Author: Paul My (Philadelphia / Pennsylvania)
After a few days have passed and after listening to the prominent hysteria in all English-speaking liberal, outdated media, as well as on Russian-language YouTube channels (with a few exceptions), regarding the scandal in the Oval Office on Friday between Zelensky and Trump/Vance, the main narratives being: "Trump betrayed Ukraine," "Trump is Putin's puppet," "Trump and Vance are the destroyers of all living things," and, of course, the usual: "Trump is a fascist"... I realized that I should add my two cents.
1. Donald Trump is the President of the United States... Not the President of Europe, not the President of Ukraine, not the President of anything else. Therefore, his priority should be the success, well-being, and security of the United States and the American people. His desire to start with signing a business deal with Ukraine and then quickly trying to end Russia's war against Ukraine is based on the above priority. Thus, the "cries" and "wringing of hands" over his "insufficiently empathic" attitude toward Zelensky, as "the president of a warring country," look completely meaningless and inadequate.
2. The deal on rare earth metals (as we now know) was not intended to be signed in the White House by two presidents, but rather by the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and the Ukrainian Minister of Economics during Bessent’s recent trip to Ukraine. However, Zelensky refused to sign it at that time. He later pulled the same trick with Kellogg during his visit to Ukraine. Prior to that, Zelensky did the same in Munich, where his meeting with Vance lasted only 30 minutes due to this issue (now we can imagine how their conversation unfolded, but at the time, it was behind closed doors). It was only due to the demands of Yermak and the Ukrainian president’s administration that the signing of the deal was moved to Washington/the White House. Furthermore, according to Marco Rubio and other participants in the meeting, the Ukrainian delegation and Zelensky were informed that nothing other than the rare earth metals deal would be discussed, and the meeting was to conclude with the signing of the agreement and a press conference. This suggests that Zelensky may have intentionally provoked this scandal in the White House to once again (for the third time) derail the signing of this deal.
3. For nearly 40 minutes, which were recorded and shown to the entire world, Donald Trump and DJ Vance were extremely cordial toward Zelensky, and there were no signs of an "explosion". The “explosion” occurred during the last 10 minutes when, after the final question, Zelensky began to raise complaints to DJ Vance and to America regarding the impossibility of a deal with Putin through diplomacy. This violated several agreements: 1) Not to discuss any possible peace agreements or any other topics related to negotiations with Russia, 2) Not to touch on the issue of U.S. “security guarantees” for Ukraine before peace talks with Russia had begun.
4. The deal on rare earth metals would have been highly beneficial for Ukraine, and it was set to include U.S. aid for post-war reconstruction, as well as potentially embed security guarantees from the U.S., since it assumed U.S. interest in the safety of its business zones and operations in Ukraine.
5. "He who asks cannot demand" – this is the fundamental principle of negotiations in America. When you approach a potential investor or a bank to ask for money and assistance, you do not set the conditions – you simply try to convince the “giver” that their help will not be stolen or squandered. And if they set conditions for their assistance, you have three options: 1) Agree, 2) Ask (!) for some conditions to be softened, 3) Decline the help, but at that point, end the negotiations... There is no option like, "Give me money and weapons, and if you don’t, you’re heartless and a senseless bastard" – this is perceived as aggression and leads to counter-aggression. That’s exactly what happened on Friday.
6. The relationship between President Trump and the media is not just tense – it’s on the brink of a cold war. Therefore, Zelensky's public statements and demands toward Donald Trump or Vance were not just incorrect (I’m putting it mildly), they were completely unacceptable, which forced Donald Trump to respond with a harsh reaction, and then to take firm actions.
7. At this moment, support for Ukraine in the U.S. has dropped to its lowest level since the beginning of the war. In the early days of the conflict, Ukrainian flags were everywhere, people were sending money to Ukraine, and refugees were being welcomed. But now, the flags have almost disappeared, and almost no one is sending money anymore. This doesn’t mean that Americans have started supporting Putin, but rather that they have grown tired of sending vast taxpayer dollars to a country where the money disappears into a black hole (as Zelensky himself stated at the end of last year) and yields no tangible results for Americans (specifically, potential American investors). This is happening at a time when most Americans live paycheck to paycheck and are cutting back on everything. Of course, if you watch CNN, BBC, or NBC, read the New York Times and Washington Post, or listen to "Dozhd" with Plyuschtschev, Kirill Martynov, and Sasha Filipenko, you might think that in America, everyone is “outraged by Trump and his terrible attitude toward Zelensky.” However, I must disappoint you – the majority of Americans are actually thrilled with how Donald Trump has handled Zelensky and are demanding that all aid to Ukraine be stopped.
8. To Donald Trump, Ukraine and Russia are secondary, as his priorities are the planned internal reforms in the U.S. Of course, he was eager to end the war as soon as possible and get at least some of the American money back, but the military and economic power of the U.S. compared to that of Russia and Ukraine is so disproportionate that, if it weren’t for the media pushing it to the front pages of newspapers and news broadcasts, hardly anyone in America would even be thinking about this war... This only proves that Zelensky acted like an unstable fool, who is either not very smart or had a deliberate intention of derailing this deal.
9. Zelensky’s behavior in Europe and his interviews with English-language media all clearly demonstrate that he still doesn't understand who he is trying to "fight" against. If he thinks that phrases like “I have nothing to apologize for” and “Lindsey Graham should become a Ukrainian citizen before advising me to resign” are helping, he is only deepening his failure and playing with the lives of his citizens who are dying in the trenches. The AI-generated image of a piano with Trump’s name, published today by "Kvartal 95," which is affiliated with Zelensky, shows that he and his entourage have adopted a "chav" approach in their dealings with the Trump administration. This will likely lead to a situation where President Trump may decide to halt any dealings with Ukraine until Zelensky resigns as president. In any case, Ukraine will still have to return to negotiations with the U.S., but an internal crisis resulting from the president’s potential resignation could be fatal for the country, and Ukrainians may end up placing the blame for it squarely on Zelensky.
10. And finally, throughout Zelensky’s presidency, Ukraine has voted every year at the UN in favor of anti-Israel resolutions, and this has always puzzled and irritated me. However, I always blamed the war and Ukraine’s need to balance between different European countries, many of which are now governed by overt anti-Semites with anti-Israel views. Therefore, don’t tell me that Zelensky is leading Ukraine toward Western values. First and foremost, he is leading himself and his entourage toward success at any cost. And if, at this moment, it is beneficial to vote against Israel at the UN in order to receive another tranche from the European Union, then there are no “moral barriers” for him or his team.
So, don’t lecture me about Trump’s “lack of empathy.” Politics is a dirty and very cynical business, so moralizing should be saved for some other issue..
To sum up: “If you care about your digestion, here’s a good piece of advice: do not talk about Bolshevism and medicine during lunch. And God forbid, do not read Soviet newspapers before lunch!” (M. Bulgakov, Heart of a Dog)
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