WEEKEND EXTRA: A White House Confrontation For The Ages

The United States of America is throwing its lot in with the Russian Federation.

While the world is a much more complicated place than “free” and “not free” governments, a pivotal moment in realignment occurred on Friday, February 28, at a White House meeting between US and Ukrainian leaders.

Here’s a snip from The Kyiv Independent:

• After a hostile meeting, Zelensky left the White House. Trump reportedly ordered the Ukrainian delegation out.

• Let this sink in. The president of a battered Ukraine, an ally of the U.S., became the first world leader in history to be kicked out of the White House. Not a dictator, not a disgraced politician — the president of Ukraine, a country suffering from the worst invasion in the 21st century. The country that the U.S. administration swore to bring peace to.

• In an ugly exchange, the president and vice president joined forces to admonish Zelensky for “not being grateful” enough for the help Ukraine was getting.

You can say the disagreements occurring were triggered by a man-child insisting on a display of dominance. Or you can say that President Zelenskyy was ambushed by the US President and Vice President. Or you can be real charitable and say “tempers flared” as if there was no underlying motive.

But what really happened was an official end of support from the US government for a smaller, more generally democratic country defending itself against a larger autocratic country seeking to expand its empire.

As I write this there are news media reports that the State Department led efforts to restore Ukraine’s power grid have been suspended and that previously authorized shipments of ammunition and weapons will not be sent.

As is true with nearly every event of political importance these days, the facts are somewhat obscured by a cloud of misinformation and outright denial. Early in the day, Senator Lyndsey Graham was posing for tv cameras with Senator Amy Klobuchar cooing about how wonderful an upcoming agreement concerning mineral rights was going to be. A few hours later Sen Graham was telling Fox News he didn't think the U.S. could do business with Ukraine anymore.

A snippet of the transcript Snippets of the conversation at the White House provides insight, especially since the President and Vice President were talking over Zelenskyy and it was difficult to hear his comments on the broadcasts aired on news networks.

• ZELENSKYY: Mr. Trump, you are increasing the volume of your voice, but not the logic of your argument.

• TRUMP: Your country is in big trouble. No, no, you’ve done a lot of talking. You’re not winning this.

• ZELENSKYY: You say that like you want it to be true. We are still standing, still fighting.

• TRUMP: You don’t have the leverage. You don’t have the cards.

• ZELENSKYY: Because you keep taking them away—blocking aid, repeating Putin’s lies, weakening our support.

• TRUMP: Look, I get along with Putin. He respects me.

• ZELENSKYY: Because you never stood up to him. That’s not respect, that’s submission.

• TRUMP: You need to be realistic. You can’t win without us.

• ZELENSKYY: Then why do you work so hard to weaken us?

• TRUMP: It’s going to be very hard to do business like this, Volodymyr.

• ZELENSKYY: Ukraine is not a business deal. We do not trade away our sovereignty. We fight for it.

Complete Transcript via The Associated Press: https://apnews.com/article/trump-zelenskyy-vance-transcript-oval-office-80685f5727628c64065da81525f8f0cf'

Later on, Trump, wearing a red MAGA hat, criticized Zelenskyy for saying anything negative about Putin. “He’s got to say, ‘I want to make peace,’ It isn’t enough to stand there and say, ‘Putin this, Putin that, all negative things.’”

So, in case you doubted where the ‘leader of the free world’ stands on the war in Ukraine, he thinks criticizing the guy doing the invading is wrong.

Particularly egregious were Vice President Vance’s accusations that the Ukrainian leader had been part of an event on behalf of then-candidate Kamala Harris (never happened) and his insistence that Zelenskyy was an ingrate who’d never said thank you for US assistance.

Fact check: 33 times Zelensky thanked Americans and US leaders

Via Tom Nichols at the Atlantic:

• Vance, for his part, fully inhabited the role of a smarmy talk-show sidekick, jumping in to make sure the star got the support he needed while slamming one of the guests. The vice president is an unserious man who tries to insert himself into serious moments, but this time the stakes were much higher than the usual dustups with the media or congressional Democrats.

• He chuckled as Brian Glenn, a journalist from the right-wing channel Real America’s Voice who is reportedly dating Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, asked Zelensky the tough and incisive question of why he had not worn a suit in the Oval Office. (Perhaps he’ll ask Musk why he wore a hat and T-shirt to a Cabinet meeting, but I doubt it.)

While President Trump and his VP were hamming it up for MAGA viewers, leaders from around the world made comments indicating that they grasped the significance of what was coming to pass.

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas : “The free world needs a new leader”

Canada's Ministry of Foreign Affairs Mélanie Joly : "Canada needs to be closer to Europe and the United Kingdom"

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk: “Dear @ZelenskyyUA, dear Ukrainian friends- you are not alone.”

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala: “We stand with Ukraine and on the side of the free world.”

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson: “Sweden stands with Ukraine. You are not only fighting for your freedom, but also all of Europe’s.”’

Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro: “Ukraine can always count on Portugal.”

More…

Many other European leaders, including those of France, UK, Poland, Spain, Ireland, Iceland, Germany, Lithuania, and Moldova chimed in with their support as well.

