Summary
Trump just presided over one of the greatest diplomatic disasters in modern history, with flared tempers, raised voices, and shredded protocol.
Never before has a U.S. president bullied and berated an adversary, never mind an ally, in such a public way.
During a tense Oval Office meeting, Trump and JD Vance attacked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, demanding he accept a peace deal with Russia or lose U.S. support.
The conversation devolved into shouting, with Trump accusing Zelenskyy of being ungrateful and “gambling with World War III.”
The meeting ended in chaos, with no agreement reached.
I’m glad we get to see this shameful display. I wouldn’t talk to a dog like that, much less the democratically elected leader of another sovereign nation that’s an ally. The US used to be a beacon of freedom and diplomacy, but clearly we shouldn’t expect that from the current regime.
Europe will keep supporting Ukraine regardless, but it really is in the US’ interests to stay involved in this conflict. It’s disconcerting that Trump can’t seem to grasp that basic fact.
It’s also just so weak.
Not that macho’ism should be a major point or even desirable trait for a world leader IMO, but so many people like Trump because he’s allegedly strong. Yet when I watch the above clip I just keep thinking “he’s so weak and soft and overly sensitive to essentially everything.” Like how can you want a tough leader, then watch that exchange and think “Trump is tough.” What?
If the Europe had any sense of self respect the US embassies would be closing everywhere right now just like the russian ones.
Trump sucks, I hope Ukraine wins,and I hope Putin is judged by history for his aggression and the general incompetence of his government.
But very few Russian embassies were ever closed, and rightly so. Some were downsized and suspected spies were given the boot. If Europe wants to do that with Americans, yeah smart.
Outright closing embassies would be a massive misstep, completely (edit: unwarranted, I mean) warranted, and miss the entire point of diplomacy.
Agreed. Removing the option to talk leads to violence.
That was crazy
That was harder to watch than Isis beheadings
What a shit show…
This is the weakness of modern democracies… You, as Putin, can just wait for 4 years and there will maybe be an idiot in power, who.ruins everything done before.
Good job America! Proud of y’all for once again standing up for your values of oppression and greed.
So true.
The democrats would rather have trump than Bernie.
“Democracy dies on live TV” - wow that headline hits hard.
It says Diplomacy, but both are fitting actually
Ah cheers, misread that!
First time i read it I thought it says “Democracy dies on live TV”… not far from it i guess…
“US chances at…”
Need to be added to the start. As if other countries aren’t somehow capable is such an USamericanism.
Democracy is just one word and a set of ideas connected to it.
Other than democracy there are meekness, dignity, wisdom and rationality, by the way, none of these contradicts any other, and a few even more important - faith and bravery and choice.
So, I see nothing wrong with democracy dying in any kind of public setting when the 7 things I’ve listed stop being even tolerated.
I just saw an ad for G20, a fiction where some terrorists kidnap all the leaders of the G20 at the meeting. But don’t worry, the US president frees herself, and she’s going full Liam Neeson to free everyone and get revenge.
LOL completely unbelievable
What would instead happen with the US president that is in charge now: if you free me I will help you with all your requests and I will personally execute the hostages
I’ve heard shows like Madam Secretary and The West Wing be considered, akin to Star Trek, “competence porn.”
The idea, the fantasy, that the people making the critical decisions that affect so many people are consulting experts, weighing heavy costs, consulting the law, and are kept up at night because they care so deeply for making the best call they can so they don’t let down all those who depend on them. These characters have been role models for leadership for generations at this point.
And here we are, in a complete fever dream of a failed state: With a convicted felon and failed reality show TV personality, his foreign billionaire handler, and a weak spineless, loud little dweeb we all forgot was even vice… burning the last vestiges of peace and goodwill all around themselves, handing us and our allies over in a competition with other fascists to be the world’s worst enemies, screaming at world leaders, destroying the environment out of spite, and heck, shilling beans from the oval office. Because why not.
Who’s close enough to this to do something about it? Where are the competent ones who will regain control of the bridge from these terrorists? Yeah, where’s our “G20 president”?
Well, I just remembered, we need to support people like Governor Janet Mills of Maine , and empower anyone any everyone who will stand up against this bullying.
I really like The West Wing. I’m currently going through it again.
It was always a hopeful show, but these days even the ‘bad guys’ in it start to look pretty appealing compared to what’s actually in the White House. At least the ones on the West Wing had fairly mundane motives and could be worked with to some extent.
If they made a current show inspired the actual White House, it would look more like Idiocracy than competency porn…
Fucking Idiocracy is competence porn at this point, Camacho was an idiot but damn was he actually really competent if you think about the events of the movie.
Absolutely. Something about that movie’s premise was that the ignorance and takeover of corporate influence was the villain, but the leaders were just ignorant and rowdy, not actively acting out of hatred and malice towards… Everyone.
