What just happened in the Oval Office? Donald Trump and his gang are perpetrating outrages at a brain-numbing pace, but the worst (so far) may be his abandonment of Ukraine and the Western Alliance in favor of Russia, the worldโs foremost aggressor.
Trumpโs and Vice President JD Vanceโs televised dressing down of Ukraineโs valiant president, Volodymyr Zelensky, Thursday was the unforgettable crescendo of a process
underway for weeks and maybe (in Trumpโs mind) for years. Prior to the Oval Office blowup, Trump had already falsely blamed Ukraine for starting the brutal three-year
war plainly launched by Russiaโwhich has committed war crimes including torture and murder of civilians, massive destruction of cities, kidnapping of thousands of Ukrainian children for transfer to Russia and creating millions of refugees.
Trump has already acceded to Russiaโs terms for ending the war โ no NATO
membership for Ukraine, Russiaโs retention of the fifth of Ukraineโs territory already conquered, and lifting of sanctions imposed when Russia attacked.
Heโd already accused Zelensky of being a โdictator,โ but had no criticisms of Putin, an actual absolute dictator who sidelines, imprisons, or murders political opponents and critics.
And the US had already voted with Russia (and North Korea) against a UN resolution backed by European allies (among 93 nations) condemning Russiaโs invasion and calling for its immediate withdrawal. (China and Iran actually abstained.)
In the Oval Office, Zelensky tried to tell Trump that Putin could not be trusted to keep an agreement โ as he hadnโt in 2019 after agreeing to a ceasefire โ and that Ukraine therefore needed US security guarantees. But Vance and Trump accused Zelensky of being โungratefulโ for past US aid and โdisrespectfulโ for trying to state his case with TV cameras
rolling.
Before kicking Zelensky out of the White House, lunch uneaten and an agreement on sharing Ukraineโs strategic minerals unsigned, Trump told Zelensky, โyouโre either going to make a deal or weโre out and if weโre out youโre going to fight it out. I donโt think it will be
prettyโฆ you donโt have the cards. But once we sign that deal, youโre in a much better position, but youโre not acting all that thankful. And thatโs not a nice thing.โ
Trump and Vanceโs performance was cheered by Moscow and among Republicans, some of whom (like Secretary of State Marco Rubio) recently viewed Russia as an adversary bent on restoring the old Soviet empire. Trumpโs lickspittle, Georgia Sen. Lindsey Graham, a former defense hawk and backer of Ukraine, said, โIโve never been prouder of President Trump.โ
The White House dustup caused alarm among European allies, who pledged to stand by Ukraine but plainly fear that Trump means to break up the Western alliance and canโt be depended upon to uphold the NATO obligation to defend any fellow member attacked by
Russia.
The Trump-Vance performance may have been choreographed to throw Zelensky back on his heels, so heโd come back begging for the Russian peace deal agreed to by Trump without Ukraine or Europeans present. Trump said on his way to Mar-a-Lago that Zelensky โwants to come back, but I donโt want him unless he agrees to stop fighting.โ
Since the conflict, Zelensky has been effusive in his thanks and praise for Trump and the US, adding that his country canโt survive without US support. But he still insists on security guarantees.
What remains a mystery is why Trump is so wedded to Putin. One reason could be that Putin is a strong man destined to be one of the worldโs main leaders, along with Trump himself and Chinaโs Xi Ji Ping — to whom weaker nations must yield.
Another โ much speculated upon but never proven โ is that Putin has โsomething onโ Trump that he could reveal and precipitate his downfall.
Either explanation is a shameful reason for the United States, historically the worldโs guarantor of democracy and liberty, to join the despots of the world.
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Perhaps there is no mystery. The adage from the Watergate era, โFollow the moneyโ, should always be applied in trying to understand Chumpโs decisions. I believe he will do whatever is asked of him by whoever will line his pockets. Perhaps a potential Chump Tower in Moscow is his sole motivation for bailing on Zelenskyyโฆ.
Who wrote the headline for this story? Itโs not an accurate description of either the following essay or the facts of what happened. Zelenskyy did make understandable tactical errors but that is not addressed here and the headline is plain stupid. Do better.
Aaron,
What โunderstandable tactical errorsโ did Z make?
That’s a fair question. I sure wouldn’t have done as well… I think he could have not said anything rather than the off handed remark about “feelings”, but it likely wouldn’t have made any difference. He tried a socratic question of dufus, and that just doesn’t work with someone as sick as dufus. I think it is fair to suggest if he had it to do again he might do some things differently (but again to no avail, the strategic fix was in). I mean no actual critique of Zelenskyy, just a note that dufus got what he was hoping for from Zelenskyy, more or less, regrettably.
p.s. I misread the headline.
