On the last day of February, in a made-for-TV ambush conducted in the Oval Office, Trump and Vance verbally assaulted our ally, President Zelenskyy of Ukraine. In so doing, Trump/Vance flipped the script on eighty years of U.S. foreign policy, shifting our allegiance from western Europe and NATO to Vladimir Putin’s Russia. It was a dizzying change. Many Republican Congresspeople appeared to struggle with the flip, some of them (e.g. Lindsey Graham) wildly flip-flopping their rhetoric from morning to afternoon. U.S. Rep. Michael Baumgartner (freshman Rep. from eastern Washington, CD5) jumped on board with a statement calling for Zelenskyy to resign. Baumgartner seemed to be trying to play catch up with Republican messaging about the Trump/Vance televised ambush. In the same “X” post Baumgartner accurately called Putin “a thug”. Moreover, a week earlier he had publicly contradicted Mr. Trump’s bizarre, counterfactual assertion that Ukraine had started the war. Might we imagine that Mr. Baumgartner, a man who, after all, ran for office on his citing his experience in Iraq during the war, might actually have misgivings about the Trump/Vance sudden turn toward Russia?
Hot on the heels of the February 28th Oval Office ambush, Trump summarily cut off intelligence sharing with Ukraine and continued to withhold military assistance. Predictably (it would seem), the Russians immediately stepped up their assaults on Ukrainian infrastructure.
On March 7 Trump “threatened” new sanctions against Russian in a post. He seemed to be surprised that the Russians would take advantage of the intelligence blackout and pullback of military assistance—so much for Trump’s cultivated reputation as a great negotiator, as well as for his supposed understanding of Russian tactics and intent:
His [Trump’s] post came as Russia unleashed a furious bombardment aimed at critical Ukrainian infrastructure overnight Thursday and on Friday. Ukraine’s energy minister, German Galushchenko, said Russian forces launched a “massive missile and drone” assault on power and gas facilities across the country.
“Based on the fact that Russia is absolutely “pounding” Ukraine on the battlefield right now, I am strongly considering large scale Banking Sanctions, Sanctions, and Tariffs on Russia until a Cease Fire and FINAL SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT ON PEACE IS REACHED,” Trump wrote. “To Russia and Ukraine, get to the table right now, before it is too late.”
Meanwhile, the feeds of Trump supporting people I follow on Facebook suddenly began to circulate narratives suggesting all sorts of malfeasance on the part of President Zelenskyy. These unverified accusations and stories of dubious sourcing certainly looked like a catch-up social media attempt to bring public opinion along with the Trump/Vance sudden about face.
Remember Ronald Reagan’s painting the U.S.S.R. as the “Evil Empire”? Remember 80 years of the Cold War war? Remember Alexei Navalny? Republican Senators and many Republican House members certainly do—and they are struggling to get in line behind Trump/Vance in their sudden turn toward Putin’s Russia, struggling to reconcile with constituents who, like myself, who see Putin as a murderous dictator and Zelenskyy and Ukraine as fighting to stay free while holding off more Putin’s voiced territorial ambitions for Greater Russia that extend well beyond Ukraine.
What force, what conviction is now pulling Trump/Vance toward an alignment with Putin? Trump sees everything through the lens of a wheeling-dealing real estate developer. (Witness his proposal for developing Gaza.) Back in 1979 Trump achieved a level of real estate fame with the completion of Trump Tower. In the early 1980s he began buying properties in Atlantic City, eventually building up a casino/hotel empire as Trump Entertainment Resorts, Inc., an empire that famously collapsed in bankruptcy. (Read this wikipedia article for a broader appreciation of the financial machinations of The Trump Organization.) In 1987, four years before the breakup of the U.S.S.R., Trump and his wife of the time, Ivana Marie Zelníčková (a marriage ending in divorce in 1990), were invited to visit Russia to tour and explore business opportunities. There they were welcomed as business heroes. Later, as the U.S.S.R. unraveled, Trump was likely impressed by the freewheeling, unrestrained development opportunities as the Russian oligarchs divvied up previously state-owned enterprises. The contrast between the freedom of the oligarchs to gobble up the economic spoils of the chaotic collapse of communist Russia versus the legal and banking constraints presented to him in U.S. and other western countries surely were not lost on the young Trump. Meanwhile, his ego was undoubtedly fed by his acceptance among the Russian movers and shakers.
Was Trump systematically groomed by Russian intelligence as some have suggested? Whether that is true or not hardly matters. The point is that Donald Trump and his family felt the warmth of the welcome by the oligarchs and, a little later, by Vladimir Putin himself, even as they were tantalized by the power and business opportunities that the Russia seemed to offer. Could it be that we are now selling out the United States and eighty years of international diplomacy mostly on account of Donald Trump’s groomed ego and his longing for the kind of business power the Russian oligarchs wield?
This sign, written by a friend and displayed at last Saturday’s B.A. Clark Park protest, is the full expression of that thought.
The point is that Trump/Vance have acted as if they were Russian assets by threatening and undermining our ally while spouting Russian talking points about the Russia/Ukraine War. No one has to prove that Trump and Vance are sympathetic to Russia interests. Not only are they systematically undermining Ukraine. They are simultaneously threatening Canada, Mexico, Greenland/Denmark, Panama, and the European Union with tariffs, territorial expansion, and abandonment of NATO.
The big question here is how long those who generally support Trump and his administration will continue to trust that Trump/Vance are moving us to a better place in the world by trashing former alliances and turning in to support a murderous dictator with imperial aspirations.
For my part, having lived through most of those 80 years myself—and not, myself, having any interest in building hotels or casinos in Moscow—I’m finding this very hard to stomach. I expect that among Republican congresspeople and Republican voters there are many who feel the same way but are reluctant to admit it.
Keep to the high ground,
Jerry