Cross-posted from https://rss.ponder.cat/post/126536
Watching president Donald Trump berate the leader of Ukraine in the Oval Office last Friday, many Western officials were appalled. But they weren’t surprised. They have long understood what is now obvious to anyone who watched the ostensible photo op that careened into a diplomatic fiasco: Trump’s visceral disdain for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is inversely proportional to his abiding admiration for Russia’s dictator, Vladimir Putin.
Most U.S. allies I spoke with after the White House confrontation thought that Trump and Vice President J. D. Vance had planned to attack Zelensky, like bullies cornering the new kid on the school playground. One former U.S. official called it a “setup” (the White House denies this), intended to give Trump a pretext to withdraw American military support from an ungrateful ally, which, three days later, he did.
Watching Trump browbeat a country the United States had steadfastly backed until just six weeks ago, one bewildered Western diplomat who served in Russia asked me, “What the hell is happening to your country?” Now some of Ukraine’s staunchest supporters in the West wonder where their countries stand with the new leadership in Washington. The question has been on their mind for months.
My conversations with more than a dozen career diplomats and intelligence officers throughout the Western alliance, several of whom have served long tours in Washington, continued through the 2024 campaign, after the election, and into this week. Eventually the discussion came around to one basic question: Is Trump a reliable ally?
He’s purposely there to degrade these alliances. Even if he, gods willing, dropped dead tomorrow and somehow a sane person was there our allies can no longer trust the US electorate to make sound decisions.
If I were other NATO nations I would make electoral reforms a prerequisite for any future negotiations. If we can suddenly elect a known enemy agent how can we be trusted long-term?
Trump’s just a symptom. He’s a horrific figurehead, but the entire conservative political and media establishment are awful, along with their audience. I’m sure people would say “demorcats are as bad” or “they’re all (neo) liberals) but what passes for the left in the US is in fact not nearly as horrible as the right here.
Well said.