In "one of the greatest diplomatic disasters in modern history”- and a vile, petty, vindictive display that brought America's presidency somehow still lower - two boorish, bullying, treacherous thugs ganged up last week on a wartime leader and ally in a sordid show of support for authoritarianism, both theirs and a murderous Putin's. Their assault on Ukraine and democracy itself was both horror and urgent counsel: "We cannot be made to be afraid of these fucking people. Our job is to speak up."
The attempted ritual humiliation of Zelensky came as Ukraine, a small struggling democracy of 38 million people, is ravaged by a nation of 144 million led by a gangster. Having endured three years of war, he came to D.C. willing to meet with a hostile, unhinged autocrat, still fuming over the defiant refusal of a bribe that led to his first impeachment and now demanding fealty and the rights to his country's rare minerals - the transactional end-play in which a country's sovereign rights are suddenly being bartered, under our new art-of-the-deal regime, for profit: "Aid that was previously given for nothing must now be bought." The proffered “investment fund” carries no guarantees for security, but the bumbling crook who managed to bankrupt several casinos is sure his bestie Vlad "will keep his word - I have known him for a long time” - even though Putin broke a 2015 Minsk ceasefire agreement on Crimea and the Donas under which Ukraine voluntarily gave up the world's third-largest stockpile of nuclear weapons and the U.S., UK and France promised to come to Ukraine's aid if he did so. Also he killed Alexei Navalny and keeps throwing critics out of high windows but sure, we can trust him.
Still, Zelensky came, for the sake of his country, to negotiate with the party of Biff and its truculent, rapacious mob boss. Knowing of his illiteracy, he brought pictures of brutalized Ukrainian soldiers. Trump shrugged. Then, joined and abetted on cue by the despicable, unserious Shady Vance, they began to attack like schoolyard bullies shaking down a kid for his lunch money. Sounding like nothing so much as "a couple of online Kremlin sock puppets," Trump yelled Zelenskyy was "gambling with World War III" (in a war Putin started) while Vance argued it was "disrespectful" for Zelenskyy to "come to the Oval Office and litigate this before the American media" (who he and Trump invited). "Have you thanked us once?" he shrieked like an aggrieved dad to a sullen, inadequately grateful kid - one evidently unaware of the 33 times Zelensky has eloquently thanked the U.S. for its support. Still, Zelensky, likely the only one in the room with a functional moral compass, sat stoic as the lies were hurled and would not bend down to lick the boots. "Two boys were yelling and having a temper tantrum in that room," noted one observer. "One man was not."
He did though, fight back, even though Engllsh is his third language; Russian was his first. To Vance hectoring him about Ukraine's "problems," he asked, “Have you ever been to Ukraine, that you say what problems we have?" Angrily defensive, Vance brayed, "I've seen pictures of it." "During the war, everybody has problems," Zelenskyy explained. Then, trying to convey the felt threat from Russia, he added, "Even you. But you have nice ocean, you don’t feel now, but you will feel it in the future.” Trump, wrathful, scowling, exploded: "Don’t tell us what we’re going to feel. You’re in no position to dictate that, remember that. We’re going to feel very good and strong." It was when Zelenskyy challenged Vance's clueless demand he accept Putin's "diplomacy" by reciting Russia's past crimes and lies that Trump lost it, plunging into a rage spiral that instantly destroyed weeks of painstaking negotiation and rendered an "emotional shift (that) was palpable." A glowering, raging mob boss, he spluttered, "You’ve allowed yourself to be in a very bad position. You're not in a good position. You either make a deal or we’re out. You don't have the cards." Zelenskyy, calmly: "I'm not playing cards."
