Much has already been written about the debacle at the White House last Friday with President Zelenskyy of Ukraine. For that matter, Trump's policy with NATO and Ukraine has also been in the meat grinder. I could care a less what the Leftist press in the U.S. has to say, but in Europe and Canada, Trump is now enemy Number One. It would be good to remind you that Europe is a bastion of socialists and elitists that have hated Trump since 2016, so much of what you would read is not anything I wouldn't expect, but a few comments have been pretty strong.
I'll be honest, my original opinion of Trump's and Vance's speeches in Munich was pretty solid. Trump has wanted NATO to pay their 3% of GDP on defense for the past 9 years. Vance's comments were actually necessary when you consider the examples he brought up of censorship and a lack of free speech. Our European allies have repressed free speech and they are not the bastions of freedom that they claim they are. There has always been a surface level like-mindedness when it came to democracy and an 80 year agreement on keeping Russia in check, but many of the actual things that democracy is supposed to support, yeah, Europe and the UK just don't do. Socialism has at it's core, authoritarianism and government control and the Europeans love their control. When they lose it to any degree, people lose their freedom. Europe took it as a lecture from Vance, when they should've contemplated what our shared values actually are. Differences will always exist, but not the things that make democracy better than communism.
Then, a week after that Trump, for the first time, really pissed me off. He's made me wonder a few times with some other comments, but I was actually pissed off at the dictator comment and the notion that Ukraine started the war. I was pissed because belittling Zelenskyy just before negotiations were to begin simply made him look weak to Russia and undermined the negotiations. Even if Trump was trying to lure Putin by showing him he can be tough on Zelenskyy, he actually did use Russian disinformation in one of his comments and there was simply no need for it. If you actually read and then listen to his comments on tape, it was reported incorrectly and was made to be worse than it was. Trump did back off both comments, but he also said that, in essence, that if you cancel elections and suspend freedoms as Zelenskyy has done, then you are no different than a dictator. His comments of Ukraine starting the war are simply infuriating. I'm not sure where that came from because for the past three years Trump has said Putin started it and even before he left office had warned Putin to not go in to Ukraine, so I'm going to pass it off as a Trumpism, but kind of an unforgiveable one. Russia was the aggressor, everyone knows it and saying anything other than that is simply a lie. Putin has to be laughing this whole time. He's wanted to find a way to tear NATO apart for his whole time in office and Trump is doing it for him.
Now for the disaster at the White House. Again, I read the story in the left-wing press before I saw the video in its entirety. I immediately had that pit in the stomach feeling of depression. I was just amazed that such a debacle was allowed to happen. It never should've happened. Man, was I pissed, but knowing what I know about the lies in the US press, I held most of my ire for after I saw the video. Like normal, the video is totally different than the reporting. For most of the 50 minutes, it was actually a pretty good press conference with the discussion of how the minerals deal would work and the fund that would be created. The press really ruined the meeting and Zelenskyy made a huge blunder. I don't actually disagree with 90% of what he said, but he did something he was warned not to do. His comments on Putin breaking 25 signed agreements before and his absolute need of security agreements were valid and true. I think he felt Trump didn't put enough priority on the security guarantees and he was warning Trump that this agreement will not be adhered to. I agree. Putin will not live up to whatever agreement is made. We all kind of know it, it's just how he will break it and what follows is what none of us know. Where Zelenskyy blundered was continuing to be belligerent about how we will feel the war sooner or later ourselves and continuing on his attack on Putin. Vance's comments about not litigating this in the press should've been the end of it and I wish Trump had just said that's enough question and answers for now. We have disagreements and passion on both sides and this is why securing peace will be a difficult task. Yet, Zelenskyy persisted and once Trump chimed in, it was all over. I'm not for spinning this as it was an embarrassing disaster. I have no doubts things like this happen in private between leaders all the time, but in front of the global press is just a disaster. I can only imagine Suzy Wiles just wilting in the background and we already have anecdotal evidence that Ukrainian diplomats were in tears behind the scenes. It has now come to light that Zelenskyy was warned repeatedly by multiple European leaders, the US and his own contingent not to bring this stuff up and he persisted in doing it. Now do you feel bad for him? Not as much as you did before, probably.
Here's something to think about, however. Just before Zelenskyy's meeting with Trump on Friday, he met with Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) and several other Democrats. Here's Murphy's tweet.
Just finished a meeting with President Zelensky here in Washington. He confirmed that the Ukrainian people will not support a fake peace agreement where Putin gets everything he wants and there are no security arrangements for Ukraine.
