Interesting. A Guardian writer, Edward Helmore, thinks Trump’s disgusting bullying yesterday is Zelenskyy’s fault.
One television star turned president visits another far more powerful one on a stage set and attempts to introduce a plot twist of sorts. What could go wrong?
The high-stakes White House showdown that unfolded on Friday after the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, demanded US security guarantees was deemed a damaging setback to Donald Trump’s goal of forging a peace deal – and a win for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin – by some US political commentators.
Zelenskyy didn’t “demand” security guarantees out of the blue; he sought them in exchange for the highly valuable mineral rights Trump was demanding.
The US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, revealed after the showdown that his meeting with Zelenskyy in Kviv days earlier resulted in a similar outburst. After Friday’s meltdown, Bessent called Zelenskyy’s approach “one of the great diplomatic own goals in history”.
“Outburst”?? It was Zelenskyy doing the outbursting?!
“Clearly it very difficult to do an economic deal with a leader that doesn’t want to do a peace deal,” Bessent told Bloomberg.
“I’m not sure what he was thinking,” Bessent said of Zelenskyy, who was ultimately asked to leave the White House by the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, after Ukrainian diplomatic aides texted that they were prepared to sign the agreed economic rare earth minerals deal.
Et tu Guardian?
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12 responses to “Upside down”
“Ambush,” yes. “Showdown”(?), no.
For what it’s worth, Andrew Sullivan and Richard Hannania agree, but sounds like Monday morning quarterbacking to me.
If it was an own goal he may have only had a 10-15% chance to do otherwise. So instead of getting a barely there security guarantee, he gets no security guarantee. Like what’s the difference really?
I rather strongly suspect that many on the left still, after all these years, have not managed to get rid of the illusion that Russia is the victim of westen aggression (like NATO expansion eastward and the like) rather than the other way around. An illusion with roots in the Soviet era. Like, they were basically good guys, socialists and all, right? Just a little misguided, that’s all. I saw it in my parents, and I have succumbed to the illusion myself, in the past. To my shame, it took me way too long to see where Putin was heading.
Well if your “peace deal” is tantamount to surrendering everything Russia has already taken, combined with security “guarantees” contingent upon Putin’s non-existent “respect” for Trump, paid for with the extraction of protection money in the form of mineral wealth that could be used to help rebuild three years of destruction, it’s not really much of a “deal” at all. More like ratifying theft.
I can’t imagine any “economic deal” put together by Trump would be any better; he sees business as a zero sum game in which he must come out the winner. Given Ukraine’s desperate situation, he’s probably taking advatage of that desperation to demand terms and conditions even more favourable than he would normally expect, or ever deserve. And no deal with Trump is ever going to be binding or secure, and with his siding with Putin, it’s like Zelensky is “negotiating” with two branches of the same criminal gang. He has to decide if fickle, contingent “help” is better than none at all. He certainly can’t have any illusions about the reliability of Trump, who is ready to declare himself a “Peacemaker” over the smoking, surrendered ruins of a Russian re-occupied Ukraine.
That Guardian writer Edward Helmore in NY pussy-footed around a bit (those NY streets can get slippery this time of year) but sort of got there in the end.
That IMHO was where Helmore did get it wrong. Trump siding with a Russian dictator? Surely Trump is not dumb enough to stumble into something like that.!
Another thing, aren’t these mineral rights or whatever mostly in seized territory? Without security there’s no way they’d be exploitable, and since we assume 2% security guarantees are fucking nothing, what’s the point of this kabuki?
It’s strange to me, but people really are believing that Trump is a genius, because that’s what they are being told. I read this on a Facebook post:
Reads like Coel if he dropped ten IQ points… or if you had one of the better LLMs write it.
If anyone has played someone else as a master chess player, it’s Russia playing Trump. The idea that Trump actually knows or understands any of this is ridiculous. He simply spews garbage out of his oral cavity, and Vance will say or do whatever suits his interests, not America’s. No one wants a war with Russia, but playing second to the schoolyard bully is not a great plan.
Donald Trump has been under criminal prosecution since before his first term. He’s a fraud, a charlatan, a sexual predator, and violated the Emoluments Clause in the Constitution he swore to protect. Going after him for these offences is not “persecution”; it is the normal course of justice. Being a celebrity, or rich, or President of the United States, doesn’t (or shouldn’t) put you beyond the reach of the law when you have broken it. Also, people pointing out that you are a raging narcissist, bully, autocrat, and all-’round asshole is not “persecution.”
HAHAHAHA! Oh, that’s a good one. Trump learning! Susan Collins is still waiting. Patience? I’ve seen toddlers with better impulse control than he has.
One of the reasons it was both Trump and Vance was that Trump couldn’t have handled this on his own. He needed Vance there to interrupt Zelensky and stall while Trump tried to find the next stupid words to say. And siding with Russia isn’t happening “on the surface”, it goes all the way down.
Well, would you? He knows he can’t trust Putin (he tried to point out all of the agreements, treaties, cease-fires etc. which Putin has broken or violated, but Trump and Vance cut him off). Now he knows he can’t trust the United States, and Trump specifically.
I can’t be bothered to kill more electrons in taking this twaddle apart, but suffice it to say, a man incapable of recognizing the implications of a cognitive test is not playing four dimensional chess with Vladimir Putin. He’s not ten moves ahead of anyone. He hasn’t played both sides against each other, he’s taken Putin’s side. He’s handed Putin a huge victory without Putin having to fire a shot (at least not against the US directly). Just because Russia is no longer communist, that doesn’t mean it’s not a threat. Ask the Baltic Republics, which Putin would like to see returned to Russian control, like Ukraine. Trump is helping him achieve just that. Trump is helping to weaken NATO for him. Who knew that the United States would be happy with the Russian re-occupation of Eastern Europe so long as it wasn’t under the hammer and sicle? Like I said previously, it’s mob bosses dividing up territories between themselves. It’s simple gangsterism that is needlessly dignified by calling it “geopolitics.” Whether Europe can or will step in to fill even part of the void created by American abandonment and abdication remains to be seen.
And as for the sane-washing of Trump’s tirade as “genius”, get real. Trump really is as shallow, thin-skinned, and venal as he appears. He’s not acting. This is who he is. This is all he will ever be. “Chad Smith” sounds like a Trump regime sock puppet, or someone plumping for
Hitler Youth Barbie’sKaroline Leavitt’s job.Zelensky had made quite clear he would agree to even an outrageous mineral deal, as long as it included a strong and reliable strategic protection clause to ensure a lasting peace. The fact that the Trump administration wanted the outrageous min real deal in the complete absence of any strategic gauruntee was the entire reason for the appalling scene. They threw a tantrum when it became clear they wouldn’t get what they wanted. If Zelensky had rolled and signed the deal they wanted he was toast in Ukraine. Instead he’s taken the harder but truer road.
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