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Notes -
Trump just kicked Zelenskyy out of the White House after a public shouting match.
I've never seen anything like this. I sort of expected Trump to give him a hard time just for the cameras, but this seems to have legitimately hurt relations. Zelenskyy was in town to sign the much-anticipated minerals deal. From what I can hear the deal was not signed.
Ukraine needs the US much more than the US needs Ukraine. Could Zelenskyy not keep his pride contained for a few hours?
Counterpoint: could Trump not keep Putin's dick out of his mouth for a few hours? Saying Zelenskyy ought to be more polite is a tactical remark at best, and given that Trump and Vance appear to have been spoiling for a fight I'm not sure it would have mattered. Conversely, Trump apologists are continually telling me that I ought to respect Trump as president of the United States, but also that he can't be held responsible for what he says or does. If he's president of the United States he ought to act like it.
I don't think people grasp that this goes way beyond Ukraine. This is just the latest in an escalating series of actions from Trump demonstrating to American allies that the alliances are dead - that Trump will abandon American commitments on a whim and prefers Russia to NATO. Even if the next president is a hardcore internationalist, everyone is going to remember the fact that America elected Donald Trump and the rest of the GOP fell in line behind his every temper tantrum.
And yes, the US does need its allies. It's not 1941. Autarky is retarded, and we're going to quickly find it's a lot harder to strongarm the rest of the world than have friendly negotiations.
Trump and Vance were more likely getting ready to sign the deal that was already agreed upon, smile for the cameras, and have pats on the back all around.
This is not the time to throw in more demands and threaten to sink the deal.
Vance specifically started the fight. I think it's important we realize that's where the whole thing derailed. I don't think Trump and Vance both wanted the same thing to happen, but once it got going that's another matter, Trump is going to back Vance up plus had his own axes to grind if given the chance. Trump knows he has a certain image to maintain and was aware of the optics the whole time. Hell, at the very end, he even comments about how the whole blow up would make great TV...
I don’t think that is true. Watch the whole thing.
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