Don Bacon is ‘man in the wilderness’ as GOP critic of Donald Trump on Ukraine

U.S. Rep. Don Bacon, who represents the Omaha-centered 2nd Congressional District, has been a rare exception.

“When he says he doesn’t know who started the war — that’s total baloney,” Bacon said this week in an interview with The World-Herald. “Putin’s murdered every one of his opponents. And we’re calling Zelenskyy a dictator?”

The retired Air Force brigadier general has recently given critical interviews about Trump’s Ukraine intervention to CNN and to CBS News’ “60 Minutes,” posting links on the social-media platform X, formerly Twitter.

Bacon also has crafted posts bolstering Ukraine and NATO while calling out the administration’s apparent tilt toward Russia, which launched an invasion of its neighbor in February 2022. The war has turned into a bloody stalemate, with more than 1 million dead and wounded and Russia occupying about 20% of Ukraine’s territory.

“America is and should be the indispensable nation for defending freedom, free markets and rule of law. But we cannot do it alone. We must have strong alliances that help deter Russia, China and Iran,” he said in an X post Thursday morning.

Whether Bacon will pay a political price for contradicting his party’s leader is not yet clear. The 2nd District has been trending blue, giving victories, along with a single Electoral College vote, to former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024 and Joe Biden in 2020. Bacon has needed to win crossover Democrats to keep his seat.

Bacon’s comments have stepped up since the televised Feb. 28 Oval Office confrontation, in which Trump and Vice President JD Vance attacked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for appearing insufficiently grateful for U.S. military assistance, and for his reluctance to cut a peace deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin he feared would be quickly broken. Zelenskyy had visited the White House to sign a deal sharing its mineral resources with the United States in return for continued U.S. military support, which he views as key to his country’s survival.

In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said Zelenskyy had “disrespected the United States in its cherished Oval Office” and added that didn’t think Zelenskyy was prepared to end the war if America was supporting him.

“(H)e feels our involvement gives him a big advantage in negotiations. I don’t want advantage, I want PEACE,” Trump said. “He can come back when he is ready for PEACE.”

Many Republicans joined Trump in criticizing Zelenskyy — including Nebraska U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer and Rep. Mike Flood, who have both been solid supporters of Ukraine. Fischer described the tenor of the Ukrainian leader’s comments to Trump as “inappropriate and disrespectful,” according to the Lincoln news station KOLN.

In a column posted on his congressional website, Flood described Zelenskyy’s remarks as “disparaging to President Trump,” adding, “It’s in both countries’ best interests that Zelensky repair the relationship to revive the deal.” Flood’s column paired condemnation of Putin with praise for Trump’s efforts to end the war.

Bacon calls Trump comment ‘just wrong’

Trump and Vance suggested that Zelenskyy had provoked the Russian invasion by seeking membership in NATO and accused the Ukrainian president of being a “dictator” because he has not stood for reelection — though the country’s constitution does permit presidential elections while it is at war. These echo Russian talking points.

Two days later after the Oval Office showdown, Bacon appeared on the “60 Minutes” episode focusing on the Trump-Zelenskyy fallout. Asked whether Trump was appeasing Putin, Bacon said. “It appears that way, although I can’t get into his motives. … All I know is, when he says that Russia is not the invader, that it’s Ukraine’s fault — that’s just wrong.”

He told The World-Herald he was “angered” by the president’s remarks on the start of the war.

“Let’s have moral clarity here: Russia invaded Ukraine,” he said. “They’re bombing the cities, they’re killing POWs.”

Ukraine was part of the Russian empire, and later the Soviet Union. Its people were targeted by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in the 1930s, with political purges and executions as well as a targeted famine enforced through collectivized farming that is believed to have killed nearly 4 million people.

“They’ve been abused by the Russians for centuries,” Bacon said.

In a post on X Thursday, Bacon added: “Putin is a Stalin ‘wannabe.’”

‘We’re helping a free nation defend its freedom’

Under Zelenskyy, Ukraine pushed back the invaders with military support from the United States, Canada and allies in Europe. Ukrainians enjoyed widespread bipartisan support in Congress.

