I felt physically sick watching the president of the United States yell at a brave ally, fulminating in the Oval Office as if he were an addled old man shaking his fist at a television. Zelensky has endured tragedies, and risked his life, in ways that men such as Trump and Vance cannot imagine. (Vance served as a public-relations officer in the most powerful military in the world; he has never had to huddle in a bunker during a Russian bombardment.) I am ashamed for my nation; even if Congress acts to support and aid Ukraine, it cannot restore the American honor lost today.
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.
I just want to say that I’ve heard and read a dozen thoughtful, pro-Ukraine, anti-Trump folks call the whole Oval Office debacle beyond shameful, defending Zelensky to the hilt, while still a) describing it as a shouting match between Zelensky and Trump/Vance, and b) conceding some misfortune in the situation because Zelensky “does not speak fluent English.” And it’s bullshit. I’ve watched the video several times — with absolute, physically sick horror — and not only did Zelensky never raise his voice, but he was calm, measured, and well spoken against an absolute ambush by two giant, ignorant, thoughtless, poorly spoken, self-righteous, pandering, spoiled, morally gangrenous fuckheads who were controlled by one thing alone: their inability to hide their violent hatred of this man.
Though this time it’s coming up a little emotionally short for my anger toward the petty behavior (I will not offend children by calling it childish) of our two highest and democratically electedofficials, I turn again to Simone Weil:
But the will to humiliate the defeated enemy which revealed itself so loathsomely everywhere … was enough to cure me once for all of that naive sort of patriotism, I suffer more from the humiliations inflicted by my country than from those inflicted on her.