Saturday, March 1, 2025

Oval Office Blowup

Trump: You're not in a good position. You don't have the cards right now. . . .

Zelenskyy: I’m not playing cards --

Trump: You are playing cards


U.S. President Trump thinks this is a world in which the dominant powers negotiate between themselves to arrange the roles of smaller countries in their region. 

Trump expected a grateful supplicant who knew Ukraine had lost the war, yet was continuing a hopeless fight. Ukraine President Zelenskyy thinks his country is on the front lines, spilling blood to protect Western democracy. 


The meeting was probably a net positive for Trump's popularity, and certainly so with his MAGA base, even as it sent shudders through diplomatic circles around the world. This photo tells the story: a proud JD Vance, who got to deliver his zinger, accusing Zelenskyy of showing disrespect; Secretary of State Marco Rubio sat stone-faced.


Ukraine's problem is that Trump prefers Putin's Russia to Ukraine, and it is bigger than Ukraine. Trump presumes that Ukraine is utterly dependent on U.S. military aid and ought to act accordingly.

Bruce Van Zee is representative of a national wave of angry, indignant opposition to Trump. My in-box is full of analysis and commentary about the meeting, almost all negative about Trump. Bruce Van Zee's is a good example of that opinion. Frustrated Democrats want to DO something about Trump. Boycott somebody. March somewhere. Raise angry questions at town halls held by Republicans. Some Democrats are becoming "content creators" on TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Reels, BlueSky, and Twitter/X. For those who prefer to write, there is blogspot, WordPress, and increasingly Substack, where a majority of my readers now get this blog, sent by email.

Bruce Van Zee is a retired physician, a nephrologist. He lives in Medford, Oregon. He calls himself a "Never Trumper." He began sharing his thoughts during this second Trump term in his new blog on Substack. He allowed me to re-publish his post from yesterday. He would welcome new subscribers.
Readers wishing to follow him can click above to go to his own Substack site and subscribe.

Guest Post by Bruce Van Zee

I cannot believe what I just saw with my own eyes…..but then I remember feeling the same way on Jan. 6. Today, Trump and Vance berated Zelensky for telling the truth; that Putin does not keep his word and has broken agreements with Ukraine before. Since Trump bears personal malice towards Zelensky because he had the temerity to refuse a meritless investigation into Biden during the 2020 campaign, Trump lashed out and attacked him (again) less than two weeks after falsely calling him a “dictator” and the aggressor in the Russian -Ukrainian war.

Of course, any responsible head of state would be able to put their personal feelings aside in view of the greater importance of the fate of the Ukrainian people, the international order, our record (more or less) of supporting free and oppressed people and opposing thugs and dictatorial regimes over the course of the last 80 years.

No more. Our Narcissist-in-Chief is incapable of separating what he perceives as good for him and what is good for the country. We have seen this movie before. Painfully, too many times. As a further exclamation point as to where Trump’s mind was, his parting shot in the Oval Office was, “This makes for good TV.” No thought as to the disaster in international relations his tirade had caused.

Adding ironic absurdity, he accused Zelensky of “risking WWIII”. But the real risk of widening the war is the instability in the international order his abandonment of Ukraine represents. If I were a resident or government official in, say, Germany, or Poland, or countless other countries that have depending on America’s deterrent, I would not only dramatically scale up my defenses, but seek the ultimate deterrent, nukes. Nuclear proliferation would not be good for the prospects of world peace; I think we can all agree on that.

Zelensky may well now resign, not that he should, because he told the truth. But he is a leader who recognizes that his nation and his people are more important than himself. I dearly wish America had such a leader.

Folks, we need to do something, I wish I knew what, but a single day of boycotting Walmart, Amazon, etc is not enough. Ideas??



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9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hope your friend can fix the last name: Volodymyr Zelenskyy

I agree 100%. It was a total disgrace. The Orange Dictator only cares about power and money. The only question remaining is How Low Will He Go?

If possible, Pope Francis should pick up the phone and have a talk with our Catholic VP. It appears that he has sold his soul.

Anonymous said...

Zelensky played Biden like a fiddle. Trump is establishing now who is in charge, and it ain't that little Ukrainian con man.

Mike Steely said...

Well-put, Bruce! As you say, “the real risk of widening the war is the instability in the international order [Trump’s] abandonment of Ukraine represents.”

Peter says, “The meeting was probably net-net a positive for Trump's popularity…” If true, American’s are even crazier than I thought and after electing a traitorous criminal, it was obvious that those who did it are seriously insane.

I too wish I knew what to do about it. We need some kind of anti-madness vaccine, but Republicans would assume it’s a plot to inject them with microchips. The vaccine they used when I went to school was called civics. I wonder how many Trump supporters know or care that we’re supposed to have three equal branches of government. The problem is, you can’t fit civics on a bumper sticker.

Michael Trigoboff said...

I think that James Carville has the best answer about what to do for the Democrats: wait for Trump to screw up badly in a way that hurts his supporters, and then you have an opportunity to move politics.

Until then, there are various unhelpful tantrums you can have which are a waste of energy that is better preserved for a time when it might be effective.

Mike said...

Carville called Trump’s heated meeting with Zelensky “stunning.” Regarding Trump, he pointed out “that boy ain’t right” and suggested he be tested for syphilis.

Michael Trigoboff said...

None of which contradicts the point I made.

If Democrats keep complaining ineffectively, they may use up their ability to attract attention by the time they have some effective complaints to make.

Mike said...

Trump tried to illegally overturn the 2020 election. He's now demolishing the U.S. government, alienating our European allies and cozying up to Russia. Anyone who doesn't see those as effective complaints would have to be a hopeless cult member.

Mike said...

And by the way, he isn't lowering prices as promised, so maybe some MAGAs might even awaken from their stupor. Imagine if you can: woke ex-Trumpers!

John C said...

Michael: two concerns about waiting:

1. He’s a master of distraction. He’ll place blame anywhere but him, and he can milk that a long time. Look at how he blames Zelensky for Russia’s invasion! And some people buy it- see comment above calling Zelensky the con man.

2. By the time the policies have hurt people sufficiently that they finally find out they’ve been duped, he will have dismantled so many safeguards and consolidated so much power that their discontent will be meaningless at the ballot box. If there even is one left