Cheap performance art in the White House

How not to conduct diplomacy

Whenever people complain about some outrageous thing Donald Trump said or did, I typically shrug, as if to say, “This is part of his brand” or “He just wants to dominate another news cycle. Just ignore the old fool.” But I learned my lesson awhile ago.

Trump’s recent actions concerning Ukraine are deeply troubling. First, he asserted publicly, with zero evidence, that Ukraine actually started the war that Russia began three years ago when it invaded that sovereign nation. He also called the Ukrainian president a “dictator,” but has never used that word to describe the Russian autocrat who directed hundreds of thousands of troops to invade a sovereign nation.

Then yesterday he outdid himself by hauling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy into the Oval Office and berating him with Russian propaganda in front of dozens of cameras. Zelenskyy was at the White House to sign a deal with Trump that would have allowed U.S. access to some valuable rare earth materials in exchange for the billions in military aid we gave Ukraine. This scheme no doubt strikes some as a good idea and a fair concept, yet the topic was grossly overshadowed by horrifying etiquette breeches.

The deal was called off and the planned signing ceremony canceled after Trump shouted at the Ukrainian leader, suggesting once again that Ukraine started the conflict and telling him the only way out of the war was to surrender to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

It was an embarrassing spectacle and, judging by the expression on the face of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, I wasn’t the only one who felt that way.

I’m sure Trump’s admirers thought he looked like a strong leader, but he actually appeared weak. For all his bluster and purported “deal-making” skills, Trump doesn’t know much of the facts and is a poor debater, so he outsourced much of the details to Vice President JD Vance, who berated Zelenskyy for not thanking the US enough for its largesse.

Perhaps most preposterous of all, Vance, with a straight face, accused Zelenskyy of trying to “relitigate” the issue before the U.S. news media. Well, who invited the media into the Oval in the first place? Certainly not Zelenskyy.

No, this was a set-up — a reality-TV-show-style confrontation designed to embarrass and discredit a head of state by reciting a bunch of Kremlin talking points — all for the purpose of getting the Ukrainian leader to surrender and give Trump what he wants, which is whatever Putin wants.

For suggesting as much, I was attacked on social media for participating in the “Russia-gate hoax.” The idea that Russia tried mightily to interfere in 2016 election and that the Trump campaign (actively or passively) was established by the Mueller investigation and the Senate Intelligence Committee, chaired by none other than Rubio himself.

The committee’s 1,000-page report characterized the Trump campaign’s Russia contacts as a “a grave threat.” The Mueller report established that “two Trump campaign officials, campaign manager Paul Manafort and his deputy Rick Gates, were regularly providing polling information to a Russian national whom Gates believed to be a ‘spy.’” Muller said he was not able, however, to bring a conspiracy case against Trump because the charges would be very difficult to prove beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Another attendee (presumably a Trump supporter) suggested Zelenskyy was being disrespectful in not wearing a business suit. Funny, I did not hear a whimper of protest when DOGE chief Elon Musk showed up at an Oval Office press conference wearing a MAGA cap and a t-shirt under a long jacket. Was Winston Churchill being similarly disrespectful by visiting the White House wearing wartime garb?

Angelo von Möller via X.

No, this was performance art tailor-made for television cameras. The Trump-Vance production was well planned and was directed at an audience of two. There is some mysterious force that draws Trump to Putin and compels him to convince MAGA Nation that the Russian leader and former KGB agent is a good person who means no harm. Either Trump is compromised in some way, or his dream of building a hotel in Moscow still burns with a fire so fierce that none of us can understand it. His affinity for the Russian thug is otherwise inexplicable.

And in order to boost Putin, Trump will need to attack Zelenskyy as intransigent and uncooperative. In the bowels of social media some Trump surrogates have taken to accusing Zelenskyy of corruption. Witness a recent post from provocateur Tucker Carlson accusing Ukraine of selling on the black market US military hardware gifted to Ukraine for its war effort — arms that are “now in the hands of armed groups around the world, including Hamas, the Mexican drug cartels and the forces now controlling Syria.”

Note that Carlson cites no sources, but insists, “This is all true and it’s going to come out at some point.” Pathetic, considering how trustworthy Carlson has proved to be in the past.

Now I do agree that we cannot continue to fund Ukraine’s efforts indefinitely. To date, we have given that nation $120 billion in military hardware over the three years of the war. With a national debt of more than $36 trillion, we will need to draw the line at some point. But to publicly insult and denigrate an ally who is facing a grave threat from a mass killer who sends missiles into high-rise apartment buildings accomplishes nothing but pleasing Putin, the enemies of freedom and the MAGA cult.

End of rant …