His socratic suggestion that drumf has feelings. Small error he might have redone given the chance, but no real difference regardless, the fix was in.
It was disrespectful that Vance and Trump accused Zelensky of being โungrateful.โ
However, in the meeting Zelenskyy falsely claimed, “We signed the exchange of prisoners, but he [Putin] didnโt do it.”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ukraine-crisis-prisoners-swap/ukraine-and-russia-backed-separatists-begin-prisoner-swap-idUSKCN21Y0O5/
https://abcnews.go.com/International/russia-ukraine-hold-prisoner-exchange-major-diplomatic-breakthrough/story?id=65449252
What could Putin possibly have on Trump that Trump would care about, given that Trump thinks he could kill Mother Theresa in public and get away with it? And as far as his MAGA lemmings go, he is correct.
The significance of the Russian economy that is mentioned is arguable. The EU has all but eliminated it’s dependence on Russian Gas and oil for it’s needs. The overal Russian economy is 11th in the world; but ther bulk of the 2+ trillion gdp is wrapped up in oil and gas, as much as 80% of gdp. Add the fact that inflation is high in Russia, running up to 21%, makes the Russian economy ihe weak; not what Putin likes to think of himself as the master of a powerful economy.
Secretary Rubio’s trip to Russian to come home to “economic opportunities” for American companies in Russia makes no sense. The Russian government controls the gas and oil and is not about to let American companies come in and share that wealth. That leaves little of interest to any foreign investment. More smoke and mirrors from the Trump adminisration.
There have been a couple of reports from people who were working for Russia in the ’80s, that he was recruited or cultivated. One element of that kind of effort can be an envelope of compromising material, but I think they found that with sufficient flattery they didn’t need to twist his arm at all.
Personally I don’t care why he’s betraying America and the west. He needs to be stopped.
The pollsters must be out taking the current temperature on this one. It will be interesting to see if when Trump takes up with Putin, will his MAGA crowd follow him? Putin sure wants to Make America Great Again, I think you can count on that.
Thanks to Musk-Trump regime and complicit Republicans, it seems US is now allied with Mother Russia, North Korea, Hungary, and Belarus. Does this mean US will reinstate a draft of young Americans to build an army of cannon fodder to fight Ukraine and Western Europe? And, with Defense Secretary Hegsethโs elimination of DEI policies, doesnโt that require a draft including only white males? If so, it should be wild, as self-anointed US king and pawn of the butcher in the Kremlin might say.
Trump’s cozy relationship with the Russians goes back nearly 40 years. We must assume that Putin has at least a few ‘things’ on him by now. Not the least of this is Russian investment in Trump properties at key moments. They own big chunks of him and could harm him pretty quickly.
Here is a timeline that goes just up to 2017: https://medium.com/@abbievansickle/timeline-of-trumps-relationship-to-russia-5e78c7e7f480.
Another damning aspect of this is that Ukraine gave up its nuclear arsenal back in the 90s after receiving assurances from the US, Russia, and the UK.
So, how do we pull ourselves out of this utter disgrace and save our country? In four years it will be too late.
Thanks very much for that timeline. The only thing I knew was that the father of Trump’s first wife, Ivana, was a member of Czechoslovakia’s ‘KGB’ when the country was part of the USSR, and tapped Tump to be a Russian asset.
Wikipedia entry: “In October 1990, Ivana’s 63-year-old father, Miloลก Zelnรญฤek, died suddenly from a heart attack. According to The Guardian, her father was an informer for Czechoslovakia’s Stรกtnรญ bezpeฤnost (StB) intelligence service who relayed information from his daughter, including a correct prediction that George H. W. Bush would win the 1988 presidential election”.
Fact checking, please. Lindsay Graham is senator from South Carolina.
On Russia’s economic situation — India’s trade deficit with Russia has ballooned with the sanctions, as they are probably getting a relatively good deal on Russia’s fossil fuels. India is pumping $50 billion a year into Russia as it pumps the oil out. That’s net.
Trump may see them as a model.
Trump is an adjudicated rapist. Rapists always blame their victims for leading them on.
It’s no surprise that he blames Ukraine for starting the war with Russia when one considers this.
This is not at all politics about ending a war. We’ve slipped away from understanding that Trump operates only in terms of business deals. What’s on the table here is a split of Ukraine between Russia and the U.S. And that’s why Trump proposes U.S. business access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals in exchange for any “help.” For him, that’s what the “deal” is all about. If he can’t get it, fuck ’em. Same as his interest in Greenland or anywhere else.