The Bully Puppet
We're the bad guys now... Only 1,421 days to go...
There’s not much more to be said…
The only thing I want to add is #ShameOnTrumpVoters for electing a felon. Character matters. Truth matters. The rule of law matters.
From the New York Times, Peter Baker:
President Trump and Vice President JD Vance berated President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine on Friday in an explosive televised Oval Office shouting match that ultimately blew up plans to sign a rare minerals deal and signaled a dramatic break in relations between two wartime allies.
In a public confrontation unlike any seen between an American president and foreign leader in modern times, Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance castigated Mr. Zelensky for not being grateful enough for U.S. support in its war with Russia and sought to strong-arm him into making a peace deal on whatever terms the Americans dictated.
With voices raised and tempers flaring, Mr. Trump threatened to abandon Ukraine altogether if Mr. Zelensky did not go along. After journalists were escorted out of the Oval Office, Mr. Trump canceled the rest of the visit, including a planned joint news conference and signing ceremony for the minerals deal. A grim-faced Mr. Zelensky then strode out of the West Wing, climbed into a waiting black sport utility vehicle and departed the White House grounds.
“I have determined that President Zelenskyy is not ready for Peace if America is involved, because he feels our involvement gives him a big advantage in negotiations,” Mr. Trump wrote on social media. “I don’t want advantage, I want PEACE. He disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office. He can come back when he is ready for Peace.”
Liz Cheney:
“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.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz
"No one wants peace more than the citizens of Ukraine! That is why we are jointly seeking the path to a lasting and just peace. Ukraine can rely on Germany – and on Europe."
French President Emmanuel Macron
"Russia is the aggressor, and Ukraine is the aggressed people. I think we were all right to help Ukraine and sanction Russia three years ago, and to continue to do so. We, that is the United States of America, the Europeans, the Canadians, the Japanese and many others. And we must thank all those who have helped and respect those who have been fighting since the beginning. Because they are fighting for their dignity, their independence, their children and the security of Europe. These are simple things, but they're good to remember at times like these, that's all.
From British Prime Minister Keir Starmer
"He retains his unwavering support for Ukraine and is playing his part to find a path forward to a lasting peace, based on sovereignty and security for Ukraine."
Canadian Foreign Minister, Melanie Joly
"Canada remains committed to providing the necessary assistance to ensure Ukraine's security, sovereignty, and resilience."
Denmark’s Foreign Minister, Lars Lokke
"It's a punch in the gut for Ukraine. ... There must be room for robust conversations - even between friends. But when it happens in front of rolling cameras like that, there is only one winner. And he sits in the Kremlin."
European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen
"Your dignity honors the bravery of the Ukrainian people. Be strong, be brave, be fearless. You are never alone, dear President. We will continue working with you for a just and lasting peace."
Moldovan President Maia Sandu
"The truth is simple. Russia invaded Ukraine. Russia is the aggressor. Ukraine defends its freedom—and ours. We stand with Ukraine."
Tom Nichols:
Friday, February 28, 2025, will go into the history books as one of the grimmest days in American diplomacy, the beginning of a long-term disaster every American, every U.S. ally, and anyone who cares about the future of democracy will have to endure. With the White House’s betrayal of Ukraine capping a month of authoritarian chaos in America, Putin, along with other dictators around the world, can finally look at Trump with confidence and think: one of us.
Michael Weiss:
Increasingly obvious they invited him to Washington to humiliate him. This is theatre for the benefit of their base and of course a suddenly very happy man in Moscow.
Susan Glasser:
If there are any illusions about what side Trump is on between Russia and Ukraine, this should dispel them.
Damon Linker:
That event in the Oval Office is going to send shock waves across the world -- far more so than Vance's Munich speech. We're the most powerful country on the planet, and we are Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde from admin to admin. Today Mr. Hyde made his full debut.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni
"Every division of the West makes us all weaker and favors those who would like to see the decline of our civilization. Not of its power or influence, but of the principles that founded it, first and foremost freedom. A division would not benefit anyone. What is needed is an immediate summit between the United States, European states and allies to talk frankly about how we intend to deal with the great challenges of today, starting with Ukraine, which we have defended together in recent years, and those that we will be called upon to face in the future. This is the proposal that Italy intends to make to its partners in the coming hours."
Gregg Nunziata:
I’m hard-pressed to think of a more disgraceful and damaging performance by a U.S. President on the world stage than what we just witnessed in the Oval Office.
Mark Hertling:
Some have disappointed, some had bad policy, some made big mistakes. But I’ve never in my life been ashamed of American leaders. Until today.
Governor Jos Shapiro
"The Oval Office should be a place where we advance American values – not where we retreat from them. When the President and Vice President attacked President Zelenskyy today, they served to undermine the safety and security of America and our national security interests. I support a diplomatic end to this war. Achieving this requires an honest reckoning of who started the war and who the aggressor is, and to that question, there is only one answer: Russia."
Mona Charen:
We are a completely different country from what we were two months ago. Bully. Aggressor. Putin suck-up. Betrayer of allies. Rude. Crude. Dishonest. The most dishonorable display by an American president in our lifetimes.
Senator Jeanne Shaheen
"It's distressing to see the President is walking away from our commitment in Ukraine, and doesn't seem to understand what a murderous dictator Vladimir Putin is."