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And so it went, down and down, as Trump raged. "You have to be thankful!” he stupidly fumed to the leader who's watched his people suffer and die for three years. "You're not acting at all thankful. And that's not a nice thing. I'll be honest, that's not a nice thing." With history on his side, Zelenskyy sat stoic; around them, assembled sycophants sat stunned. Czeslaw Milosz: "In a room where people unanimously maintain a conspiracy of silence, one word of truth sounds like a pistol shot." Among those slouched in dismay was the especially slimy Marco Rubio, who likely knew better and thus desperately shrank into the couch in search of plausible deniability like Homer Simpson famously melting into a bush: "That moment when you see the soul you sold slipping away from you." Later, he rallied to the dubious cause of tyranny by execrably posting, "Thank you @POTUS for putting America First" and gushing that Trump "knows how to get deals done," or at least detonate them. Predictably yet astonishingly, most of the GOP's other "Dummies for Putin" likewise fell into line, transforming what even the Wall Street Journal called the deranged "debacle" of betraying a besieged ally into a show of strength and statesmanship.
From their alternate reality, the GOP took a classic abusers' "look-what-you-made-me-do” stance on Trump's meltdown, slamming Zelenskyy's "body language, the shaking of head, the arms crossed" as "incredibly disrespectful.” Also his (imaginary) "escalation" as he challenged their boys' lies "in front of the media (who they'd invited) and the American people." Nazi Stephen Miller blasted Zelenskyy's declining to kiss the ring as "impertinence." And of course there was his norm of wearing military garb in solidarity with those fighting in his country, like Churchill at his 1942 White House visit. Amidst the horror of America's abrupt turn from democracy to embrace autocracy, Brian Glenn, right-wing TV host and MTG boyfriend, dug deep for the bedrock issue of the day: "Why don't you wear a suit?", which is "not respecting the office," never mind Pres. Musk's routine appearances in jeans, t-shirt, baseball cap and sunglasses over ketamine eyes. "I am a president in a war," was the sober response. "I will wear costume after this war will finish. Maybe something like yours. Maybe something better." Readers noted the Ukrainian "костюм, kostium" means "suit" in English, but we like the literal translation.
Trump ended "one of the grimmest days in the history of American diplomacy" - entire transcript here, worst snippet here - with a crass, blithe, "All right, I think we've seen enough. This is going to be great television." The addled, arrogant fuckwad of a useful idiot later intoned, "I have determined that President Zelensky is not ready for Peace. He disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office. He can come back when he is ready for Peace." On Planet MAGA, lunatic denial abides: A Fox bobblehead gushed, "It's remarkable we have a president who’s willing to do anything to bring about world peace," and if he doesn't get the Nobel Peace Prize "then wow that thing means nothing.” But elsewhere, the chilling, shameful spectacle of a boorish U.S. president "pummeling a friend as if he were an enemy" to shape an America "now aligned with Russia and against Ukraine, Europe, and most of the planet" was deeply mourned as "a dark day" and "a transformation of what kind of country the United States is in the world." “Shame. Shame. Shame,” wrote Hawaii's Sen. Brian Schatz. “What an utter embarrassment for America," wrote Sen. Chris Murphy. "This whole sad scene."
“A president just disrespected America in the Oval Office," wrote one appalled American. "It wasn’t Zelenskyy.” Ukraine's president "was called to the White House to sign, but not speak," wrote another of the callous, juvenile, vindictive display. "This is what victim-blaming looks like on an international stage." Many described feeling physically sick witnessing a scene, wroteVote.Vets, "only Russia could enjoy." And they did. The Kremlin wrote that the pivot in U,S. policy “largely coincides" with its own vision; they also celebrated Trump's “common sense” in finally giving Zelenskyy, "the insolent pig...a proper slap-down in the Oval Office." Here at home, grieving Americans with any sense of history recognized that sorry pivot for what it is: Per Garry Kasparov, who "knows something about Russia," one of multiple "strategic elements of a plan familiar to any student of the rise and fall of democracies, especially the 'fall' part." Perhaps most searing was an editorial in the The Kyiv Independent. Trump, they wrote, "will go down in history as the first American president to willingly betray his country in service to a foreign country...The name 'Trump' will become synonymous with treachery."
