A Trump Ukraine
A Trump Ukraine
I have come to a disturbing conclusion: Trump actively wants Ukraine to lose the war with Russia. What triggered this realization was the cessation of intelligence-sharing with Ukraine. This cannot be justified in terms of expense, as the cessation of arms can. It seems gratuitous—the kind of thing you would do if you wanted Ukraine to lose. Trump wants Ukraine to either surrender or be defeated. Why? There are a number of reasons, the most important being that he hates Zelensky. He hates Zelensky because he wouldn’t agree to investigating Biden and he defied Trump’s will; this also led to Trump’s first impeachment. He also hates him because Zelensky is universally hailed as a hero and gets standing ovations wherever he goes. This baffles Trump because the man is short, not handsome, and not rich—it makes Trump wonder what he is doing wrong. Zelensky is also intelligent and Trump hates that. The second reason is that he loves Putin: he wants to smooth the way for a beautiful perfect relationship with Putin—two strong men together, rich and powerful. If Putin believes that Trump helped him to victory, he will love Trump in return. Moreover, Trump hates the Europeans, because they don’t respect him and won’t bow down before him. Ukraine’s defeat will be one in the eye for them and demonstrate America’s power. Trump’s ideology (his “morality”) is that the strong must dominate the weak; for Ukraine to win would be for this ideology to be refuted. Has he ever said that he wants Ukraine to win and Russia to lose? Not that I can remember. Does he care if Zelensky loses his life? Not really. It’s as vicious and vile as that, I am sorry to say. Trump looks forward to a post-Cold War world in which America and Russia hold hands in autocracy, perhaps joined by North Korea (Hungary can also take a back seat). He can then vanquish his enemies, foreign and domestic. The look on his face in the Oval Office when he castigated Zelensky said it all—he has neither sympathy nor respect for the man. He wants him gone. The sooner Ukraine is defeated the better, as far as Trump is concerned.
Digby’s Hullabaloo, quoting Reuters, states:
U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is planning to revoke temporary legal status for some 240,000 Ukrainians who fled the conflict with Russia, a senior Trump official and three sources familiar with the matter said, potentially putting them on a fast-track to deportation. The move, expected as soon as April, would be a stunning reversal of the welcome Ukrainians received under President Joe Biden’s administration.
Not surprising.
I’m surprised Trump won’t make the Ukrainian refugees and other immigrants into slave laborers. He can ignore the amendment outlawing slavery, quite easily
Yes, he could, but it seems highly unlikely. He has and is doing so many horrible things that to engage in hyperbole is unnecessary and could reduce our credibility when we speak of the actual things he is doing and has done. They are bad enough. Heather Cox Richardson this morning quotes Josh Marshall’s Talking Points Memo:
“DOGE and Donald Trump are trying to shut down advanced medical research, especially cancer research, in the United States…. They’re shutting down medicine/disease research in the federal government and the government-run and funded ecosystem of funding for most research throughout the United States. It’s not hyperbole. That’s happening.”
Remember that with Trump the “highly unlikely” keeps happening. We need to be aware of the real possibilities and observe his behavior closely. Better to be prepared for all eventualities.
Here’s a scenario easily imagined but next to impossible to happen: Trump sells everything and everyone west of the Mississippi to Xi and everything east to Putin, thus making Trump the world’s rcihest man; I’d have to learn Russian pretty quickly..He would do it if he could and its debatable the thought has not occurred to him and we’d have to find some mundane and grand sounding name for the deal.
That’s a remarkable thought. Give yourself credit for a remarkable imagination; it’s not “easily imagined” to all of us. But I’ll take Colin’s advice and be prepared for the eventuality. One thing that increases its likelihood is that Trump is probably jealous that Musk is richer than he is. Becoming the world’s richest man would fix that problem.
His relationship with Musk is clearly love-hate because of the wealth disparity and IQ difference (of course, both are idiots).
Thank you. Imagination is a strength of mine. I simply think “what would I try to get away with if I were Trump?” He probably could not do that now. You can supply reasons why. Let’s suppose he contrary to law assumes a third term and in a way becomes king. I think “running” a country would bore the hell out of him. It’s not the kind of power he craves. He wants to be the richest and most fabulously wealthy man more tha anything. Though he likes the adulations of the crowd and having “his” generals and so forth, he’d rather be the richest man. Another scenario is the economy tanks and he gets resentful and frustrated and he decides the hell with America, I’ll sell America it’sa failing business model or something like that. I mean this is all my imagination so it might be as they say imaginary, but that’s how the man thinks. I think it is called by actors and novelists, “going into character.”
He also always asks what would make great reality TV in which he is the star turn.
Running the country already bores the hell out of him; that’s why he’s turned it over to Musk and plays golf most days (and has already charged taxpayers more than $10 million in his second term to fly him to Mar-a-Lago to play golf). It’s not just that running the country would bore him; it’s that he’d have no idea how to do it and, if he tried, he would be totally incompetent at it. He probably couldn’t name the three branches of government. (I thought this was a philosophy blog.)
He is obviously hazy about the meanings of “judicial”, “legislative”. and “executive”.
He’s probably better at geography than social studies. Remind yourself he is acting according to his nature and self interest and what he can get away with. He is someone who is so in the moment of playing himself that nothing else registers and all the facts about the world are shredded and incinerated. The reality of his reality TV show people keep talking about swallows the real reality. I know a psychologist (we exchanged emails, he was nice enough) who wrote books about it, he is not just narcissistic but solopistic, he does not recognize any facts other than what is useful to him or gratifying to him.
His world extends no further than the boundaries of his own ego, which is a cramped and pitiful thing–but vicious.