Like a lot of people, this humble spirit suspected that all the excitement about Ukraine’s rare earth minerals was an obvious ploy that would allow Trump to save face while making a peace “deal” in Ukraine. (For Trump, the author of The Art of the Deal, everything has to be a “deal” or he isn’t happy.) But alas, it was not to be. I’m with those who think Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, was ambushed, plain and simple. A sh*t show such as occurred in the Oval Office last week, along with throwing a foreign leader out of the White House for the first time in U.S. history, constituted another embarrassing new low for Donald Trump.
Just as Elon Musk’s pointless DOGE firings will hardly dent the Federal deficit, ambushing Zelensky feels like another example of the Trump Administration’s performance art approach to government; Vice President Vance’s remarks seemed like a setup, and President Trump even said the spectacle would make great television. Trump knows his MAGA base likes to see their hero beat someone up (preferably an immigrant, a minority, or a foreigner) like a World Wrestling match. There’s seemingly no limit to those people’s anger and appetite for violence.
Ukraine is a small democracy that was invaded by Vladimir Putin’s autocracy, also known as Russia. Maybe Russia is a gas station with nuclear weapons, as the late John McCain called it, but a disproportionate amount of its GDP is devoted to its military budget and Putin’s militaristic ambitions in the name of restoring the “Soviet empire.” Putin has shown he doesn’t care how many of his young men are killed in the process, as long as he stays in power. (Estimates vary, but at least 700,000 have been killed or wounded in the present conflict, and that’s excluding Ukrainian soldiers and the country’s awful civilian losses.)
The Way Trump Treated Zelensky, You’d Swear He was the Medicaid Budget!
Somehow it always comes back to the mysterious bromance between Trump and Putin. Trump flipflops on just about everything, except Putin, who he treats like a sacred idol above reproach. He calls Zelensky a dictator, but not Putin, the real dictator. He makes sure the U.S. takes Russia’s side at the United Nations. The list goes on. He claims that both he and Putin were victims of the “Russia Hoax” (it wouldn’t be called a “hoax” if Trump’s attorney general, Bill Barr, hadn’t stopped the prosecution!), as though his enemy was the Democratic Party rather than Russia’s murderous authoritarian dictator. (Not unlike the “enemy within” that V.P. Vance spoke of in Munich). Trump even accused Zelensky of risking World War III, as if Putin’s desire to recreate the Soviet empire was the default position requiring the world’s acceptance.
What’s Trump’s fascination with Putin all about? We used to suspect he was Putin’s puppet based on some unknown blackmail scenario, but given everything we know about Trump already, what harmful information could possibly still be out there? Maybe it’s simply that Putin is the autocrat Trump longs to be, ruling all-powerful over the oligarchy Trump longs for. It seems more than a coincidence that Putin might be the only man in the world richer than Trump’s DOGE henchman, Elon Musk.
Speaking of the Democrats, hark, are they still around?
A few of the Democrats should be commended for speaking out on behalf of American democracy, but as a group they’ve been awfully quiet lately. I, for one, disagree with James Carville’s advice to lay low and let Trump and the Republicans implode of their own volition. Too much damage will be done to the American experiment before November 2026 rolls around, let alone 2028. Surely the Democrats have something to contribute to the national discourse besides merely protesting Elon Musk and DOGE. In this humble spirit’s humble opinion they should aggressively offer positive new ideas and programs to benefit the American people, not just espouse worn-out talking points about “working families” that nobody even hears anymore. In particular, I had high hopes for Hakeem Jeffries and commended Nancy Pelosi for stepping down (as Chuck Schumer and Dick Durbin should have done a long time ago), but I increasingly fear he’s a waste of space.