Ambush in thge Oval Office

  

Ambush in the Oval Office

Is the United States We Knew Over?

"The insolent pig finally got a proper slap down in the Oval Office… The Kiev regime is ‘gambling with WWIII.’" 

 Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy chair of Russia's Security Council and the country's former president, on X

“Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.” 

John F Kennedy’s speech inaugural address, January 20, 1961.

“Generations of American patriots, from our revolution onward, have fought for the principles Zelenskyy is risking his life to defend. But today, Donald Trump and JD Vance attacked Zelenskyy and pressured him to surrender the freedom of his people to the KGB war criminal who invaded Ukraine… History will remember this day— when an American President and Vice President abandoned all we stand for.” 

Former Republican Congresswoman, Liz Cheney wrote, on February 28th, in a post on social platform X.

Don’t believe that what happened on February 28 at a televised news conference from the Whitehouse – Volodymir Zelenskyy vs Donald Trump and JD Vance – was simply an expression of Trump continuing rage at Zelenskyy. Trump touted the Putin party line, glorifying a manipulative and brutal dictator. Master Gas Lighter Trump and “I wanna be you” JD Vance pounced on the legitimately elected President of Ukraine with a pounding, spewing threats and falsehoods like a leaking fire hydrant. Here’s an excerpt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyTO0oIpbqQ

If you watch that humiliation that Trump and Vance fired at a calm Zelenskyy, you will see an honorable man who was not allowed to defend himself, charged with ingratitude (Zelenskyy’s record profuse thanks to the US is overwhelming and well-documented), his “disrespectful” failure to wear a suit (he has not worn a suit since the war started; look at Elon Musk’s tee-shirt at Trump first cabinet meeting), that thus he was rude and insulting to Trump and Vance (the opposite is true). Trump echoed the Russian message; Putin could not have written it better. Trump even blamed Zelenskyy for the continuing horror show in Ukraine and that Zelenskyy could trigger WWIII. Treaty-breaking Trump scoffed at Zelenskyy’s reminder of Russia’s breaking of treaty commitments to Ukraine. Then Secretary State Marco Rubio threw Zelenskyy out of the White House.

What is more interesting is the reaction of high-profile Republican members of Congress. Even as some has tout Zelenskyy as a peacemaker on X or to the press before the meeting, could not get in line fast enough behind Trump’s hardline humiliation of Zelenskyy… touting the latter’s “insulting” responses to the Trump/Vance tirade as requiring Zelenskyy to resign as Ukraine’s President. Despite the fact that various incarnations of Russia have been our primary adversary since the post-WWII Soviet blockade of Berlin, except for a very short-lived 1991+ failed effort at true democracy in Russia, the GOP embraced Trump’s false narrative almost instantly. I have to acknowledge that some GOP voices echoed the Reagan-era opposition to Russia and felt betrayed by Trump’s flip to supporting the hated Putin. But MAGA has crushed those American commitments from every president since Truman.

In Ukraine, support for Zelenskyy was nearly unanimous, rallying Ukrainians to defend and even increase their support for Zelenskyy (who before the meeting already had a 57% approval level in that nation). Feeling outrage at the Trump/Vance tirades and obvious falsehoods, many citizens took that attack on Zelenskyy as an insult to the thousands of Ukrainian soldiers who died in support of what they used to believe was America’s firm commitment to democracy… and for families that lost combatants or innocents decimated by Russian artillery and the unending Russian missile and drone attacks on civilian targets. Freedom from a Russian tyrant was worth continuing the fight, with or without US support.

In Europe, as evidenced by the above collage of European newspapers, many felt that that White House verbal assault on Zelenskyy was clear evidence of Donald Trump’s completely switching sides in the Russia-initiated war on Ukraine. The general reaction of leaders and the European press was outrage against Trump. European leaders called for an immediate meeting in London to address how Europe would address America’s seeming abandonment of Ukraine and embrace of war criminal Putin instead.

Trump has always felt that international alliances are evidence of weakness. That the post-WWII world saw the United States “surrender” to that global trend toward military mutual protection and trade-defining treaties, according to Trump. His “America First” platform was a mix of isolationism and, when it comes to international relations, to force the world to do as Trump bids. We are a bully these days, led by an egotistical autocrat in the eyes of most of Europe. For all practical purposes US involvement in NATO is dead; Europe is attempting to figure out how to realign against the obvious Russian threat, which is felt particularly by Western Nations in that continent.

Meanwhile, we are watching the Trump/Musk administration focus on dismantling the power of the press, impose loyalty tests for civil servants, defund any vestige of DEI, consumer or environmental protection and without any tangible plan for future governance, tear down the federal government at every level. As Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Defense, made clear to Mexico, the United States is quite ready to send military forces into that country to take down cartels and their supporters, we are witnessing bully tactics that could easily involve the United States into another era of international conflicts, sending our troops in harm’s way… against a neighbor, still reeling from that mass of US-made firearms sold at a clandestine profit by US arms manufacturers wielded by those cartel armies. Will we see a Chinese naval base in Mexico soon? As Trump tries to walk back this oval office debacle in his meetings with European heads of state, we will soon discover if Europe has a backbone, a sense of shame, or will simply pretend the US can be turned back around under Trump.

I’m Peter Dekom, and as these policy changes seem irreversible, it is hard for me to envision anything but a massive defeat of Republican candidates in the 2028 election… if those elections even take place.