This play of the might of American power and exposition of the principle of ‘America First’ has had a long run in several dramas in just 40 days since Trump returned to power. No world leader has gone into a meeting with Trump with any great expectations of fairness beyond the initial show of bonhomie and expression by homilies
In the biggest diplomatic blowout in the history of modern democracies, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy may have felt that he is being thrown to the wolves at his door. In a show of abuse and victim-blaming, US President Donald Trump seemed to take the avatar of a censorious school headmaster ticking off his favourite pupil.
At the end of a nasty session at The Oval office in the White House, Mr Zelenskyy was reduced to a supplicant craving for US support against the big bad wolf Russia. On the rebound, Mr Zelenskyy had a fruitful meeting with the British prime minister Keir Starmer outside 10 Downing Street where he was promised a loan, and the support he needed to keep the invader Vladmir Putin’s troops at bay.
This play of the might of American power and exposition of the principle of ‘America First’ has had a long run in several dramas in just 40 days since Trump returned to power. No world leader has gone into a meeting with Trump with any great expectations of fairness beyond the initial show of bonhomie and expression by homilies.
Regardless of who provoked such a startling display of hostility, it was preposterous that the charade was played out on live television for so long. And who could have ordered the press corps in while such a crucial meeting to try and end a 3-year war was on at The Oval office except on the president’s express orders? It seemed too much like a planned verbal attack on the Ukrainian President who has never hit it off with Trump.
The fracas inside the White House was ultimately blamed on the reporters for asking leading questions on security guarantees for Ukraine if it were to accept a ceasefire with Russia. In the end, there was only more ammunition to support the conclusion that Trump is leaning too far towards Russia and Ukraine faces becoming sacrificed at the altar of changing equations.
Zelenskyy bore the brunt of the assault as Trump played his natural role as the disruptive, overbearing leader who will stop at nothing to steal an advantage in a deal from friend or foe. A beleaguered Ukrainian President may have had only minerals to offer in return for $175 billion that the US has supported the invaded Ukraine to cope with the war. That deal has gone south now even if Zelenskyy is hoping against hope that he can bring Trump around by dangling minerals without an apology for not expressing sufficient gratitude to US and Trump.
The Trump era II is a throwback to imperial times when the monarchs would demand deference and expect genuflection in their court with not a thought spared for the niceties of international diplomacy or the need to negotiate to bring about peace between warring nations. The problem is, 80 years after World War II ended, there is so much talk of World War III rather than finding ways to bring about the very peace that Trump said would be achieved in weeks of his comeback.
Europe cannot come up with the deep strike armaments or match the scale of US aid to support an ally. And yet nations are coming up with moral support and money as they know too well now that everything has changed since January 20 and that they must prepare to live with a new world order as Trump would be too happy to disrupt the current one. Zelenskyy is caught in an unenviable position between the invasion and war on one side and a reluctant main ally on the other.
