It was a setup
Tom Nichols on the horror of today:
The president of the United States ambushed a loyal ally, presumably so that he can soon make a deal with the dictator of Russia to sell out a European nation fighting for its very existence.
Trump’s advisers have already declared the meeting a win for “putting America first,” and his apologists will likely spin and rationalize this shameful moment as just a heated conversation—the kind of thing that in Washington-speak used to be called a “frank and candid exchange.” But this meeting reeked of a planned attack, with Trump unloading Russian talking points on Zelensky (such as blaming Ukraine for risking global war), all of it designed to humiliate the Ukrainian leader on national television and give Trump the pretext to do what he has indicated repeatedly he wants to do: side with Russian President Vladimir Putin and bring the war to an end on Russia’s terms. Trump is now reportedly considering the immediate end of all military aid to Ukraine because of Zelensky’s supposed intransigence during the meeting.
Vance’s presence at the White House also suggests that the meeting was a setup. Vance is usually an invisible backbencher in this administration, with few duties other than some occasional trolling of Trump’s critics. (The actual business of furthering Trump’s policies is apparently now Elon Musk’s job.) This time, however, he was brought in to troll not other Americans, but a foreign leader. Marco Rubio—in theory, America’s top diplomat—was also there, but he sat glumly and silently while Vance pontificated like an obnoxious graduate student.
Vance was there to be a shithead, and he fulfilled the task very thoroughly.
After the meeting, Trump dismissed the Ukrainian leader and then issued a statement that could only have pleased Moscow:
I have determined that President Zelensky is not ready for Peace if America is involved, because he feels our involvement gives him a big advantage in negotiations. I don’t want advantage, I want PEACE. He disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office. He can come back when he is ready for Peace.
Yes if only Roosevelt had told Churchill he didn’t want advantage, he wanted PEACE, so let’s all do a deal with Herr Hitler.
Vance, for his part, fully inhabited the role of a smarmy talk-show sidekick, jumping in to make sure the star got the support he needed while slamming one of the guests. The vice president is an unserious man who tries to insert himself into serious moments, but this time the stakes were much higher than the usual dustups with the media or congressional Democrats. He chuckled as Brian Glenn, a journalist from the right-wing channel Real America’s Voice who is reportedly dating Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, asked Zelensky the tough and incisive question of why he had not worn a suit in the Oval Office. (Perhaps he’ll ask Musk why he wore a
hat[baseball cap] and T-shirt to a Cabinet meeting, but I doubt it.)The sheer rudeness shown to a foreign guest and friend of the United States was (to use a word) deplorable as a matter of manners and grace, but worse, Trump and Vance acted like a couple of online Kremlin sock puppets instead of American leaders.
Sock puppets is what they are, really. Wally Smiths on the global stage.
But no matter how disgusted anyone might be at Trump and Vance’s behavior, the strategic reality is that this meeting is a catastrophe for the United States and the free world. America’s alliances are now in danger, and should be: Trump is openly, and gleefully, betraying everything America has tried to defend since the defeat of the Axis 80 years ago. The entire international order of peace and security is now in danger, as Russian autocrats, after slaughtering innocent people for three years, look forward to enjoying the spoils of their invasion instead of standing trial for their crimes. (Shortly after Trump dismissed Zelensky from the White House, Putin’s homunculus, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, posted on X: “The insolent pig finally got a proper slap down in the Oval Office.”)
Ah yes the insolent pig who doesn’t like being invaded by a neighbor.
Solidarity with the insolent pigs.
That was the most unpleasant & contemptible performance I have ever seen (not, obviously, on the part of Zelensky). No doubt all the cocks of Hades will be crowing.in gloating triumph on the right-wing fever sites.
I served in the US Infantry in our part of NATO for about 2 years. There is NO ethical or moral difference between the USSR and what we face now. I wish we Americans had a leader of the caliber and quality of Volodymyr Zelensky. I stand in awe of that man. A man whose stature exceeds all but the best of our leaders, whom he equals.
Nobody could ever “disrespect the United States of America in its cherished* Oval Office” any more than Trump already has. If Americans “cherished” it as much as Trump asserts, they wouldn’t have put him there twice. I can only admire Zelensky’s cool; if I’d been in his place I would have screamed, and yelled, and slapped Trump and Vance silly. It was a disgusting spectacle which Trump and Vance will no doubt eclipse soon enough with some further plumbing of the depths of depravity.
*He probably believes it is “cherished” by Americans because he occupies it, that his Holiness as America’s Favorite President, sanctifies it.