You’re right, been awhile since I’ve seen it but Camacho was being a tank-driving grenade-launching nut just to look cool. He didn’t aspire to invade neighbors or anything that we’re shown.
Once they could be taught, they could be reasoned with, even with their inflated egos, and they moved shockingly quickly to correct things because they wanted to be good, well-liked leaders, they just didn’t know how. (Oh, and limited film runtime lol)
You know, it’s known for it’s cynical humor but at its heart, I’d almost say it has a “noble dark” (as opposed to “grimdark”) tone: The world sucks, but the characters are shown to have a desire to do good at their core, once they see past the bullshit! :)
I know my meme game has died and ascended into Boomerdoom, for I’ve seen this about 12 times and IDK what’s up
Hi, just wanted you to know you’re a piece of shit.
Maybe some introspection to stop being a piece of shit would be in order.
Fuck off Ivan
There can be absolutely zero doubt that Trump is a Russian stooge
He doesn’t have to be Russian stooge to be evil, and to behave like one too
I think “tried to bully Zelensky” would have been a little more accurate. Of course Trump and Vance failed at that too. All they’re good at is manipulating the most stupid people on the planet. If I was morally depraved, I bet I could do it pretty easily too.
Imagine calling a world leader, who’s kinda busy leading his nation through a brutal war against his nation, halfway across the planet, just to yell at him on camera like they’re on some Fox News shouting-heads hitpiece, for not selling out his country and giving in to the butchers.
Seriously, even for the world’s stupidest people, where is the “Okay, wow, you just don’t do that, sir.” Line?
When does “Defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign AND DOMESTIC.” come into play? Seriously, someone please tell me, what do these chodes gotta do to get treated as the terrorists they are?
When do the sworn-in armed forces say “Alright, that’s it.” and draw down on this gang of heinous criminals and execute them for treason to prevent the world from slipping any further into chaos?
Do we gotta hope for (a successful) Op: Valkyrie 2025??
I don’t know what it can be, but every ounce of me hates both of these men. I don’t even want to call them men. I can’t think of a possible way that they could suffer and feel the emotion of helplessness and sorrow. Whatever would happen, I don’t think they’d care. They literally wouldn’t care - because they have the mindset that they are invincible and can have whatever they want.
I think Tolkien has words for the corrupted, the lesser beings that are greedy agressive morons, “orcs”
I would say they are more like ringwraiths - twisted shadows of men bound to a larger evil, Putin.
Snotlings
remember you guys. peace day 1! trump never lies
This is genuinely one of the stupidest things I’ve seen. We all are used the the bar getting lower and lower but lordy it just accelerated.
I’m ready to protest this shit. Tell me when and where to show up, my local big city or state capital. This is some bullshit. Trump and Vance are egotistical dickheads. Ukraine are our allies! Imagine George Washington doing this with Marquis de Lafayette, or FDR with Churchill!! Unspeakable!
Ukraine is a US ally. Trump is a Russian ally. Of course he would attack his adversary.
Bro have you been in a coma? The US is now taking the side of Russia, North Korea, Iran and China. Our alliances with the free west are dead.
Our alliances with the free west are dead.
That’s a bit exaggerated.
Alliances with Middle-Eastern monarchies, Israel and such - are apparently becoming even stronger.
Alliances with European countries and the Commonwealth - yes, but doesn’t seem enough of a breakup to deprive both sides of the common R&D and weapons trade and logistics system.
North Korea is its own thing, Stalinism is not good, but it’s not an aggressive nation even against South Korea. It’s just their elite’s way of survival to threaten everyone around and to make themselves necessary to their neighbors, which are China, Russia and, well, South Korea.
Iran is strained the opposition it has in its conflicts, so it tries to deal with Russia and India and everyone, China included.
Russia is a gang of thieves scaled to a nation with nuclear weapons. Such an elite can’t stand a democratic nation with similar official language and half the population talking Russian, with decent level of life, nearby. They’d lose peace, so they chose war. And frankly I think that this was predicted by those supporting Ukraine. The idea was that Russia will kill itself against Ukraine, or take the L not accepting the price needed, and it turned out that Russia’s elite will rather pay that price.
So, I didn’t mention China itself. China is the nation everyone listed, including US, is heavily reliant upon economically. And war in Ukraine made Russia even more reliant on China, and destabilization in the Middle-East made Iran even more reliant on China, basically bad things make everyone even more reliant on China.
And China is an adversary. So what Trump&Vance&co are doing is to accept all kinds of scum into their allies’ ranks, except China. Allowing that scum to do as it pleases.
So - it’s “not allowing the better to be the enemy of the good” and at the same time cozying up to all kinds of gangsters, double win.
I wish your next election is an election.
That’s kinda what they said.
I thought they were making that typical American denialist point that “actually the US is still friends with Ukraine, it’s just trump that’s the problem”.
Just show up, invite others, everyone is waiting for someone else to do something (present company included).
