The Most Disgraceful Foreign Policy Spectacle in US History

A day after President Donald Trump bantered with British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and sought to rewrite history, by denying having ever called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a dictator, the Ukrainian leader arrived at the White House for a meeting.

Ostensibly, the gathering was intended to work out the kinks in a shakedown operation that the Trump team has set in motion against the US’s erstwhile ally: Trump promised a vague effort to hold Russia to the terms of any peace deal agreed upon in exchange for Ukraine signing away to the US potentially hundreds of billions of dollars of its assets.

Zelenskyy wasn’t, however, willing to play ball to the humiliating extent demanded of Trump. The meeting, broadcast live to the world, devolved into a four-minute shouting match that surely must rank as the most disgraceful foreign policy spectacle in US history.

The pile-on, which was clearly pre-planned, began with JD Vance demanding that Zelenskyy be more thankful to the US for its assistance over the past three years, and devolved from there. The two most powerful elected officials on earth went red in the face as they shouted at their Ukrainian counterpart for not being more “respectful,” and for not saying “thank you” enough; told him that he had no cards to play in the war against Russia; demanded that he immediately sign a peace deal—negotiated, one assumes, directly between Trump and Vladimir Putin’s teams; accused him of wanting to start World War III; informed him he had talked too much already and needed to be quiet; and mocked him for daring to respond that while the war was Ukraine’s problem today it would become America’s if Russia’s expansionist goals weren’t stopped.

When Zelenskyy invited Vance to Ukraine, Vance mocked him for organizing “propaganda tours.” When Zelenskyy warned of the risks to America if Russian aggression was rewarded, and the likelihood that eventually US interests would be directly put at risk, Trump hollered at him for daring to suggest he knew about America’s position.

Since Russia’s invasion, on February 24, 2022, the US has assiduously built up a global coalition to contain Putin’s aims in Ukraine. Now, Zelenskyy arrives in the Oval Office only for Trump to rake him down in front of the world’s cameras and to tell him “make a deal or we’re out.” After he showed Zelenskyy out of the White House—really escorted him out—he posted online, “Come back when you’re ready for peace.”

Are senior GOP figures outraged by this most disgraceful of confrontations? Hardly. Senator Rick Scott gushed, “Thank you President Trump for standing up for America.” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene opined that, “Putting Zelensky in his place while he disrespects the U.S. in the Oval Office is exactly what American leadership should look like.” Senator Lindsey Graham, a supposed voice of foreign policy common sense in the GOP, immediately called on Zelenskyy to resign. I can only imagine that Graham’s one-time bestie John McCain must be turning in his grave at such a savage and opportunistic abandonment of an ally.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but today marked the full-flowering of a Nazi-like foreign policy, backed up by the bulk of the GOP machine: one where allies are to be humiliated and reduced to supplicant vassals; one where humiliation becomes a defining part of diplomacy; one where no deal or alliance or treaty is worth the paper it is written on, and where moral values are entirely excluded from the foreign policy calculus.

NATO may still formally exist, but in practice the extraordinary events of today surely mark the death knell of the transatlantic alliance. No European leader in their right mind could possibly expect America to come to their assistance should Russia attack. Similarly, no leader in Asia can realistically expect Trump to come to their assistance in the event of conflict with China. The consequences of today’s meeting will likely be vast over the coming years—from remilitarization and nuclear proliferation through to burgeoning regional wars.

Trump posted on Truth Social that Zelenskyy had “disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office.” In reality, as anyone with half a brain who was watching those events must surely realize, Trump and Vance were the ones who essentially defecated on their own carpet. It’s simply impossible to imagine a more disgraceful misuse of the White House and all of the vast power that comes with the presidential office than the spectacle presented by these two Fascist barkers today. It’s impossible to imagine a bigger betrayal of a country and of a leader who have been encouraged by the US to resist Russia’s aggressions, and who are now being left all too visibly out in the cold. It’s impossible to imagine a more degrading position for the United States, its public voice reduced to the guttural rantings of megalomaniac madmen.

In 1954, army counsel Joseph Welch famously responded to the demagogue Senator McCarthy, “Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness.” Welch followed up with a gut-punch, one that has stood the time of history: “Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?” 

We know that Trump and Vance have no decency, but I ask that question now of Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Have you no decency, Mr. Secretary of State? How could you have sat in that room watching Trump and Vance doing their Hitler-Goebbels imitation, and not immediately gotten up and resigned? I ask every foreign policy and military expert, every diplomat who has decided to sweat it out and keep working for this foul administration, at what point do you curdle your moral core beyond repair by staying with this mobster-like government?

I ask you, Senators McConnell, Murkowski, Collins, and every other senator who knows exactly how destructive these events are to America’s position in the world, how can you remain in this party? How can you continue to advance, with your votes, the Trump agenda? I ask you, supposedly moderate GOP congressmembers (whereever you may be hiding), how can you live with yourself as this trainwreck gathers pace? How can you not immediately make moves to work with the Democrats to impeach this president and his gangster colleagues?

Make no mistake, history is watching what is unfolding. Trump and Vance crossed a giant moral Rubicon today. They showed the entire world the full fetid awfulness of their vision. Now it is up to us, the American people, to work out how to respond.