I have a suggestion for the next Trump and Republican fundraising plan. Did you know that sports memorabilia stores sometimes sell basketballs autographed by entire NBA teams? Well, I’m denying Donald Trump and the Ukrainians the weapons they need to stop Vladimir. I imagined I could sell white flags autographed by House and Senate MAGA nerds for $1,000 a pop. President Putin’s onslaught.
For an additional $500, you can get a white flag signed only by Trump and J.D. Vance, inscribed with Vance’s immortal words: “I don’t care what happens to Ukraine.” . Or the one signed by Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, large enough to sum up his worldview. “I was in favor of aid to Ukraine until I opposed it, but I might be in favor of it again if Trump doesn’t oppose it.” This is a matter of principle for me. Either way, it’s all Biden’s fault.
And the ultimate collector’s item. For an additional $1,000, you can get a giant white surrender flag signed by Lindsey Graham, made from the softest Sea Island cotton. “I abandoned John McCain’s principles and a free Ukraine because Trump told me to. But I played golf at President Trump’s West Palm Beach course. Can I still join ‘Meet the Press’?” ? ”
The final gift comes with Trump’s new branded tennis shoes, guaranteed by Trump and personally tested by Graham, to be the fastest shoes on the market for running away from enemies and allies, or if you We guarantee that this is a shoe that can get away with anything based on the principles we have mentioned so far.
Trump’s Republican Party is bottomless, so the possibilities are endless. It now means that no matter how outrageous, selfish, or un-American his demands may be, no matter what form of crow-eating, smuggling, treachery, or intrigue he will engage in to remain in his favor, It shows an infinite willingness to do whatever it takes. Has President Trump decided to abandon Ukraine? Bye-bye, Zelenskiy. Will President Trump decide to abandon months of bipartisan efforts to craft a grand deal on immigration reform? I left — no questions asked!
I have never seen so many people in one party at once act with such disregard for their own and the country’s interests.
Let’s look at Ukraine. I do not support endless war in Ukraine. We should always explore the possibility of a negotiated solution between Kiev and Moscow. This year showed America and Europe two things. The West cannot and will not continue to pour money into Ukraine to fund the stalemate, and with complete victory by Ukraine and Russia looking more remote than ever. be.
But the way to get a decent negotiated settlement is not to cut off aid to the Kiev turkeys, an approach that many House Republicans and some Senate colleagues are essentially advocating. Not only is that shameful, but it’s also strategically insane. The only way to reach an agreement that serves the interests of Ukraine and the West, now or in the future, is to redouble diplomacy to end the war while reaffirming military and economic support for Kiev. is.
Yes, it’s a tough business. That’s always how wars end. Tough compromises will be needed on both sides. For me, that means, at the very least, that Ukraine will come out of this war with a clear path to membership in the European Union. If Ukraine, with its advanced military, huge agricultural breadbasket, and thriving young technology sector, could one day join the EU, a full and free Europe would become a reality and the EU would become a stronger global player. right. The world stage — promoting democracy, free markets, pluralism and the rule of law. That’s good for us.
And in return, Ukraine will cede some of its Russian-speaking eastern provinces and will not be a formal NATO member for the time being, having to rely on the continued unofficial security and arms of the United States and Europe. If so, we’re going to address it. Because even without some of the eastern provinces, Ukraine will become a real power if it joins the European Union.
Putin’s Russia is less so. President Putin may be aiming to plant nuclear weapons in space and spend more than $100 billion on the Ukraine war, but more Russians will be freezing in his homes this winter as infrastructure on the ground collapses. ing.
“The city is frozen. Who is guilty?” said Boris Nadezhdin, a leading presidential candidate who tried to take on Putin. The Financial Times recently reported him as saying, “The huge sums of money being spent and planned for special military operations could have been invested in improving the quality of life for our fellow countrymen.”
If President Trump and his party stop aid to Kiev now, a decent deal for Ukraine will be impossible. As our New York Times colleagues in Ukraine reported last week, the Ukrainian military is currently “engaged in a desperate battle to stop the Russian onslaught. … Across a 600-mile-long front, the Ukrainian Without new American military aid, the country is running low on ammunition and struggling to replace its own depleted forces after two years of grueling fighting.
And if we just surrender Ukraine, there is no doubt that Putin’s next destination could be the Baltic states or Poland. But both are NATO members, which means we are obligated to protect them with our own soldiers and treasure under Article 5 of the NATO Treaty. Therefore, surrendering Ukraine now could be one of the most expensive things we can do.
Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia and Eurasia Center, recently said of Putin in the Financial Times: More so than anything I’ve seen before. If the Kremlin believes that major Western powers do not have the resources and will to fight for smaller allies like the Baltic states, he may want to test NATO’s Article 5 commitment to collective self-defense. It might be. He added that President Trump’s rhetoric in particular “creates a dangerous illusion that the United States will not intervene if President Putin uses military force to divide NATO.”
We are watching two schools of American foreign policy unfold regarding Ukraine. One is the classic American great power, led by a president who grew up during the Cold War and built on the foundation of American values and interests that have served us well since we entered World War II. It’s an approach. President Putin is speaking from the perspective of the strong, not the weak. And our strength comes not only from money and weapons, but also from the fact that Biden was able to assemble a Western coalition that multiplies the strength of us and our allies with respect to Ukraine tenfold.
Trump, by contrast, often acts as if he learned about world affairs by watching World Wrestling Entertainment rather than Wharton. A lot of what he does is purely performative. It’s about looking strong, saying tough things, and fake body slams that fool everyone but your rivals.
For example, President Trump abandoned the Iran nuclear deal in May 2018, claiming it was a gift from Barack Obama. But he did this without a diplomatic plan to secure a better deal, and without a strategic plan or allies to counter if Iran exploited President Trump’s move to develop a nuclear bomb. Executed. That means that under the Obama administration, Iran was about a year away from obtaining enough fissile material to build a nuclear bomb, but now it is weeks away. That’s what you get with performative diplomacy.
and that was before Our allies really knew how much Trump didn’t know or appreciate our Western alliances. Trump’s “America First” strategy will almost certainly end up being an “America Alone” strategy because no one will trust him the second time around. If you think it’s expensive to help Ukraine now, try defending America from Russia, China, and Iran on your own.
My fellow Americans, I fear what this future holds, because Trump is a liar, Lindsey Graham is a liar, and the Republican Party has no consistent platform other than which side of the bed Trump woke up on. This is because it has become a cult with no one. fake. None of them are going to fight for anything anymore — except do whatever Trump asks to stay in Trump’s favor.
They are all stuck in a loop of performative doom that has nothing to do with acting in our true interests. It’s about Trump and his base to get more clicks, get more donations, get more votes, get elected, and perform again for more clicks. All I have to do is perform. Rinse and repeat. The real world is terrible.
It’s all fake. Our enemies aren’t the only ones who are fake.