Tattered shabby Ukraine flag on gray cloudy sky as symbol of nation struggle and courage. Photo by FedBul, iStockphoto
Tattered shabby Ukraine flag on gray cloudy sky as symbol of nation struggle and courage. Photo by FedBul, iStockphoto
Today it became clear that the only thing Trump has learned about Putin is that taking a knee before the Russian leader is not enough. Trump now understands that it's better to get down on both knees and beg when he kisses Putin's ass.
Republished with permission from Lucian K. Truscott IV
After Trump’s phone call to Putin yesterday — lasting 90 minutes according to the White House—it seems that any say Ukraine will have in its own future has been cancelled.
We’ve always known that Trump’s reputation as a deal maker was a figment of his own imagination. I mean, this is the only man in recorded history to bankrupt not one but two casinos, the only businesses that are automatic money-making machines because the house has an edge in every single bet that is controlled, you guessed it, by the house. How do you lose money when you own the printing press? Well, Donald Trump figured out a way.
Today we learned that Trump has figured out a way to cause Ukraine to lose its war against Russian aggression that has lasted for three long and bloody years. Trump has apparently already negotiated away two of the strongest points of any potential deal with Putin over Ukraine’s future: without even letting President Zelenskyy in on what he was doing, Trump conceded all the territory in Ukraine that Russia has seized since 2014. Additionally, he has given Putin what he said he wanted from the first day in 2022 that he invaded Ukraine: Trump bargained away any eventual hope of Ukraine coming under the NATO umbrella before they even set up a bargaining table with chairs and notebooks and bottles of water for the negotiators.
Not only that, with Secretary of Defense Hegseth’s grade school-level official statement in Brussels, U.S. support for any eventual NATO involvement in future “security guarantees” for Ukraine is off the table, along with continuing American military support for Ukraine including helping to rebuild the country. In fact, Trump is demanding that our European allies increase their financial support for NATO to five percent of their gross national product from the two percent Trump demanded during his first administration and that Europe alone is responsible for whatever happens next.
Security guarantees are meaningless unless they can be backed up. Look at what happened to Ukraine when they traded the nuclear arsenal located on their soil after the collapse of the Soviet Union for so-called security guarantees from Europe and the United States. Where were those security guarantees when Russian forces rolled across Ukraine’s borders three years ago? Where will any future security guarantees be after Hegseth made it clear in Brussels that neither U.S. forces nor apparently military aid will play any role in defending Ukraine from future Russian aggression once a so-called peace deal is signed?
I don’t know what our NATO allies thought when Trump appointed this digit Hegseth as the civilian head of the largest armed forces in the world, but this is what happens when the Senate of the United States voted to confirm as Secretary of Defense a drunk covered in white supremacist tattoos who paid $50,000 to a woman to silence her after he allegedly raped her. Hegseth’s arrogant and ignorant babble in Brussels today amounted to a declaration that U.S. membership in NATO is in name only.
Hegseth looked like what he is at the Ukraine defense conference in Brussels, an escapee from a Fox News talk show set where he frequently showed up drunk first thing in the morning. The Trump position that Hegseth parroted is not only a disaster for Ukraine but for all of Europe. We are witnessing a worse outcome for Ukraine of any I could have imagined.
There has been speculation among foreign policy professionals and national security experts that Trump has learned something about Vladimir Putin since that day in Helsinki when Trump’s prostrate position alongside Putin was so low and subservient he looked like a stain in the carpet. Today it became clear that the only thing Trump has learned about Putin is that taking a knee before the Russian leader is not enough. Trump now understands that it’s better to get down on both knees and beg when he kisses Putin’s ass.
Ukraine has bravely stood up for its sovereignty and honor and sacrificed greatly in its fight against the horrors that Russia has wreaked upon it. Today, to the everlasting shame of the United States of America, Donald Trump abandoned this great nation to a man who stands accused by the International Criminal Court of having committed war crimes against Ukraine.
It’s perfect when you think about it: a man with a criminal record of 34 felony convictions will sit down in the Oval Office next to a man who has arrest warrants with his name on them in countries all over the world including the United States.
Yes, it has come to this.
Lucian K. Truscott IV, a graduate of West Point, has had a 50-year career as a journalist, novelist and screenwriter. He has covered stories such as Watergate, the Stonewall riots and wars in Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan. He is also the author of five bestselling novels and several unsuccessful motion pictures. He has three children, lives in rural Pennsylvania and spends his time Worrying About the State of Our Nation and madly scribbling in a so-far fruitless attempt to Make Things Better.
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