“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” Jesus, Matthew 5:9
If you haven’t seen the video of the Trump-Vance vs. Zelensky “negotiations” in the Oval Office yet, please stop here and see it for yourself. Try to suspend whatever opinions about the encounter you have heard or read about from commentators, although I know that is hard to do. It is even harder to divorce oneself from personal bias, and if you have read any of my posts in the last few months you probably know my political bias. These thoughts however came to me as I watched the White House meeting live and before I had heard other commentary.
President Trump has said repeatedly and again today that he wants peace in Ukraine. By that he means he wants the killing to stop; he wants the credit; and he also wants to be paid back for what the U.S. has provided to Ukraine in the last three years, even though that was never part of the deal. The Biden administration and a bipartisan Congress gave armaments to Ukraine so they could defend themselves from a Russian invasion. Yes, Russia is to blame for this war, even though that is not the case in Trump’s alternative facts universe. The point here is that the military aid was a gift, not a loan. There is nothing to repay to the U.S. or the other nations who have supported Kyiv through these three long, bloody years. We did it because it was the right thing to do, period.
And yet here we are again with Trump trying to coerce a deal with Ukraine for some rare earth minerals in exchange for continued support just like he did in his first term when he tried to get dirt of the Bidens from Zelensky as pay back for U.S. support. That was the reason Trump was impeached the first time, remember?
So enter these three key players today – Trump, Vance, and Zelensky. I said to my wife as soon as I saw J.D. Vance was there that he had no business being there, and if Trump really wanted peace he would not have included his Vice-President in this delicate meeting. The inexperienced Vance has already insulted Ukraine and most of Europe in his disastrous speech in Munich a couple of weeks ago. He has so little political experience that his fellow Republicans called his Munich blunder “a rookie mistake.” So why have this rookie even in this critical meeting in the first place? Apparently so he and Trump could gang up on Zelensky, and in fact it was Vance’s intrusion into the conversation when the meeting was nearly over that set off the shouting match. Vance is the apprentice who should be fired.
Side bar: I heard later that someone had the audacity to criticize Zelensky for how he was dressed, saying it was disrespectful for him not to wear a suit and tie for this important meeting. Have you seen how Elon Musk dresses for cabinet meetings and other events in the Oval Office? Methinks Zelensky was set up to be ambushed from the get go, and that’s what bullies do, not what peacemakers do.
The other Scripture that came to mind as I watched is the very familiar passage from I Corinthians 13 where Paul says, “Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable; it keeps no record of wrongs; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth.” Both our President and VP were boastful, arrogant, and rude. They both insist on their own way and keep records of every real or imagined wrong ever done to them. And let’s not forget the matter of truth. Trump has repeatedly said that the U.S. has provided Ukraine $300-360 billion in aid when the real number appropriated by Congress is less than $200 billion. Trump was caught on video last week calling Zelensky a “dictator,” but when asked by a reporter Thursday if he still thought the Ukrainian president was a dictator, Trump straight-faced said, “Did I say that? I can’t believe I ever said that.” He never did answer the question. As for the demand from both Americans that Zelensky needed to be grateful for our aid the fact checkers tell us the Ukranian President has already expressed gratitude publicly over 30 times.
You will of course get two different assessments of how President Trump did in this made for television spectacle. His Republican allies loved his “tough” handling of Zelensky while his Democratic critics saw what transpired as a disaster for our country and for our former Western Allies. But here’s all you need to know about the impact yesterday’s events will have on the future of democracy. First, a Russian reporter was allowed into the oval office for this delicate meeting (which should have been held in private) so Trump’s reprise of his role in the Apprentice could be reported directly back to the Kremlin. Second, the loudest cheers for the Trump-Vance tag team performance came from Putin and his oligarchs in Moscow, and all the while the bombing and destruction of Ukraine continues into a fourth year.
My father and all the other brave men and women who risked their lives to defeat fascism in WWII are turning over in their graves.
March 1, 2025
Peacefully Harsh 