In time, I feel pretty certain we’ll learn that this ambush was planned in advance. If you watch the tape of this afternoon’s Oval Office meeting, you’ll see that Volodymyr Zelenskiy wasn’t saying anything confrontational or disrespectful. He was explaining the history of the situation as he saw it. But the fix was in.
To review quickly: The confrontation starts with Donald Trump saying, “I’m aligned with the world … I’m aligned with Europe.” Then JD Vance interjects with a denunciation of Joe Biden and praise of Trump for leading this round of diplomacy. Then Zelenskiy starts to explain how Vladimir Putin invaded his country in 2014, and no one did anything. Then he even said (at 2:10), “God bless, now, President Trump will stop him.”
Then he noted the signed agreements Putin had violated and asked Vance, “What kind of diplomacy are you talking about?” And that’s when Vance delivered his lecture, after which Trump came with his warnings that Zelenskiy was “gambling with World War III.” We all know where it went from there.
Last weekend, I went to the Principles First conference in Washington, a large gathering convened mostly by anti-Trump former Republicans. Garry Kasparov, the Russian dissident, was one of the speakers. He uttered a very simple line that chilled the thousand or so people in the room: “The United States has changed teams.”
If anyone doubted that before this horrifying exchange Friday, it surely can’t be doubted now. You had the president of Ukraine who, whatever his flaws, was representing a democracy—a struggling and imperfect democracy, for sure, but one that was invaded by a gangster regime; a country of 38 million people ravaged by a country of 144 million. He came to Washington willing to meet with a president whom he knows to be hostile but ready to sign a totally one-sided deal giving that president control over his country’s mineral rights. That he decided not to sit there in silence as lies were being told about him and the nature of Putin’s invasion was renamed impertinence. And in that moment, about three minutes and change into the tape linked to above, the United States of America symbolically and visibly switched from being the leader of the free world to being a partner of the global authoritarian axis.
I know; our leadership of the free world has been awfully spotty. But at least we declared ourselves to be seeking such a thing. At least it was possible for critics and dissenters to hold the United States to its words and its stated principles. No, that didn’t save many lives in Iraq. But in diplomacy, it counts for something. For allies, it means that they can tune to our frequency, seize on some bedrock consistency, and foster engagement. It also means that at least in theory, and sometimes in practice, we promote democracy and liberation around the world—and that where we fail to do that, we can be rightly criticized, corrected, and on occasion, shamed.
That’s gone. Now, we are in theory and practice on the side of autocracy.
Just Friday morning, Zelenskiy met with a bipartisan delegation of senators. That meeting apparently went very well. Senators from both parties praised him. Republican Roger Wicker tweeted about “the huge step forward” represented by the meeting and the looming deal. Well, that’s open to question, but at least it showed that Republican senators were ready to give Zelenskiy some support.
Later, after what happened in the White House, Wicker deleted the tweet.
And he’s been one of the few courageous members of that party. Now he’ll hide. But hiding is a lot better than what some of them are doing. Exhibit A, to no one’s surprise, is Lindsey Graham.
Last week, Graham said to Zelenskiy: “You’re the ally I’ve been waiting for all my life.” Friday afternoon, he called Zelenskiy “disrespectful, and I don’t know if we can ever do business with Zelenskiy again.”
“Disrespectful.” Note the word. Note its focus on Trump personally; Trump’s feelings. This isn’t how people talk in democracies. It’s how they talk in countries where the moods and whims of the Dear Leader dictate policy. And that, alas, is where we now live.
They may yet circle back to a deal—a deal that was one-sided enough that you wouldn’t be thought a fool to observe that Ukraine was getting screwed, but at least it was a bridge to something better. Instead, it will be somewhat up to the public opinion of the governed to decide if our nation isn’t screwed as well—for now, we’re still enough of a democracy that that matters.
Whether we can say that a year from now is an interesting question. MAGA America, of course, loves what happened. Normal Earth America is appalled. Then there are those famous people in the middle. The ones who thought Trump would lower egg prices on day one. The ones who thought the businessman would bring order. The ones who have now in many cases personally been caught up in the chaos and disorder in which Trump and his co-president revel, and lost their jobs. We can only hope that, while they probably don’t especially care about Ukraine, they find their president’s behavior mildly embarrassing.
And I wonder what they’ll find it six months from now, or a year, or two years, or whenever Putin finds the time to be right, that he’ll regroup and try to wipe Ukraine off the map. Because he’ll do it if he can. And the president of the United States won’t lift a finger.
We’ll be able to trace it all to this disgraceful moment, this day of historic shame for the United States. We’ve changed teams.
