The last sentence that US President Donald Trump uttered recently at the end of the rather unconventional/bizarre confrontation in the Oval Office, between himself and Vice President JD Vance on the one side, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, on the other, was: “All right, I think we’ve seen enough. What do you think? Great television; I will say that.”
The confrontation was unconventional and bizarre because it resembled an impromptu, rather long press conference before the two presidents were to have signed an agreement that would hand over around half of the Ukrainian mineral rights to the US.
This arrangement is designed as compensation to the US for the hundreds of billions of dollars of military and other aid that it has delivered to Ukraine to enable it to wage its three-year war against Russia, which broke out on February 24, 2022.
Trump’s price for his efforts to bring a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia
This prospective agreement also appears to be Trump’s demanded price for his efforts to bring a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russian President Vladimir Putin, based on the false assumptions that Zelensky was responsible for the outbreak of the war, and the false accusation that Zelensky does not want a ceasefire.
On February 28, the agreement was not signed, and Zelensky was thrown out of the White House, after being accused by Trump of “gambling with lives of millions of people,” “gambling with World War III,” and being insulted on various bizarre excuses, such as the clothes he wears, (since the outbreak of the war, Zelensky has chosen to dress in public – including his visit to the White House – in simple sweatshirts and sweaters bearing the Ukrainian trident symbol, cargo pants, and work boots), and being disrespectful to his American benefactors.
One of the questions that have been asked is whether Trump had deliberately set Zelensky up, and whether the whole performance in the Oval Office was a preplanned charade designed to humiliate the Ukrainian president, whom he despises.
Another question is whether Trump really believes that it was Zelensky who had invaded Russia, rather than Putin, who had invaded Ukraine.
It is not unreasonable to assume that Trump is ignorant of the history of Russian-Ukrainian relations: that the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic of Ukraine was one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1991, and that after the Soviet Union was in the process of dissolving itself at the end of 1991, an overwhelming majority in Ukraine voted in favor of independence. The borders of post-independence Ukraine were the borders of the defunct UkSSR – not the result of some dubious negotiations.
Since 1999, Putin – both as president and prime minister of Russia – never concealed his distaste for the fact that the Soviet Union had split in 1991. He has rejected some of the independent states that were subsequently established, while encouraging Russian irredentist claims against them – especially in Ukraine’s case.
In February 2014, Russia occupied and subsequently annexed the Crimean Peninsula, which had formed part of Ukraine. This followed the ousting of Ukraine’s pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych, in the process of its “Revolution of Dignity.” The occupation and annexation of the Crimean Peninsula was merely a prelude to what was to follow eight years later.
Trump warming up to Putin
WHAT HAS led to Trump’s current policy toward Ukraine undoubtedly also has to do with his policy of warming up to Putin, and his apparent movement away from Europe and NATO. No one knows how far all this will go – whether to the complete disruption of the post-World War II American alliance with non-Communist Europe, or to less extreme changes in the North Atlantic Alliance.
Undoubtedly, Ukraine and its president certainly find themselves in a difficult conundrum. Zelensky didn’t come prepared for what was to happen to him in Washington on February 28. If he was set up – he fell into the trap; if the situation simply got out of control unplanned, he didn’t even try to alleviate the pressure by acting wisely rather than insisting on being right.
He should have tried to emulate French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who had preceded him at the White House for talks with the unpredictable Trump on February 24 and 27 respectively. Both did their best to raise their concerns with the president, without angering him.
The main problem with Trump’s conduct is that while he professes to be seeking peace in both the case of the Russian-Ukrainian War, and the Israel-Hamas War, rather than turn to the mechanisms created after World War II (largely at the behest of the US), he is turning to the pre-World War I and pre-World War II practices of balance-of-power machinations and secret diplomacy. These have been blamed in the past for having brought about, or at least failed to prevent ruinous wars.
In the case of Ukraine, Trump is employing bilateral talks with Putin, without the involvement of Zelensky and the Europeans (minus Viktor Orban of Hungary, who is on Russia’s side).
In the case of Israel and Hamas, Trump seems to be mounting the same path, now that the US has admitted (much to Israel’s chagrin) that it is negotiating bilaterally and secretly with Hamas (even though it was declared by the State Department in 1997 as being a terrorist organization) about the release of the hostages (both alive and dead) with American citizenship.
I’m worried that at some point, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu might (heaven forbid) find himself in a similar situation that Zelensky was in when he met with Trump on February 28.
On August 1, 2024 Netanyahu got on the nerves of then-president Joe Biden, to such an extent that Biden scolded him over the phone saying: “Stop bullshitting me.” This was only a week after the two had met in the White House to discuss the ongoing negotiations on a ceasefire and hostage release deal with Hamas, and the issue of humanitarian aid for the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip.
We know that Trump was furious with Netanyahu after the 2020 US presidential election, because the prime minister had congratulated Biden on his victory, which Trump had denied, and still denies. At the time, Trump more or less broke off his relations with Netanyahu.
These days, with Trump back in the White House, how might he react if he feels that Netanyahu is bulls*****g him about returning all the hostages back home, due to difficulties in his coalition. At least Zelensky has the Europeans to fall back on if he loses US support altogether. Who does Netanyahu have?
The writer has held academic, administrative, and journalistic positions over the years, most recently from 1994-2010 in the Knesset library and Research and Information Center. She has published articles on Zionism, European politics, current affairs, and Israeli politics, and several books in both Hebrew and English, the last of which is Israel’s Knesset Members – A Comparative Study of an Undefined Job.