February 28, 2025 01:05 PM UTC

Trump Sets American Foreign Policy Back To The Schoolyard

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• by: Colorado Pols

To the extent that the capacity for outrage still exists in Washington, D.C. today as Donald Trump’s second term leaves jaws agape on a fatiguingly continuous basis, the historic-in-a-bad-way meeting today between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and President Trump with Vice President J.D. Vance riding shotgun has once again left literally everyone in the world paying attention in a fresh state of shock–with the almost certain exception of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who couldn’t be more delighted. As the Washington Post reports:

President Donald Trump ripped into Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office on Friday, in a remarkable encounter that could determine a generation of war and peace in Europe but that at times felt more like a barroom brawl with furious demands from Trump and Vice President JD Vance for respect and gratitude from the wartime Ukrainian leader.

The heated back and forth — with Trump, Zelensky and Vance at times shouting over each other — was a striking breach of Oval Office comity, where even tough encounters have typically happened with calm voices and diplomatic language.

Not Friday, when Trump told Zelensky that he had no cards, was in no position to make requests of the United States, and suggested talks could derail unless attitudes changed.

The conversation between Zelensky and Trump reportedly started cordially, but broke down as Trump and Vance demanded “gratitude” and claimed offense over Zelensky’s “disrespecting” the Oval Office. The abrupt change in the conversation’s tone over these trivial, vague remonstrations raised immediate questions as to whether it was the intent all along to ambush Zelensky and provoke a performative disagreement for the benefit of Russia as Trump pursues his own negotiations with them over ending the war. NBC News reports that at least one Republican is publicly expressing his frustration over today’s events:

Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., told NBC News that the heated Oval Office exchange between Trump, Vance and Zelenskyy was “a bad day for America’s foreign policy.” [Pols emphasis]

Bacon is among a handful of Republicans, including Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who have been vocal in their criticism of the Trump administration’s approach to Ukraine.

“Ukraine wants independence, free markets and rule of law. It wants to be part of the West. Russia hates us and our Western values. We should be clear that we stand for freedom,” Bacon added.

After this infantile shouting match that derailed not just this meeting between heads of state but the deal giving American companies access to Ukrainian natural resources Trump had crowed about left unsigned after Zelensky’s early departure, it’s not clear to the rest of the world that America under Donald Trump stands for anything. To Ukraine and our European allies, the defense of Ukraine from Russian aggression has always been a moral question and not a transactional one.

For Donald Trump, morality–and as a consequence, moral leadership–has no value.