Diplomacy by reality TV—Trump’s Oval Office antics are reckless on the world stage.
😾😾
Few takeaways:
- JD Vance is talking over a tired-looking trump who can’t follow the conversation (See, him trying to correct Zelenskyy on the date of Crimea’s annexation, claiming it was 2015, then responding to being corrected on the date that, “I wasn’t there”. Like he was there in 2015, LOL).
- This was a preplanned ambush that is the most cringe fucking thing I’ve seen in the last 5 years, from MTG’s fucking boyfriend (I wish I made this up, I really do), attacking Zelenskyy for not wearing a suite, to which he responds by saying “I’ll wear a costume after the war is over. Like yours, but maybe better”
- JD Vance is really really bad at acting. He theatrically exclaims how the Oval office is being dIsReSPecTed!!!111!!! but with like a 5 second delay and with limited enthusiasm. All it does it tells you that this was the plan all along.
- Marco Rubio had a Dr Birx/drink bleach kind of moment there.
Overall the only news here is trump is really really declining cognitively. I wonder how long it will take NYT to notice that…
“I’ll wear a costume after the war is over.”
What a savage takedown, holy shit.
Zelenskyy is a class act. America doesn’t deserve to even be sitting at the same table as this guy.
Fun fact: the French word for “suit” is “costume.” I wonder if Zelenskyy was aware of his multilingual pun.
Suit in Ukrainian is listerally “костюм”, in Latin script “kostyum”. Which is pronounced close enough.
I am not sure if it was intended, but hilarious nevertheless.
We can assume he is aware of it a lot more than the rubes in that room with him.
All they achieved with this ambush is to show the difference in quality between Zelenskyy and trump/vance. The contrast is stark. Those two guys would have shat themselves in a reverse situation.
The US should feel embarassed for this.
Those of us who didn’t vote for him, actual Americans, do.
No true scotsman.
Krasnov gonna krasnov.
Someone needs to end the reign of Trump. What a waste of energy, piece of shit. Burn in hell.
Someone close to him needs to do something, for the good of the entire world.
That’s just vague enough to keep the SS off your back. Good job. Pun intended on SS
Yea, gotta be careful not to Say anything illegal
Plenty of old people with nothing left to lose have access to him. I’m just saying, it’d be a real shame…
If anyone had doubts about the US switching to Russia’s side, this is it.
The US is already suspending help to Ukraine.
“Everything feels increasingly like a scam”
That was one of the most disgusting and rage-inducing videos I’ve ever seen. I would not have been able to restrain myself from punching Trump in the fucking nose if he had talked to me like that. I’m not a tough guy or violent in any way, and the Secret Service would have killed me, but the way he yells such insulting things at a world leader who is trying to save millions of lives… holy crap. And then Vance jumps in and claims he never said Thank You. I would’ve kicked him in the nuts and said, “thank you, now I feel better.”
This was a setup from the get go. They had no intention of signing any deal. This was all to get him in front of cameras with them so they could piss on his face and act like tough guys.
Trump won’t be mean to Putin because he wants to “make a deal” but he seems to be fine insulting the fuck out of Zelensky.
Damn. That video is hard to watch. It’s clear Zelensky is at a grave disadvantage because American English is not his first language.
It would be way easier for him to reason with these people and get his message out if he could just talk like a normal American.
He’s not able to explain what’s actually a very simple and clear concept: the US gave Ukraine security guarantees that it did not fulfill. Then he gets steamrolled by people who can speak English better than him and all he can do is sit back and watch.
As a real American I am embarrassed and very sorry to Zelenskyy and all the people of Ukraine.
I’m actually hoping for a coup by the military industrial complex
2022 saw Europe cheering for Germany ramping up military spending.
2025 has people cheering for the military industrial complex to save democracy
2028 will be just cheering for China to finish buying the last silicon Valley remnants or something
I just watched the last half of the full meeting. Zelensky asked what guarantees there are the Russians won’t just invade again. The subtext of which is an offer to house US troops in Ukraine. But all the fucking clown car heard was a challenge to their machismo.
So they shouted him down and just loudly asserted he would either sign their deal or fight it out. Along the way they manage to insult him by treating him like a child and pretending that previous broken agreements, (invasion of Crimea, Invasion of Donetsk, and Invasion of Ukraine) were because Putin didn’t respect the American President enough. But Putin is also the victim in all of this according to Trump.
I’ve seen better diplomacy from a high school football team.
