All the effort Kyiv had expended in wooing the White House, combining flattery with bribery and a share of Ukraine’s mineral wealth, imploded in minutes when Volodymyr Zelenskyy broke the fundamental rule of the new global reality: he told the truth about Donald Trump.
All America’s allies, the great majority of Republican leaders who have bowed to him, and a good number of his own cabinet, know full well that Trump is trapped in a disinformation bubble, but Zelenskyy said it out loud at a press conference on Wednesday.
In this new world where the foreign policy of the most powerful country on Earth has been rapidly reorganised around the fragile ego of a sullen and resentful old man, you might as well launch missiles at America’s eastern seaboard as utter a few words of rebuke.
“Such a fool! He should obviously let the treacherous gas bag fleece him blind while he silently smiles and nods obsequiously. Now he’s ruined his chances!”
I don’t know much about the man other than bits and pieces of how he’s handled this horrific invasion, but from what I’ve seen, he has continually shown more honor and backbone than most other politicians I’m familiar with. I don’t expect things will end well for their country at this point, but I think he is a credit to himself and his people.
Always keep in mind how the russian disinformation tries to paint Zelenskyy as a corrupt clown, installed to fleece the country in the name of the west.
If clowning around and fleecing the country means having this much endurance to steer the country through an invasion by a bigger and better equipped adversary, then I cannot imagine what an actually determined Zelenskyy would look like.
Fuck the russian disinformation and fuck Trump.
He’s had shitty cards this whole time, but he played them as well as you could reasonably expect. In the past he’s been able to placate Trump, but I guess now his ask was just too big. Now he basically has to hope Europe continues support (at least for long enough to have a deal that doesn’t completely split the country).
Europe basically going for the Ent storyline from LOTR is pretty much the only chance Ukraine has left at this point. The new USA will be an ally to Russia.