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'One of the grimmest days' in American history [1]
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Date: 2025-02-28
It’s late, and I find myself having very little to add to the general feeling of intense disgust and revulsion that I know each of us — and millions of Americans -- feel about the vomit-inducing performance this nation was forced to witness today in the Oval Office. The scope of the Trump-Vance treachery is quite literally unparalleled in American history, but the pushback, thus far, thankfully appears to be equally intense.
I want to defer this piece, though, to conservative columnist for the Atlantic, Tom Nichols, because I think his perspective speaks even more to the moment than my — or any of our — justified disgust.
As Nichols writes:
Leave aside, if only for a moment, the utter boorishness with which President Donald Trump and Vice President J. D. Vance treated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House today. Also leave aside the spectacle of American leaders publicly pummeling a friend as if he were an enemy. All of the ghastliness inflicted on Zelensky today should not obscure the geopolitical reality of what just happened: The president of the United States ambushed a loyal ally, presumably so that he can soon make a deal with the dictator of Russia to sell out a European nation fighting for its very existence.
The fact is that this planned “ambush” of Zelenskyy was a tactic, one intended to justify the complete abandonment of Ukraine to Vladimir Putin. All of it was carefully orchestrated. And because of that it’s fitting that it was instigated by both Trump and Vance, a tag team veritably made for each other in their mutual embrace of betrayal of this country’s allies to advance Putin’s interests as a new American policy.
Nichols:
The sheer rudeness shown to a foreign guest and friend of the United States was (to use a word) deplorable as a matter of manners and grace, but worse, Trump and Vance acted like a couple of online Kremlin sock puppets instead of American leaders. They pushed talking points that they either knew or should have known were wrong.
The fact that Republicans are either finding novel ways to endorse this travesty or twisting themselves into pretzels to try to justify it is just more evidence of that party’s complete moral bankruptcy.
Nichols’ own personal reaction is worth sharing:
Today’s meeting and America’s shameful vote in the United Nations on Monday confirmed that the United States is now aligned with Russia and against Ukraine, Europe, and most of the planet. I felt physically sick watching the president of the United States yell at a brave ally, fulminating in the Oval Office as if he were an addled old man shaking his fist at a television. Zelensky has endured tragedies, and risked his life, in ways that men such as Trump and Vance cannot imagine. (Vance served as a public-relations officer in the most powerful military in the world; he has never had to huddle in a bunker during a Russian bombardment.) I am ashamed for my nation; even if Congress acts to support and aid Ukraine, it cannot restore the American honor lost today.
But, questions of American “honor” aside, and questions of our “disgust” notwithstanding, the magnitude of what was deliberately thrown away today by Trump — and (let’s be real) by those who voted for him — is something that we should all keep in mind as the coming months unfold.
As Nichols writes:
[N]o matter how disgusted anyone might be at Trump and Vance’s behavior, the strategic reality is that this meeting is a catastrophe for the United States and the free world. America’s alliances are now in danger, and should be: Trump is openly, and gleefully, betraying everything America has tried to defend since the defeat of the Axis 80 years ago. The entire international order of peace and security is now in danger, as Russian autocrats, after slaughtering innocent people for three years, look forward to enjoying the spoils of their invasion instead of standing trial for their crimes.
The thing about betrayal is that, under just about any circumstances, it’s not fixable or forgivable. There’s no going back (And as an aside, I would suggest that those chuckleheads who think the U.S. economy can possibly withstand the consequences of this type of betrayal are whistling past the graveyard).
Finally, I don’t think I’m alone in feeling sadly, tragically, glad that my father is no longer alive to see this. At least he passed away when we had a real president, not a stooge of Vladimir Putin.
[END]
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