Ukrainian President Zelensky visits with wounded soldiers in the U.S. in 2023(Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)
in the wake of a diplomatic calamity that threatens the breakdown of the last 80 years of post-World-War-ll world order, horrified European leaders rushed to declare they "stand with Ukraine in good and testing times." "The scene at the White House took my breath away,” said German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier. "I would never have believed that one day we would have to defend Ukraine from the USA." The U.K's Keir Starmer told Zelenskyy they will "stand with Ukraine for as long as it may take.” In France, the Eiffel Tower lit up in blue and yellow, and Macron declared "If anyone is gambling with World War III, his name is Vladimir Putin.” And one of Norway’s largest marine fuel companies announced they will no longer refuel US Navy vessels. The bullying treatment of Zelenskyy "made us sick," they said. " We encourage all Norwegians and Europeans to follow our example.” Heedful of the possible ramifications of a Trump-rage-fueled worst-case scenario, people and non-profits urged "everyone who is despairing" to consider donating directly to Ukraine - through the state platform United 24, or a Crisis Relief non-profit, or to Come Back Alive, a Ukrainian NGO that supports soldiers.
Meanwhile, an aggrieved, power-mad Trump and his malignant lackeys are inching closer to the full abandonment of Ukraine. Administration thugs pressing Kyiv for access to critical minerals are said to be threatening to cut the country’s vital access to Musk’s Starlink satellite system, which provides Internet to both the government and military. "Ukraine runs on Starlink," said one source. "They consider it their North Star.” Last week, the State Department reportedly terminated a USAID project to invest millions of dollars to restore Ukraine's energy grid, battered by Russian attacks; they're also moving to reduce USAID staff from 64 to 8. On Monday, Trump blasted a Zelenskyy warning this weekend a deal to end the war remains "very, very far away," raving, "This is the worst statement that could have been made - America will not put up with it much longer!” And hours after he again griped Ukraine "should be more appreciative" - what a fucking narcissistic snowflake - he allegedly just ordered a "pause" in bipartisan, Congressionally-approved military aid until Zelenskyy bends a knee - yet another illegal move Dems slammed as "playing political games with critical military assistance.” Color us horrified, but not shocked.
With so much awful abroad in the land, it's admittedly tough to maintain any semblance of wit, hope or fight. But damn, many are trying. Andy Borowitz responded to the Zelenskyy ambush with a piece about Ukraine's president meeting, "for the good of my country," with a Russian agent. "Today we saw the bravest man in the world bullied by a guy who got a podiatrist’s note to avoid the draft," he said of the agent Zelensky labelled "a moderately successful comedian who was very low in the polls." "He better move fast," he mocked of the fat old guy who can't, "or he's not going to have a country left." A day after said ambush, Snaky Vance headed to Sugarbush in Warren, Vermont for a family ski vacation, only to be met by an impressive, galvanized, some pissed force of trolls and protesters lining his route with Ukraine flags and righteous signs: "Go Ski In Russia, Have You No Shame? Betraying All That America Stands For, Zelenskyy For President, JD Nazi Join the Right Side of History, Vance Skis Like A Fascist, Take Your Hate Out of Our State, Vance Uses Fake Syrup, Vance Puts His Cast Iron Skillet in the Dishwasher, Vance Skis In Jeans" - Vermont's "Final Boss Nuclear Insult" - and "Hit A Tree."
Meanwhile, the local Mad River Taste Place offered discounts for anyone unemployed by DOGE and a Welcome Platter with a "DIVERSE selection of local cheese EQUITABLY distributed and INCLUSIVE of all flavors"; a Sugarbush snow reporter posted a message of resistance to subscribers (until it was removed) noting the mountain's beauty, peace and "fresh National Forest air (are) under attack," so "direct your anger to (those) threatening our democracy, livelihoods and land"; local rage reportedly made the slimy Vances scrap their four-star inn and flee to "an undisclosed location"; it was so cold and icy they didn't even ski; and crowds again came to "escort" them back to the airport. One sign: "Hey Vance, Have You Even Thanked Vermont?" The week before, The Bulwark's Tim Miller had likewise advised a crowd on the power of speaking out. "I know these people," he said of the serpentine likes of Vance et al. "These people are cowards and these people are bullies, and none of (them) are worth fearing." In the face of an autocratic threat, he asserted, "Just saying 'no' is a good in itself...They want us to be afraid, which is why our job is (to) stand up and not be afraid. You have no reason to be fearful of these little men."
This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Abby Zimet.