Republican Representative, Don Bacon
"A bad day for America's foreign policy. Ukraine wants independence, free markets and rule of law. It wants to be part of the West. Russia hates us and our Western values. We should be clear that we stand for freedom.-Rep. Bacon in an emailed statement."
David French:
“This is utterly shameful. This is Vladimir Putin's best outcome. The U.S. is placing pressure on a free nation fighting for its life while giving aid and comfort to an authoritarian thug.”
And now The Bully Pulpit has become quite simply The Bully Puppet.
Other voices from the Puppet Show…
Senator Lindsey Graham
"What I saw in the Oval Office was disrespectful and I don't know if we can ever do business with Zelensky again."
Republican Senator Bill Hagerty
"The United States of America will no longer be taken for granted. The contrast between the last four years and now could not be more clear. Thank you, Mr. President."
Republican Representative Ralph Norman
"THIS is strong leadership that is ensuring we put the American people FIRST. Thank you @realDonaldTrump and @JDVance for standing up for our nation."
Thought for the day in honor of his birthday…
“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not.”
~ Theodor (Dr. Seuss) Geisel
Must Read Articles:
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.
Putin Is Ready to Carve Up the World. Trump Just Handed Him the Knife.
Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, has his sights set on much more than a bunch of political exiles. And his negotiations with President Trump about Ukraine are not just about Ukraine. Putin wants nothing less than to reorganize the world, the way Joseph Stalin did with the accords he reached with Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill in the Crimean city of Yalta in February 1945. Putin has wanted to carve the globe up for a long time. Now, at last, Trump is handing him the knife.
If Roosevelt had told Churchill to sue for peace on any terms with Adolf Hitler and to fork over Britain’s coal reserves to the United States in exchange for no American security guarantees, it might have approximated what Trump did to Zelensky. Whatever one might say about how Zelensky played his cards poorly — either by failing to behave with the degree of all-fours sycophancy that Trump demands or to maintain his composure in the face of JD Vance’s disingenuous provocations — this was a day of American infamy…Roosevelt and Reagan must be spinning in their graves, as are Churchill and Thatcher. It’s up to the rest of us to reclaim America’s honor from the gangsters who besmirched it in the White House.
At Least Now We Know the Truth
Both the president and vice president showed the U.S.-led alliance system something it needed urgently to know: The national-security system of the West is led by two men who cannot be trusted to defend America’s allies—and who deeply sympathize with the world’s most aggressive dictator.
Quote of the day:
“Trump seems incapable of restraining himself from insulting foreign leaders. His slogan ‘America First’ harks back to the isolationists of 1940, and foreign leaders know it. He can read speeches written for him by others, but he cannot himself articulate a worldview that goes beyond a teenager’s bluster. He lays out his resentments, insecurities, and obsessions on social media for all to see, opening up a gold mine to foreign governments seeking to understand and manipulate the American president.”
~Eliot Cohen
What I’m reading today…
We are barely a month into the second presidential term of Donald Trump and he has made his top priorities clear: the destruction of America’s government and influence and the preservation of Russia’s.
Unleashing Elon Musk and his DOGE cadres on the federal government, menacing Canada and European allies, and embracing Vladimir Putin’s wish list for Ukraine and beyond are not unrelated. These moves are all strategic elements of a plan that is familiar to any student of the rise and fall of democracies, especially the “fall” part.
Trump's "disaster" Zelensky meeting stuns GOP hawks
"Trump and Vance are doing Putin's dirty work," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y) said on X. "Senate Democrats will never stop fighting for freedom and democracy."
Western allies rally around Zelensky after Trump spat deepens rift with Europe
Europe’s leaders and officials have been blindsided by a staggering collapse in American support for Ukraine in the past weeks, after almost three years of ironclad backing by the previous administration of Joe Biden. Many still cannot understand why US President Donald Trump has turned so furiously on Zelensky and conceded key concessions to Putin before even starting talks.
What Erratic Government Does to a Country
To be clear, change itself is not a bad thing. The dynamism of markets—innovation, shifting consumer preferences, new competitors—are part of the bargain of commercial life. Markets work precisely because businesses have to learn and adapt in the face of change. Regime uncertainty, on the other hand, is an entirely different beast. Lack of clarity about future taxation, property rights, and government intervention discourages risk-taking that could otherwise produce fruitful results. When businesses and individuals cannot confidently predict the legal and economic environment they will operate in, they become reluctant to invest or expand. This hesitation, in turn, causes stagnation and declining economic security.
Judges, the Economy, and Even Elon Musk’s Own DOGE Team Are Turning Against His Wild Plans
On Tuesday, 21 DOGE employees resigned en masse, writing in an open letter addressed to Trump chief of staff Susie Wiles that they objected to being asked to “compromise core government systems, jeopardize Americans’ sensitive data, or dismantle critical public services.”
Donald Trump’s Cabinet Is Incompetent. Worse, It’s at the Whim of Elon Musk
No, Trump didn’t go around the room having his secretaries lavish praise on the so-called efficiency czar, as he had his officials do for him back in 2017. (“The greatest privilege of my life,” Mike Pence said at that June 2017 meeting, “is to serve as vice president to the president who’s keeping his word to the American people.”) But the president did make clear to his Cabinet, and to Washington more broadly, that he expected them to yield to Musk as they had to him. “Is anybody unhappy with Elon?” Trump asked his secretaries, as Musk looked on in a black MAGA hat and a tee-shirt that read: TECH SUPPORT. “If you are, we’ll throw him out of here. Is anybody unhappy?”
