Cross-posted from https://rss.ponder.cat/post/126536
Watching president Donald Trump berate the leader of Ukraine in the Oval Office last Friday, many Western officials were appalled. But they weren’t surprised. They have long understood what is now obvious to anyone who watched the ostensible photo op that careened into a diplomatic fiasco: Trump’s visceral disdain for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is inversely proportional to his abiding admiration for Russia’s dictator, Vladimir Putin.
Most U.S. allies I spoke with after the White House confrontation thought that Trump and Vice President J. D. Vance had planned to attack Zelensky, like bullies cornering the new kid on the school playground. One former U.S. official called it a “setup” (the White House denies this), intended to give Trump a pretext to withdraw American military support from an ungrateful ally, which, three days later, he did.
Watching Trump browbeat a country the United States had steadfastly backed until just six weeks ago, one bewildered Western diplomat who served in Russia asked me, “What the hell is happening to your country?” Now some of Ukraine’s staunchest supporters in the West wonder where their countries stand with the new leadership in Washington. The question has been on their mind for months.
My conversations with more than a dozen career diplomats and intelligence officers throughout the Western alliance, several of whom have served long tours in Washington, continued through the 2024 campaign, after the election, and into this week. Eventually the discussion came around to one basic question: Is Trump a reliable ally?
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Not one to spill only other governments’ secrets, by then Trump had already revealed the presence of two U.S. nuclear submarines off the coast of North Korea, during a phone call with the president of the Philippines. In 2019, Trump tweeted a potentially revealing U.S.-spy-satellite photo of a missile launch site in Iran. In 2022, after the FBI found that Trump had stored boxes of classified documents at his Florida mansion—an action for which he was criminally charged—former White House aides said they weren’t shocked, because the president had routinely mishandled classified information while in office, taking transcripts of calls with foreign leaders, as well as intelligence-briefing materials, up to his residence for no clear reason and without an explanation.
Eventually the discussion came around to one basic question: Is Trump a reliable ally?
Why would anyone be wondering that? Of course he is not. Republicans and especially Tr*mp have made their views on Ukraine well known for quite a while now. This can’t realistically be a surprise to anyone.
He’s purposely there to degrade these alliances. Even if he, gods willing, dropped dead tomorrow and somehow a sane person was there our allies can no longer trust the US electorate to make sound decisions.
If I were other NATO nations I would make electoral reforms a prerequisite for any future negotiations. If we can suddenly elect a known enemy agent how can we be trusted long-term?
Trump’s just a symptom. He’s a horrific figurehead, but the entire conservative political and media establishment are awful, along with their audience. I’m sure people would say “demorcats are as bad” or “they’re all (neo) liberals) but what passes for the left in the US is in fact not nearly as horrible as the right here.
Well said.
Heh, Trump is the problem? Come on, guys. When are you gonna talk about changing the actual problem? The alarm clock has been ringing for a while now and it’s time to wake up.
Trump is why America is suddenly alienating all its allies for no reason. I mean yeah late stage capitalism leading to fascism but nothing about fascism or capitalism requires that the head of state be a foreign agent.
What’s the actual problem then? You can’t name it either? Anyway, I’m not sure how you got from my post that I think the only issue with the US is this one specific degenerate.
The complete garbage people finally won out in the voting. We held them back as long was we could, but today they are in control.
That’s because evil will always win. Good takes time, attention, and effort from lots of people. As soon as you slow down it will overtake whatever good exists. Evil is like a fundamental force.
Bottom line is it’s the handicap of trying to keep the system fair.
It’s like the battle between Hero’s and Villains… of which the hero keeps throwing the villain back in the same prison system/jails that they have escaped or manipulated their way out of 20 times before. Meanwhile every time they get close the villain gives his best effort to permenantly kill the hero.
Also sadly there’s the part that seems to go the opposite direction in fictional hero/villain stories. We assume hero’s are really good at uniting and working together. Villains are constantly going to be backstabbing eachother. Reality is, we can’t agree on good, but damn did they come together and unify amazingly under a plan of horrors.
The Untied States of America
