Donald Trump and the Case of The Overly-Brazen Ukrainian
Overseeing an End to a War Should Not Be A Thankless Job !
They say a good deal leaves both sides equally disappointed. Unless, of course, one of those sides is Donald J. Trump, in which case the only acceptable outcome is unqualified adulation, preferably delivered in the form of a decent amount of subservience.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, his country bleeding from a thousand wounds, had come to Washington not as a supplicant but as the leader of a nation fighting for its survival. The negotiation collapsed almost immediately, not over territories or timelines or substantive matters of geopolitical strategy, but because Trump, a man whose ego has its own gravitational field, felt insufficiently praised.
Peace Deals Are Always Having to Say “I’m Sorry”
"I've never seen anything like President Zelenskyy's behavior," Speaker of the House Mike Johnson lamented, as if describing a toddler who'd refused to eat peas, rather than the leader of a nation under bombardment. "He berated and interrupted his host instead of expressing gratitude for the extraordinary help that the U.S. has provided."
Lack of Gratitude. It also showed up over and over in Speaker Johnson's Meet the Press appearance:
"I hope and pray, frankly, that President Zelenskyy will come to his senses, come back to President Trump, express gratitude as he should, you know."
And:
"We need to get him back to the table, we need to get Ukraine to express gratitude, of course, for all that we've done for them."
The Republican chorus, themselves veterans of Trumpian-subservience politics, fell in line. Usual Ukraine hawk Lindsey Graham cheered Trump and Vice President JD Vance for standing up to disrespect, much like Megan Thee Stallion clapping back after being unfollowed on Instagram.
Some Still Sane
A handful of conservatives who haven't abandoned their foreign policy instincts in favor of feelings of pique understand what's actually at stake. Oklahoma Senator James Lankford stood outside the spat over etiquette to point out the disastrous consequences of the calls to have Zelenskyy step down as President.
Rep. Mike Turner framed it as "the fight between authoritarianism and freedom and democracy. This is the Ronald Reagan evil empire against democracy."
Then there is Secretary of State Marco Rubio, performing the delicate ballet of wanting to sound reasonable while not angering the man who holds his party hostage, who offered a slightly more sanitized version: "That's what Zelenskyy did unfortunately is he found every opportunity to try to explain on every issue."
Trump himself, never one to conceal his petty grievances behind diplomatic language, laid it bare at a press conference when asked what he needed from Zelenskyy to restart negotiations.
"Well, I just think he should be more appreciative because this country has stuck with them through thick and thin," Trump huffed, in the manner of a parent chastising their child for inadequately thanking an aunt for a Christmas sweater rather than as the fulcrum of a peace deal that has hundreds of thousands of lives in the balance.
There’s No Negotiating On Politeness
And let's be clear about Trump's conception of how deals get done. Aggrieved parties need to stuff down their resentment. Wronged, even criminally or historically transgressed upon parties must quash any instinct to lash out. Comity must abound no matter how badly the sides have suffered. There is one exception: the negotiator himself must be thanked.
In Trump's version of diplomacy, you don't just suck it up – you suck up, period. There is only fealty and its absence.
Both sides have grievances to overcome. Putin's miffed about Ukraine's stubborn resistance to being conquered; Zelenskyy's upset about trivial matters like invasion, war crimes, and child abductions. These are just obstacles that reasonable parties should set aside in the name of progress.
Diplomacy demands that everyone check their emotions at the door – unless those emotions belong to Donald Trump, in which case they become the central, non-negotiable element around which all international relations must revolve. How, after all, can you possibly strike a peace deal when the mediator's magnificence goes unacknowledged for more than thirty consecutive seconds?
What makes this farce especially galling is that Ukraine's survival depends not just on American weapons but on American intelligence – the satellites telling Ukrainian forces where to aim and where the next attack is coming from. Yet apparently, the price for this lifeline is a never-ending stream of gratitude, performed exactly to Trump's specifications.
It would be merely pathetic if the stakes weren't so horrifically high. Because Trump's feelings were bruised, Ukraine may lose more territory, more lives, more of its future. The equation is as simple as it is monstrous: thousands dead in exchange for inadequate flattery.
Zelenskyy actually understands this pretty well. He cut a "gratitude" video yesterday, saying:
Of course we understand the importance of America and we are grateful for all the support we have received from the United States. There hasn't been a single day when we haven't felt grateful because this is gratitude for the preservation of our independence."
What Zelenskyy was Attempting
What Zelenskyy was actually attempting in the Oval Office meeting was trying to use his space on the public stage to link some security guarantees for his mineral rights deal, which is a rational gambit totally in the interest of his people. At the last moment where he had leverage, he attempted to use it, to at least make a case if not remake the deal.
Trump and Vance would have none of it. What Lindsey Graham calls brave was actually a shortsighted act of petulance. They should have brushed past Zelenskyy's statements, laughed off his correcting of misstatements they made, and swept him up in a whirl of handshakes and backslaps. Onto the signing ceremonies, preceded by perhaps a stern private dressing down: "Don't embarrass us again, Volodymyr."
That's what solution-oriented adults would do. Trump and Vance are not such people.
The lesson is clear: In the Trump administration's vision of global politics, the survival of nations isn't determined by strategic interests or moral principles, but by their leaders' willingness to perform in the theater of Trump's narcissism. It's not just pathetic – it's deadly.
I think you nailed it Mike. Zelenskyy and his country have had missiles raining down on them for three years. If he gives away the biggest asset with nothing but “trust me” from the untrustworthy, he fails his people. To see the Republican hawks all flip to a desire for a peace paid for by the victim is nothing short of obscene.
God damn Donald J. Trump to Hell for bringing more dishonor and shame upon our poor country.