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It has the appearance of a mob shakedown more than a diplomatic meeting. On Friday, there was President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance lecturing and bullying the president of Ukraine to be more grateful and to agree essentially to Russia’s demands.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tried to say he was grateful for U.S. aid (which he has said numerous times before, including on the floor of Congress), but he also wanted to make it clear that Russia, which brutally invaded Ukraine three years ago, is not a trustworthy negotiating partner. He was trying to make the point that Russia had violated numerous previous diplomatic agreements, even before the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Trump and Vance were having none of it, talking over Zelenskyy and demanding more gratitude.
Vance blamed Zelenskyy for making a spectacle before the TV cameras even though it was the White House that assembled the media, which briefly included Russian state media but not American journalism stalwarts Reuters and the Associated Press. Trump later said the heated exchange made for great television.
It appeared, as many observers have pointed out, to be a set up. Trump wanted to make Zelenskyy look bad so he could continue his push to align the United States on the side of Russia and Vladimir Putin, an authoritarian ruler that Trump has long admired. It also had all the hallmarks of an abusive relationship: victim blaming, gaslighting, withholding support and manipulation through false choices.
Beyond the theatrics and cruelty, Friday’s meeting marked a stark — and startling and disheartening — realignment of American interests. It erased 80 years of U.S. support for democracy around the world. If Trump persists in doing Russia’s bidding, it puts the U.S. firmly in the camp of dictators and tyrants, working against the champions of democracy around the world.
“It is bewildering to see Mr. Trump’s allies defending this debacle as some show of American strength,” The Wall Street Journal editorial board wrote on Friday. “The U.S. interest in Ukraine is shutting down Mr. Putin’s imperial project of reassembling a lost Soviet empire without U.S. soldiers ever having to fire a shot. That core interest hasn’t changed, but berating Ukraine in front of the entire world will make it harder to achieve.”
“Turning Ukraine over to Mr. Putin would be catastrophic for that country and Europe, but it would be a political calamity for Mr. Trump too,” it added.
At a minimum, Trump and Vance fail to understand that diplomacy is not capitulating to your enemy and groveling to your supposed allies. Russia, the aggressor, should not be able to dictate the terms of a peace agreement to end its invasion of Ukraine. It certainly should not be able to keep any of the territory in Ukraine that it has occupied.
Trump and Vance should also remember a bit of history. In 1994, Ukraine agreed to give up its nuclear weapons, which amounted to the world’s third largest arsenal at that time. In exchange, it was given assurances by the U.S., Britain and Russia that its security would be protected and preserved. Russia quickly violated the terms of the Budapest Memorandum. It appears that the U.S. is now doing so as well.
At its worst, the president and vice president are doing Russia’s bidding. The meeting with Zelenskyy came just four days after the U.S. split with its European and Asian allies and joined countries like North Korea, Russia and Israel in voting against a United Nations resolution blaming Russia for the war in Ukraine and calling for a withdrawal of Russian troops.
It is worth remembering that, his sons bragged, Trump’s business empire has been heavily reliant on funding from Russian oligarchs and banks, including one where Putin sits on the board.
No matter the reasons, aligning the U.S. with Russia, and against Ukraine and other democracies, is extremely concerning. It should be raising alarm bells with every member of Congress and the American public.
America cannot turn its back on Ukraine, or its long history of opposing authoritarian tyrants in favor of supporting and furthering democracy.