Belt and braces
There are going to be a lot of adult supervisors this time.
This time, when President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine arrives in the Oval Office, he will come with backup.
An array of European prime ministers and presidents are flying in for the meeting on Monday to make sure that a viable, defensible Ukraine survives whatever carving up of its territory is about to happen at the negotiating table.
But they are also there to make certain that the trans-Atlantic alliance emerges intact. President Trump’s instant reversal on the critical issue of obtaining a cease-fire before negotiating over land or security guarantees has left many of them shaken, and wondering whether Mr. Trump had once again been swayed by President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
Golly gee, ya think?
By most accounts, the European officials want to ensure that Mr. Trump has not pivoted too close to the Russian side, and does not try to strong-arm Mr. Zelensky into a deal that will ultimately sow the seeds of Ukraine’s dissolution. And they want to safeguard against the risk of the United States, the linchpin of European security since NATO’s creation in 1949, undermining that interest.
They want to make sure Trump doesn’t burn the house down, blow up the barn, and sow the fields with salt.
It’s a little late for that. Why not make certain that the Titanic doesn’t sink while you’re at it?
Bjarte: Or just come up with a history bbok that can be read from back to front; and upside down as well. Should not be too hard, in this age of AI.
From Heather Cox Richardson’s email today:
‘At the press conference following the summit, NBC News White House correspondent Peter Alexander reported that what struck him was “the looks on the faces of a lot of the American delegation here. Karoline Leavitt…, Steve Witkoff, who came into the room, then left quickly, then came back in. Leavitt appeared to be a bit stressed out, anxious. Their eyes were wide, almost ashen at times.”
At 8:31 this morning, Trump posted one word, “bela,” on his social media account. California governor Gavin Newsom’s social media account, which has been trolling Trump by imitating his boastful, insulting, all-caps posts, wrote: “We broke Donald Trump.”’
I wonder what happened?
Maybe “Bela” is Trump’s “Rosebud.” Any sign of a shattered snow globe?