Bacon chairs the House Baltic Caucus. He has visited Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, as well as Poland, all NATO members. He said they are some of the United States’ staunchest allies and likely targets of Russian aggression if Putin is emboldened by a favorable settlement in Ukraine.

After a visit to Ukraine last fall he said: “We can’t let a larger country invade a smaller country.” A few months later, soon after Trump won the 2024 election, he praised President Joe Biden for allowing Ukraine’s use of long-range weapons to attack military targets deep inside Russia.

“We’re helping a free nation defend its freedom,” Bacon said recently. “It’s in our national security interests that Ukraine wins.”

Trump and Vance are the leaders of an isolationist segment of the Republican Party, though, that sees the Ukraine war as an unnecessary foreign entanglement. They campaigned on an immediate end to the war.

Trump paused aid to Ukraine in one of his first acts after returning to office this year, and has sought to condition U.S. assistance on Zelenskyy turning over all or some of the country’s mineral wealth. He and Vance have also said Ukraine must be prepared to let Russia keep some of the territory it has occupied.

“You’re not in a good position. You don’t have the cards right now,” Trump told Zelenskyy in the Oval Office meeting.

“I’m not playing cards,” Zelenskyy retorted.

Bacon described Trump as a “total realist” who views international relations strictly in terms of deal-making.

“You’ve got to have realism. But you’ve got to have principles, too,” he said.

Tyler White, a political science professor and the director of the National Security program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said Bacon’s views represent a long-held bipartisan consensus in the United States.

“It falls in line with the way most people feel who are charged with monitoring the national security of this country,” White said. “He’s defending what we articulated as our core national interests.”

He said Trump has managed to scramble relations with nations like Canada, France and Great Britain that have been steadfast allies for more than 200 years.

“In a very short time, we have completely shaken up that apple cart,” White said.

He believes the harm to U.S. national security is potentially greater than the one inflicted when Islamist terrorists attacked the homeland on Sept. 11, 2001. Then, NATO allies quickly came to the United States’ aid.

“We’re in the process of stripping bare the very systems that have brought us prosperity,” White said.

Bacon’s criticisms have been carefully couched, focusing on policies rather than the president himself. He has expanded them to Trump’s tariff policies and his attacks on NATO — especially Canada, which Trump has insisted he wants to annex, along with Greenland and the Panama Canal.

“(Canada is) our ally,” Bacon said. “Calling them the 51st state, and the prime minister ‘Governor,’ is just demeaning. We should be respectful.”

His X posts have drawn some pushback.

“You’re outright lying cuz you crave war to keep your defense lobby overlords pleased,” said one respondent to a Bacon post Thursday that slammed Putin’s response to a proposed ceasefire.

“Warmonger,” wrote another.

Bacon favors many Trump policies

Bacon said he still supports many of Trump’s policies. For example, he applauds the president’s actions to stop undocumented immigrants at the southern border.

Still, Trump is known for focusing his ire — and that of his followers — on fellow Republicans who cross him. And billionaire Elon Musk, has threatened to empty his deep pockets to fund primary opponents for anyone from the GOP who tries to thwart the Trump agenda.

“I’m sure the president expects loyalty on this,” Bacon said. “I didn’t get elected to be totally loyal to the president. I was elected to be loyal to the people of my district, and to the Constitution.”

He said he hasn’t decided yet whether he’ll seek a sixth term in 2026. But given that he represents one of the nation’s few swing districts, he expects to face well-financed opposition in both the primary and the general election under any circumstances.

In 2024, Bacon handily defeated a primary challenger from the right, and won the general with crossover votes from Democrats and independents who also supported Vice President Kamala Harris.

Bacon said his views wouldn’t have been remarkable in the GOP caucus even a few months ago. He said he’s one of only about 10 Republicans who has spoken out, but he has received quiet support from others.

“I may be the most vocal of the bunch,” he said. “I want people to know that we old-school Republicans have not died away. Reagan Republicans are still out there.”

His carefully built image is of pragmatic centrism. On some issues, Bacon is willing to stand apart.

“Sometimes it’s alright to be the man in the wilderness,” he said. “I want to be on the right side of history.”