What I saw yesterday alarmed me...
Is there more behind the Zelensky catastrophe?
I watched the White House meeting between Presidents Zelensky and Trump in its entirety to understand the dynamics better.
What I saw horrified and alarmed me.
Here are a few thoughts and observations:
Clearly, the deal they were considering signing shortly after wasn’t on solid ground to begin with. President Zelensky was rightfully concerned that it didn’t include a security guarantee. He brought that up again and again in the meeting, patiently reminding them of the history of the conflict, why Putin couldn’t be trusted, and why it was important for Ukraine to have a security guarantee. His concerns were repeatedly brushed off. That certainly didn’t bode well for the outcome of the meeting.
Regardless, the meeting started off well enough (if you ignore the customary lies from the White House and some minor pushbacks from Zelensky). At least, it appeared to me that the White House was ready to sign the deal. Why not? The U.S. had offered nothing in return other than the assertion that U.S. partial ownership of a Ukrainian mineral fund would automagically deter future Russian aggression. Zelensky seemed less convinced, but he didn’t have many options - as he was reminded often enough.
It all went off the rails after VP Vance jumped into the conversation. His accusation that Zelensky didn’t express sufficient gratitude and that he had campaigned for Harris in Pennsylvania (which was false), two arguments that were masterfully chosen - I may add, led to a visible change to Trump’s demeanor. It quickly spiraled into a shouting match and a miserable and abrupt end to the meeting.
It was chilling for me to see how Vance was able to manipulate the President of the United States so easily. And it played out in front of the cameras. How many similar - or worse - manipulations are happening behind the scenes? It’s bad enough that we have a leader whose method of governing is based on transactional deals rather than democratic or moral values, and whose primary goal seems to be self-enrichment and self-aggrandizement. But it’s even worse that we don’t really know who is running this country. Is it Vance? Is it Musk? Is it Miller? Or is it all of them? And what’s their agenda?
These are questions we need to ask ourselves as the chaos unfolds.
At this moment, I must admit that I’m more alarmed than disgusted. This is a moment of great confusion and great consequence. We desperately need congressional Democrats to step up to the plate, unpack daily emergencies and the real-time destruction of democratic norms, explain to the public what the heck is going on, and amplify the message through channels that can reach the broader electorate.