French President Emmanuel Macron did not mince words, stating, "There is an aggressor: Russia. There is a victim: Ukraine. We were right to help Ukraine and sanction Russia three years ago — and to keep doing so."

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he "retains unwavering support for Ukraine," in a statement from 10 Downing Street on Friday evening.

His Spanish counterpart Pedro Sanchez wrote on X "Ukraine, Europe stands with you" in three languages — Spanish, English and Ukrainian.

To nobody’s surprise, Hungarian Prime Minister Orban Viktor was the skunk at this garden party: “ Strong men make peace, weak men make war. Today President @realDonaldTrump stood bravely for peace. Even if it was difficult for many to digest. Thank you, Mr. President!”

Elected Democrats made statements in support of the Ukrainian President:

California Senator Adam Schiff:“A hero and a coward are meeting in the Oval Office today. And when the meeting is over, the hero will return home to Ukraine.”

Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy: “What an utter embarrassment for America. This whole sad scene.”

Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego: “This is a disgrace.”

Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen: Described the scenes in the Oval Office as “beyond disgraceful”.

Illinois Senator Dick Durbin: “The people of Ukraine and President Zelenskyy deserve an apology.”

Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer: Trump and Vance “are doing Putin’s dirty work”

Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse: accused Trump and Vance of “acting like ventriloquist dummies for Putin”.

At Faux, Stenographer Jesse Watters said: “We run the world. This is America's world. He's our proxy. This ends when we say it ends.”

Republican senators rushed to defend Trump.

Utah’s Mike Lee: thanked Trump and Vance “for standing up to our country and putting America first”.

Indiana’s Jim Banks: “[Zelenskyy] ungratefully expects us to bankroll and escalate another forever war–all while disrespecting the President. The entitlement is insulting to working Americans.”

Two Republican Congressman went against the grain. I’ll be willing to bet they’re getting death threats, cause that’s the way MAGA rolls these days.

Nebraska’s Don Bacon: “A bad day for America’s foreign policy. Ukraine wants independence, free markets and rule of law. It wants to be part of the West. Russia hates us and our Western values. We should be clear that we stand for freedom.”

New York’s Mike Lawler: called the meeting "a disaster — especially for Ukraine," adding, "Sadly, the only winner of today is Vladimir Putin.

Tom Nichols at The Atlantic, again:

• But no matter how disgusted anyone might be at Trump and Vance’s behavior, the strategic reality is that this meeting is a catastrophe for the United States and the free world. America’s alliances are now in danger, and should be: Trump is openly, and gleefully, betraying everything America has tried to defend since the defeat of the Axis 80 years ago. The entire international order of peace and security is now in danger, as Russian autocrats, after slaughtering innocent people for three years, look forward to enjoying the spoils of their invasion instead of standing trial for their crimes. (Shortly after Trump dismissed Zelensky from the White House, Putin’s homunculus, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, posted on X: “The insolent pig finally got a proper slap down in the Oval Office.”)

• Friday, February 28, 2025, will go into the history books as one of the grimmest days in American diplomacy, the beginning of a long-term disaster that every American, every U.S. ally, and anyone who cares about the future of democracy will have to endure. With the White House’s betrayal of Ukraine capping a month of authoritarian chaos in America, Putin, along with other dictators around the world, can finally look at Trump with confidence and think: one of us.

***

Lest readers think this was just Donald Trump being boorish, consider that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the U.S. Cyber Command to abandon planning against Russian “offensive digital actions.”

A hostile nation that has lobbed digital bombs at the U.S. going back more than a decade is no longer an enemy?!!

Via The Guardian:

• The change is not entirely surprising, given that the Trump administration has made it clear that it is seeking to make amends with Moscow. Earlier this week at the United Nations, the US voted with Russia against an EU-Ukrainian resolution that condemned Russia on the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

• “The US has long assessed Russia, China and Iran as leaders in cyberthreats. To see a US representative in an international setting erase Russia’s role altogether comes as a bit of a shock – though consistent with the sudden US alignment with Russia and its satellites on the global stage,” said Scott Horton, an American lawyer who previously worked in Moscow and advised Russian human rights advocates.

• The US has long warned that Russia posed a cyber threat to US infrastructure, including in the annual threat assessment published by US intelligence agencies last year. The report stated that Russia posed an “enduring global cyber threat” even as it has prioritized cyber operations against Ukraine. Moscow, the report concluded, “views cyber disruptions as a foreign policy lever to shape other countries’ decisions and continuously refines and employs its espionage, influence and attack capabilities against a variety of targets”. Russia was able to target critical infrastructure, industrial control systems, in the US and in allied and partner countries.

So that’s the news folks, Russian President Vladimir Putin can soon claim the legacy of defeating the once-great United States without firing a shot. The Trump White House even allowed a reporter for Russian state media to witness the debacle.

We’ve already got an oligarch breaking up the government for scrap, a loony tunes burying medical science and terminating research, a QAnon fellow traveler running law enforcement as a revenge squad, and a whole-of-government effort to re-segregate the country. I have to wonder how long it will be before American dissidents are being tossed out of fifth story windows.

It’s looking like a sad ending for a great –if flawed– experiment in governance and a return to medieval society. The curtain hasn’t closed yet, but we are definitely in the third act of this play.