Russia–Ukraine: What to make of Trump’s total capitulation to Putin. – Slate

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Back in December, during his transition to the White House, I wrote, “Donald Trump probably isn’t a Russian agent, but he wouldn’t be behaving much differently if he were.” I was sneering a bit when I typed that out two months ago. Now I’m scowling. Things have become very serious.

Trump’s obeisance to Vladimir Putin’s views has raised suspicions on many occasions over the past decade, but his outright kowtowing remarks at a news conference Tuesday were enough to set off sirens.

In less than a minute’s time, Trump blamed Ukraine for starting the war, claimed Ukraine could have made a deal to stop the war soon after it began, and accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of being an illegitimate leader who didn’t deserve a seat at the table in Riyadh, where U.S. and Russian diplomats asserted the exclusive rights to negotiate a peace.

Not only were all these statements false, they parroted Kremlin propaganda, which Trump likely heard from Putin himself.

Here’s what Trump said:

I think I have the power to end this war. And I think [the negotiations are] going very well. But today I hear [Zelensky say], “Oh well, we weren’t invited.” Well, you’ve been there for three years. You should have ended [the war] in three years. You should have never started it. You could have made a deal.

And a little later, when a Fox News reporter asked about reports that Russia wanted to force Ukraine into making a deal:

We have a situation where we haven’t had elections in Ukraine—where we have martial law, essentially martial law in Ukraine, where the leader in Ukraine, I mean, I hate to say it, but he’s down at 4 percent approval rating.

(This is a lie: Zelensky’s approval rating stands at 57 percent—much higher than Trump’s 47 percent.) The president continued:

Yeah, I would say that—you know, they want a seat at the table. You could say the people have to, wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have to say, like, “It’s been a long time since we’ve had an election.” That’s not a Russia thing. That’s something coming from me and coming from many other countries.

Actually, it is entirely “a Russia thing,” and it’s total nonsense.

First, to state the obvious, it’s preposterous for Trump to claim—not for the first time, by the way—that Ukraine “should’ve never started” the war, when in fact, Russia started it almost exactly three years ago with a massive three-front invasion.

But the claim isn’t merely preposterous; it’s also a sign of Trump’s utter gullibility to Putin’s charms. When Putin launched his “special military operation” on Feb. 22, 2022, he claimed that he did so to stop the Kyiv government’s “genocide” of Russian speakers in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region.

This, of course, was nonsense—belied by Putin himself when he expanded the assault in a drive to capture the capital (unsuccessful, it turned out) and then proclaimed his real goal, which was to overthrow Kyiv’s “neo-Nazi regime” (an odd term for an elected Jewish president), wipe out Ukraine itself (which Putin dismisses as a fictitious country), and restore the old Russian empire. Trump acknowledges none of this.

Second, it’s true that there were negotiations early on in the war, but the deal that Moscow offered—permanent occupation of the land Russian troops had grabbed (a large swath of the country, as this was before Ukraine’s counteroffensive), a denial of Ukraine’s ambitions to join NATO or the European Union, and the withdrawal of NATO troops from front-line nations in Europe itself—amounted to not only a surrender by Ukraine but a reversal of Moscow’s Cold War loss.

Third, it’s true Ukraine hasn’t held elections since 2019, when Zelensky won the presidency with 73 percent of the vote (that’s a landslide), but this is because the country’s constitution forbids elections during a time of martial law, and martial law was imposed because of Russia’s invasion.

The facts are these. First, Trump hates Zelensky, and has hated him ever since the leaked tape of their phone call—the one where Trump threatened to withhold delivery of Javelin anti-tank missiles until Zelensky dug up dirt on Hunter Biden—sparked his first impeachment. Second, Trump admires Putin, has sided with him over the conclusions of U.S. intelligence agencies, and wants to restore good relations between Washington and Moscow. And he is desperate (way too visibly desperate for someone who authored a book called The Art of the Deal) to end the war at any cost, and doesn’t care if this cost is the subjugation of the Ukrainian people.

