The United States of America, today, through the words and actions of our democratically elected president, abdicated its moral authority, held since World War II, as the leader of the free world.
As of early this afternoon, the good ol’ US of A is a card-carrying member of the Axis of Evil, and not its leader, but instead, a thuggish lieutenant under the thumb of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, who, in the characterization that we heard several times today from Putin’s underling, Donald Trump, holds all the cards.
ICYMI
“You want me to say really terrible things about Putin and then say, ‘Hi, Vladimir, how are we doing on the deal?’” Trump said, at the start of what turned into a garish Oval Office spectacle with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday.
Zelensky was in DC to sign an agreement giving the US access to potentially billions of dollars of rights to minerals in his country, as an inducement for the US to continue to provide military support for Ukraine’s defense against invading Russian forces.
The Trump White House staged a news availability around the planned signing with Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Zelensky that, after what happened, feels like it was a set-up from the get-go.
Trump and Vance tried to use the TV cameras to browbeat Zelensky into accepting a ceasefire entirely on Putin’s terms, in effect rewarding Putin and Russia with thousands of square miles of Ukrainian territory already under its control from the three-year siege of its smaller neighbor.
When Zelensky resisted, Vance thundered about Zelensky being “disrespectful,” Trump chimed in about Zelensky being “ungrateful,” and in a flash, the mineral deal was off.
Hours later, Trump, shouting at reporters as he was about to fly off in Marine One to go play golf somewhere, put the onus on Zelensky, the president of the country that was invaded by a neighboring dictator, “to stop the fighting, stop the death.”
“They should have an immediate ceasefire. A ceasefire could take place immediately,” Trump said. “But he doesn’t want to do that. That’s fine. Do a better deal. I want it to end immediately. I want a ceasefire now. He says, ‘Oh, I don’t want a ceasefire.’ Well, all of a sudden, he’s a big shot because he has the US on his side. Either we’re going to end it, or let him fight it out. And if he fights it out, it’s not going to be pretty because without us, he doesn’t win, let me tell you.”
There it was, the moment that the US abdicated its moral authority as the leader of the free world.
Our democratically elected leader just told a country fighting for its existence that it needs to cede territory to an invading autocratic power, or else.
The signal sent to Putin is obvious. The former KGB spy has his eyes on restoring the former Soviet Union’s sphere of influence in Eastern Europe, which would risk triggering a war between Russia and NATO.
“The president spoke about playing cards, and this is the furthest thing from a game,” said Eugene Vindman, a Northern Virginia Democratic congressman who, as the deputy legal advisor for the National Security Council in 2019, was the person who reported the phone call between Trump and Zelensky in which Trump tried to strong-arm the Ukraine president into giving him dirt on Joe Biden, at the threat of pulling US military aid if Zelensky balked.
You might remember that it was that phone call that led to the first Trump impeachment a year later.
“We need to be focused on our national security,” Vindman said. “Without serious US leadership at the negotiating table, our service men and women around the globe are in more danger than they were yesterday. And that’s despicable. The focus needs to be on achieving a lasting peace acceptable to Ukraine.”
China’s Communist Party leadership is also going to read Trump siding with the autocrat in the Russia-Ukraine war as license to do what they want to do with Taiwan.
We’ve already seen Trump work out an apparent deal with Benjamin Netanyahu to forcibly take Gaza from its 2 million Palestinian residents so that the US can lead a redevelopment effort that would turn Gaza into a beach resort for the monied elites.
“A lot of us were stunned when the United States voted with Russia, Iran, North Korea and other the so-called axes of evil against the reality that Ukraine didn’t start the war with Russia,” U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said this afternoon, after the Oval Office debacle.
“Russia started it. It ended this week with Zelensky leaving the White House with no deal,” Warner said. “And the biggest winner this week is Vladimir Putin and authoritarian regimes. The biggest loser is America’s 70-year relationship with democracies around the world, and whether going forward, any nation-state will ever trust us again.”
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Chris Graham