For more subtext, if there were any real guarantees then this would not have happened in the meeting with the press. Zelensky would have told reporters there were guarantees. This entire blow up means that Trump already told him there would be no guarantees other than the honor system. Which, even if Trump is right, (Putin respects Trump and won’t invade while he’s president), Zelensky knows that means Putin will invade again in 2028 after Trump’s term is over. And that’s without getting into all of the implications about Putin holding this over Trump’s head for concessions so Trump can appear to be the peacemaker.
I agree with Trump on one thing. We’re fucking around with World War 3, but Trump isn’t a peacemaker, he’s Chamberlain. Right down to berating the leaders who are asking for help to stop the aggressive country.
Which, even if Trump is right, (Putin respects Trump and won’t invade while he’s president), Zelensky knows that means Putin will invade again in 2028 after Trump’s term is over.
I realize that the first half of that is speaking about what Trump thinks (as opposed to you claiming it yourself) so this isn’t me trying to contradict you, but I think it’s important that we all keep in mind the #actual reality of the situation:
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Putin doesn’t respect Trump in the slightest; Trump is his useful idiot.
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To the extent that it’s true that Putin wouldn’t invade while Trump is president, it’s only because (a) neutering the US by having his patsy as President achieves pretty much all the same geopolitical goals as creating a buffer state out of Ukraine does anyway, and (b) making Trump look good as a “peacemaker” is self-serving because it helps keep his patsy in place longer.
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Trump’s not leaving in 2028, unless he’s dead.
I agree with Trump on one thing. We’re fucking around with World War 3, but Trump isn’t a peacemaker, he’s Chamberlain. Right down to berating the leaders who are asking for help to stop the aggressive country.
Trump’s not Chamberlain either. He’s Stalin, making a secret agreement with Hitler (Putin) to carve up Poland (Ukraine) like a thanksgiving turkey. (The analogy is a little awkward because Russia is playing the role of Germany in it instead of itself, but I was going by who attacked the country being carved up first.)
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I’ve seen better diplomacy from a high school football team.
JD Vance talking about diplomacy and accusing fucking Democrats of “beating their chest” was such bullshit I have no idea where to begin with that…which is probably the point.
How are they going to project the soft power of diplomacy when they’re in the business of firing half of the people that work in that part of the government? This administration, and this country is a sick, unfunny fucking joke just like the heads of it.
Zekensky a man of honour.
Trump a man of pure shit.
Are you sure? I dunno, Trump has a really nice looking suit… 🙄
I wanted to point out something about what Trump said during that meeting…
“You’re in a bad position right now. You don’t have the cards.”
My understanding is that Ukraine did have the cards, they were called nukes, but they gave them up for peace and guarantees of protection from the United States, and others, against invasion.
And then, they got invaded.
Twice.
Edit: https://www.npr.org/2022/02/21/1082124528/ukraine-russia-putin-invasion
Edit2: Always pay attention to what the other hand is doing.
The other hand just released that trumps name shows up 7 times in Eppstein’s flight logs.
No, not a joke, it was released today by trumps own minions.
Trump, like every arogant POS has overestimated his strength. Europe can and will enter the conflict as Russia has proven itself to be an existential threat. NATO is dead, but EU has been planning for this. I wouldn’t be surprised if UKR already has or will obtain a nuke and put on a show of force . Nuking Russian troops on its own territory would be fine- and provide ground denial to the Russians.
He also incorrectly tried to correct Zelensky on when his fucking country was invaded… Clown
Three times.
The Donetsk conflict was started by militias trained, supplied, and paid by Russia. With Russian troops entering Donestk for technical support, logistical support, and really just any help they needed including combat units to beat back the Ukrainian Army at several points.
Donetsk was the actual “Special Military Operation”.
Didn’t Russia have the keys to those nukes though?
Wouldn’t have mattered even if true. Physical access trumps everything. Worst case scenario, if they really wanted to, they could reverse engineer the primer & guidance system, then replace the originals with their own.
Keep in mind that Ukraine was a massive hub for military industry in the USSR.
My understanding was that Ukraine did.
But also, since they were neighbors, you wouldn’t need to launch missiles, you could just take the payload out of a missile, stick it in a briefcase, and walk it over.
Trump: “just cease fire, bro”
Zelensky: “any security guarantees?”
Trump: “just stop shooting bullets, bro”
Zelensky: “we’re defending our c…”
Trump: “YOU’RE LITERALLY WORLD WAR 3 RIGHT NOW”
