“When facts are on your side, hammer on the facts. When the law is on your side, hammer on the law. When neither is on your side, hammer on the table!” This is a known law school maxim, said in only half-jest.
In the recent debacle of the Trump-Vance-Zelenskyy Oval Office meeting, two of the participants were attorneys. One was not. The scenario was fairly cordial for awhile, as Cspan’s video showed, along with a crowd of Trump loyalists who disdained Zelenskyy’s attire.
Insulting the guest is hardly an auspicious way to begin a high-stakes diplomatic meeting, but Trump had seen an opportunity to perform for the public, which he loves. Things, he thought, were going his way. Zelenskyy, unmanned and outgunned, speaking broken English, would certainly sign a proffered agreement, giving the U.S. – and, by the back stairs, Russia – their most precious rare earth minerals, in return for……no promises except “investment.”
Guess whose? No pre-planned spin on the U.S. administration’s part, including repeatedly calling former President Biden an idiot, stupid and incompetent, could disguise the fact that they were now outfoxed by a brave man fighting for his nation’s existence, who pointed out the obvious: Putin, catered to beyond any past precedent, will – never stop with conquering and re-annexing Ukraine. His designs on Baltic states, former Soviet captives, have long been open, and Russia’s past unpleasant time in Poland is in history books.
All of free Europe, and many other nations, friendly and otherwise, understand this. Trump knows it, and his word-salad response, getting more emotionally heated by the moment, displayed chagrin that his planned political coup was a nonstarter, as millions were watching this in real time.
Zelenskyy would not budge, though he remained civil throughout. He had to have security guarantees, as former President Carter once insisted the nation of Israel “must have defensible borders.” So must Ukraine have allies to endure, though the Russian economy has nearly bankrupted from the war, one million of its citizens have fled and 700,000 of their soldiers have died in horrible ways – many wounded either forced back to the front or shot point blank by their own officers, when no longer useful.
Toward the end of this strange, unique Oval Office event, as the American President realized he had tricked himself with thinking that the Ukrainian was actually going to cave and offer up his nation’s natural resources, things turned rather harsh. And louder – at least, Trump and Vance got louder, and as Trump’s face turned an interesting shade of red and he made a pushing gesture toward the calm but persistently truthful Zelenskyy, this large White House meeting with plenty of press present devolved into an unfunny sandbox comedy of “You have no cards! You have no cards!” vs “Putin has broken his signed promises to us 25 times” vs a Khruschev-reminiscent (“We will bury you!”) bombast in which Trump repeated himself endlessly, admitting he would not commit to Ukraine’s defense, and Vance revealed that he only knows about the embattled country what he has seen on TV.
That is what all of America that was tuned in or saw the video got to watch, along with Russia, China, North Korea and some other gentle folk in the Middle East who have vowed to hate us forever.
This is exceedingly inappropriate to say, but – tune in next week. The spin doctors have all gone to work to convince us that we did not actually see what we saw, that the President of the United States is really a master negotiator and should be apologized to for Zelenskyy’s patent disrespect of the Oval Office by not agreeing to bow the knee. Things could get more serious, yet. God bless all, and “slava Ukraine!”
Linda Berry is a Northsider.