Seems pretty easy to connect the dots that this may have actually been a sabotage job by the Democrats. This clearly violates the Logan Act and is illegal. Zelenskyy has had European leaders in his ear as well, but it really looks like he's been convinced by the Democrat Party that he can continue with the war and he will get backing. If this is true, all Democrats involved should be brought up on charges. Subverting your own government is called treason. Today, still defiant, Zelenskyy made comments he may soon regret.
https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2025-03-03/ukraines-zelenskyy-says-end-of-war-with-russia-is-very-very-far-away
A deal to end the war between Ukraine and Russia “is still very, very far away,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, adding that he expects to keep receiving American support despite his recent fraught relations with U.S. President Donald Trump.
“I think our relationship (with the U.S.) will continue, because it’s more than an occasional relationship,” Zelenskyy said late Sunday, referring to Washington’s support for the past three years of war.
“I believe that Ukraine has a strong enough partnership with the United States of America” to keep aid flowing, he said at a briefing in Ukrainian before leaving London.
Trump's reaction to this was so obvious, he immediately cut off all aid. I suppose Zelenskyy thought Trump wouldn't hear this comment, but it seems like the most obvious reaction of all time. Zelenskyy seems to be ignoring his advisors and today had to admit defeat and that he's ready to come to the table now.
A history lesson on Ukraine and Russia is important. Russia built the iron curtain for the same reason Putin wants Ukraine, as a buffer zone. Back in 1990, after the wall came down in Berlin, Mikhail Gorbachev made a deal with President George H.W. Bush that he would allow Germany to reunite under a NATO banner if Russia was allowed a 1,000 mile barrier between it and the rest of NATO. Back in 1990, NATO consisted of just 16 members. At this point the nearest NATO members to Russia were Turkey to the south and Norway to the north. The reunification of Germany made Eastern Germany the closest, yet the buffer still existed. Bush agreed to this and honored it. When the Warsaw Pact disintegrated in 1992, the Clinton Administration decided that Russia was now weak and that expansion of NATO would be a good way to contain Russia. Several of those satellite Warsaw Pact countries turned their attention to NATO and in 1999, three of them were allowed to join. Poland, Hungary and The Czech Republic. Guess who took power in Russia in 1999? One Vladimir Putin. Though consumed by internal politics and reconstruction of a country grossly neglected by Communist control for 8 decades, he still clung to the old idea of needing a buffer zone. In 2004, NATO expanded again by adding 6 more countries, two were former Warsaw Pact members and all of them along Russia's borders. This had to make Russia nervous and when the US put missiles in Poland and Romania, I believe Putin was determined to do something. The earliest comment I could find from Putin on the need of a buffer was from 2008, but I'm sure he had been thinking it all along.
On 4 April 2008 at the NATO Bucharest summit, invitee Putin told George W. Bush and other conference delegates: "We view the appearance of a powerful military bloc on our border as a direct threat to the security of our nation. The claim that this process is not directed against Russia will not suffice. National security is not based on promises".
Russia had no designs on Ukraine until NATO began talking about adding Ukraine and Georgia into the alliance in 2008. Putin promptly invaded Georgia, right on his border, under the guise of supporting pro-Russian separatists. Hmm, that sounds familiar, and absorbed Georgia into Russia. In 2010, when a popularly elected president took over in Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, he won on Ukraine remaining neutral. Russia began negotiating a 25 year lease on the port at Sevastopol, but the US had other designs and actively worked to essentially overthrow Yanukovych in 2014. Almost immediately, Russia began sending soldiers into the Donbas and Luhansk regions of Ukraine. Russia had been propping up pro-Russian separatist forces there to fight Ukraine, even forcing elections and referendums showing they wanted to break away from Ukraine. You may recall that pro-Russian forces shot down MH17 a Malaysian civilian passenger jet during this time. Putin also took Crimea without a fight in order to grab the Port of Sevastopol, which is the only warm water port available to Russia. Putin also attempted to get Ukraine to agree to allowing Donbas, Luhansk and Crimea have members elected to parliament, so he could control Ukraine from within. The Minsk II agreements were drawn up in 2015 by joint task force of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany. They called for autonomy for Russian speaking people in the Donbas and Luhansk regions. The UN unanimously agreed to the agreement. However, Russian insisted it was not part of the agreement because they were not a party to the conflict. They denied their troops were in either the Donbas or Luhansk. Of course, they were lying. Russia has been the only aggressor in this conflict from the beginning. An undeclared war continued to rage in the region. Again, you may recall Obama denying Ukrainian requests for weapons. He would only send MRE's (meals ready to eat and blankets). Trump did relent and sent Ukraine weapons during his term. Zelenskyy won election in 2019 by saying he would bring peace and sign the Minsk II deal. Here is where Biden and the UK stuck their noses into this mess. Zelenskyy actually met Putin Paris and they agreed to a ceasefire. Both parties did adhere to the terms, but as soon as Biden took office, Zelenskyy pivoted. No one is more to blame for Russia's invasion than Joe Biden. One actually has to wonder how much Hunter Biden's fake job at a Ukrainian energy company had to do with this, but it wasn't zero as Joe had immersed himself in Ukrainian politics as VP. A few days after Biden's inauguration day, Zelenskyy gave an interview where he asked why Ukraine wasn't in NATO. Then, a Washington think-tank wrote an op-ed asking the same questions. This was followed up by many of the exact same people who pushed NATO expansion in the 1990's to write a paper on how Biden could pressure Putin, with several of the points being Ukrainian NATO membership, security guarantees and ending the Nord Stream II pipeline. Soon afterwards, the US secretly began sending weapons to Ukraine and in November of 2021 Biden announced a strategic partnership with Ukraine. Three weeks after the paper was published, Russia began building up troops on the border and when the partnership was announced, that was the final straw. Russia invaded in February of 2022. We, in the West, want to believe that Putin is the responsible party. Afterall, he didn't have to invade, yet he warned and warned and warned us of the consequences of ignoring his security concerns. So, who is to blame? The instigator or the invader? We'll never know if the invasion was inevitable or not. After 25 years of NATO expansion, Putin probably sees Trump as hope to get what he wants. His economy is bleeding and his army has been ground down, though like Russia has always done, they have an endless supply of manpower and fight wars through attrition. Even today, Putin said there will be no peace unless Russia has security guarantees. Both sides in this conflict want security guarantees.