On Tuesday, Michael McFaul, former U.S. ambassador to Russia, posted on X (based on conversations he’d had with officials attending the Munich Security Conference):

Trump’s team allegedly has offered Putin (1) Ukrainian territory, (2) no NATO membership for Ukraine, (3) no US soldiers in Ukraine, (4) the withdrawal of US soldiers from Europe, including from frontline states, and (5) sanctions relief. Putin’s return offer—nothing.

Peter Baker reported the same offer in the New York Times.

This is essentially the same “deal” that Putin offered back near the start of the war—an offer of surrender that Zelensky and his Western allies wisely dismissed out of hand.

There’s more. London’s Daily Telegraph, a generally pro-Trump newspaper, reported earlier this week—based on memos leaked from Kyiv—that Trump has proposed that Ukraine grant the United States 50 percent of revenue and new resource licenses on minerals, oil, gas, ports, and infrastructure. This would effectively grant the U.S. “near-total economic control over Ukraine’s resources.” This “deal”—which Trump’s proposal says would amount to $500 billion (almost certainly an exaggerated sum)—would not be in exchange for continued military aid to Ukraine but would rather be “payback” for the billions the U.S. has provided already.

This is the sort of infliction usually imposed by victors on the losers of a war—not on some intermediary’s ally. If Zelensky turns it down (and who wouldn’t?), Trump would likely feel more justified still in pushing him and his people under Putin’s armored caravan.

Here is a question for the day: Where are the Republicans who know that Trump’s claims are nonsense and that his position at these “peace talks” is likely to have dire consequences? They would be disastrous not only for Ukraine but also for Europe (Putin may take the cave-in as a green light to threaten a wider land grab), Taiwan (China’s Xi Jinping, who has been watching Ukraine closely, could take Trump’s indifference over its fate as a signal that he could put the ultimate squeeze on the island republic that he has long regarded Beijing’s property), and the rest of the world (whose leaders and citizens will conclude that it’s not a good idea to take the United States at its word—on anything).

Where is Sen. John Thune, now the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who—just one year ago—assured Zelensky of continued U.S. support and who led a successful effort to pass a bill containing another $60 billion in military aid, over the opposition and pressure of Trump, who at the time was the all-but-certain GOP nominee in the then-upcoming election? Why isn’t Thune, why isn’t Sen. Lindsey Graham (among the party’s most outspoken Ukraine advocates), why aren’t any of the Republicans who voted for that bill, who have joined delegations to Kyiv, who have posed for cameras while shaking hands with Zelensky—why aren’t any of them speaking up?

Finally, this just in: Trump’s latest harangue against Zelensky (and, of course, Joe Biden) in a social media post Wednesday morning. Those who aren’t yet ashamed of their silence should read this:

Think of it, a modestly successful comedian, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, talked the United States of America into spending $350 Billion Dollars, to go into a War that couldn’t be won, that never had to start, but a War that he, without the U.S. and “TRUMP,” will never be able to settle. The United States has spent $200 Billion Dollars more than Europe, and Europe’s money is guaranteed, while the United States will get nothing back. Why didn’t Sleepy Joe Biden demand Equalization, in that this War is far more important to Europe than it is to us — We have a big, beautiful Ocean as separation. On top of this, Zelenskyy admits that half of the money we sent him is “MISSING.” He refuses to have Elections, is very low in Ukrainian Polls, and the only thing he was good at was playing Biden “like a fiddle.” A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left. In the meantime, we are successfully negotiating an end to the War with Russia, something all admit only “TRUMP,” and the Trump Administration, can do. Biden never tried, Europe has failed to bring Peace, and Zelenskyy probably wants to keep the “gravy train” going. I love Ukraine, but Zelenskyy has done a terrible job, his Country is shattered, and MILLIONS have unnecessarily died – And so it continues…..

This is beyond shameful. Where are the grown-ups?