proclaiming virtue in response to evil in the spirit of the great Christian defenders of Western Civilization.

I turn first to the First Lady’s August letter to Mr. Putin, a poignant moral stand against the horrific civilian killings in Ukraine, particularly of children. I read the letter several times. Here was motherhood, feminine gentleness – and forceful advocacy against violence, drafted in a way that implicitly contrasts life and morality in the United States to the Kremlin’s dark and opposite impulses – which we see playing out daily in Russia’s relentless bombings of innocents and depopulation of Ukraine by the kidnapping of its children. Mrs. Trump in 2025 and Jacqueline Kennedy in 1963 are the only two First Ladies who addressed direct advocacy to a Russian leader. I salute the First Lady for becoming part of history in this way.

What, then, might be the correct fatherly response? Must we think only in terms of what may be “presidential”, or do we try to factor in what may be considered fatherly too? What is the President’s responsibility in such a time as ours, with enemies on the march while Western Civilization’s virtues of chivalry and bravery are mocked, even at the cost of our country’s national honor on the world stage. In today’s milieu, Winston Churchill’s World War II speeches about what he referred to as “Christendom’s” duty to act against the Axis would be mocked.

I suggest that it is now time for what remains of Churchill’s “Christendom” to take aim at the Axis powers now on the march. We only need to take stock of what we all just saw in Beijing, where the People’s Republic of China hosted Iranian, Russian, and North Korean leadership. If we needed further demonstration that Western Civilization and the United States as its moral, military and political leader were under siege by a new Axis, here it was.

What will save us? What will “galvanize” the free world into unified vigilance? What will resonate?

A fatherly talk and a fatherly sense of protection. Winston Churchill was the father of his times. Sitting as you do atop the Free World, you can be the father of our times.

Ukraine, Israel, the United States and the rest of Western Civilization are targets of the same Axis. Iranian drones are launched by Russia against Ukraine. China is publicly committed to Russia’s success. Russia supports Iran, who in turn is pledged to the annihilation of Israel and the United States. North Korea sends troops and arms to Russia, permitted to do so on China’s apparently long leash. As to China, it is out to dominate the world and Russia is publicly at its side to assist and support it. North Korea and Iran are two very bad actors who complete this picture of an anti-American, anti-civilization Axis. Russia, China, Iran and North Korea are pledged to the destruction of freedom and certainly want to bring down America, America’s alliances, and American world influence.

Churchill’s wartime “Christendom” must again be brought to bear. Men and women must be reminded that it is brave and honorable to stand by a promise, such as the one in 1994 where the United States and the United Kingdom assured Ukraine of its border security. American and British signatures bind us morally to the promise our countries made to Ukraine, now under horrendous assault by Russia – the other signatory to that same document. Are British and American signatures to mean just as little as Russia’s signature? Or do our and our chief ally’s signatures count for more?

Obviously, they count for more. In a world that often needs to be reminded what civilization looks like, it is the President of the United States who alone has the power and podium to be the moral counterpoint to the enemies of America and the Free World – who just met in Beijing. One of them, Russia, just sent 19 drones hundreds of miles into Poland and NATO airspace. What people now need at this crucial hour are words that will galvanize them into awareness on why the Free World and Western Civilization matter, along with a reminder that we must not be a people who reneges on a promise and a signature. We are not Russia. Unlike Mr. Putin, the American President does not poison political opponents, push them out of windows or nightly give orders to bomb civilian innocents.

Christianity shaped our civilization. Christianity’s eventual embrace by Roman Emperor Constantine ultimately prevented the full collapse of western civilization when Rome fell. The Church remained standing and continued its works even through the Dark Ages.

In 732 A.D., Christianity guided French ruler Charles Martel and his alliance to repel Muslim invaders to, literally, save Europe – and eventually us too.

In 1571, A.D., Christianity, Pope Pius V and the Holy League repelled the same invaders at Lepanto, saving civilization yet again.

In 1683, Christianity guided Polish King John III Sobieski and his allies to beat these invaders again, literally at the gates of Vienna.

It was Churchill’s “Christendom” that in 1939-1945 allied again to resist National Socialist Germany. Almost immediately after that victory, the free nations of the West united yet one more time, this time to resist Soviet Russia’s occupation of the countries it had just “liberated.” And NATO was born.

Who will unite us today through our common decency to repel the invader again and be remembered as the best of history? History remembers the saviors of civilization, of Europe, and eventually Europe’s most brilliant offspring, the United States of America. Without Christianity and its Jewish-born Savior, there is no Europe and no Western Civilization. Without Europe and Western Civilization, no America.

History is calling out to us. If we don’t answer the call, it will be tyrannical China, tyrannical North Korea, tyrannical Iran and tyrannical Russia who will ascend instead. Tyrants are bullies who only stop when strength commands them to stop. Grand alliances and great leaders matter. It is today the United States that has the greatest alliance system in the history of the world. Here is our country’s call to greatness – your call to greatness.

I was taught in Catholic schools through law school by several of the great men and women who fought and won World War II. I was taught by priest prisoners of war, concentration camp survivors, and child survivors of both Nazi and Soviet occupations. Now, it is our generation’s turn to repel the Axis. Israel and Ukraine are ground zero in this fight – two fronts of the same war. They are battle-tested and ready. We need them both. We must support them both.

Russia has spent much of the postwar era making fools of American Presidents. Don’t be part of that hapless group.

Be Reagan. Be Kennedy. Don’t be Obama or Bush, who played the part of naïve bystanders who let Putin steal the silverware.

85% of the Senate is prepared to sanction Russia, a rare consensus. Here is an opportunity to build on that consensus and silence critics, cultivating new friends, supporters and allies.

In closing, I’ll be bold. Bold is called for. I think an American-led no-fly zone over Ukraine would be a perfect introduction to this new chapter of American leadership and resolve, and perfect message to Putin that this American Presidency will not be toyed with.

Very truly yours,

Christopher J. Bakes