You have to feel bad for Ukraine in general. The country has been destroyed and many of it's people have been killed, maimed and thousands of children kidnapped by Russia. They didn't ask for this war and were literally used as a pawn by the Biden Administration. From what you can actually find out about Biden's Russia strategy before the invasion was one of disdain and simply ignoring Putin's intentions. He told us that he would attack if Ukraine was allowed into NATO. He wanted Ukraine as a buffer zone and had warned four administrations of this. It's too bad that he was ignored and it's also too bad that we actually needed to listen to a murderous dictator like him, but as a nuclear power with a huge army, unless we wanted WWIII, leaving Ukraine on the outside looking in to NATO would've saved 1.5 million lives. Biden didn't listen. In fact, he encouraged Putin by saying a minor incursion would be ok. What kind of leader says something like that? A weak one with no balls to actually engage Putin in diplomacy. Enter Trump.
Trump has a weird affinity for Putin. The total morons on the left who continue to say Trump was compromised by Russia are just fools. The whole Trump/Russia thing was known to be false by the FBI from the beginning. Hilary Clinton came up with the ruse because her emails had been compromised by foreign intelligence agencies. God only knows what kind of state secrets were in those emails, but they wanted to blame Trump as colluding with Russia so the damage, if the emails were released, would be lessened and Trump would be the fall guy. The FBI leadership, Comey and Wray, will rot in hell for knowing this and keeping it quiet. It's all out there now. Trump's affinity for Putin is still weird. I think Trump likes strong men and thugs and Putin clearly is one. In fact, no living person is responsible for the deaths of more people than Vladimir Putin. He is a murderer. He kills his opposition, he throws his soldiers into meat grinders that ensure they die by the tens of thousands and he's killed hundreds of thousands of other people in the Russian sphere with no compunction whatsoever. Kim Jong Un, Xi and the Ayatollah all do or would do the same thing and not lose a wink of sleep. Their legacies are all built on the deaths of their citizens and enemies alike. I cannot wait for Putin to die and I actually hope it's a brutal death, but until that happens, he has to be dealt with. It does seem that the more dangerous and powerful the enemy, Trump likes them for what they are. I don't think he wants to be like them, but he likes being one of the top, most powerful people on earth. In that circle of power are some seedy characters. There are plenty of examples of things Trump did to prove he's not a stooge for Putin. Sanctions, arming Ukraine and other things, but he never declares Putin a dictator or says anything about his aggression or brinkmanship. It's weird. Reagan flat out called the Soviet Union the evil empire and it worked.
Ukraine is a problem and Trump's approach is unlike any other country or person who has ever tried to broker peace. He's forcing Ukraine to the table instead of convincing them that the time is now. Putin could care a less, but must be loving every minute of this drama. There is finally a divide between NATO allies and he's going to do everything he can to exploit it. Trump may be a disrupter, but he may have gone too far with this one. The best course of action would be to back off and let Zelenskyy find his way. Forcing an ally to do something they simply aren't ready to do is not the right approach, however, we still expect Trump to act like a politician. He isn't one and never will be. Bullying and leverage is what he knows, not diplomacy. We all want the war to end, it's just a matter of how much are you willing to let Putin get what he wants at the expense of Ukraine? There is a way for this war to end with a win for everyone and Trump may have found that offering to make rare earth mineral deals with both Ukraine and Russia. With US companies in both countries, extracting minerals, security guarantees are built in for both countries. Neither will attack with our people in there. Each can say they won the war and each can make money doing it. The added bonus is we box out China, who for now, has the rare earth mineral market cornered and they paid an arm and a leg for it. This deal will be a gut punch to them as they already cut off supplying the US with minerals needed for chips, technology and warfare.
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