Donald Trump is the one “gambling with World War III” because he’ll only accept a cast of sycophants and yes-men around him. Ukraine’s leader wouldn’t play his part on Friday.
The meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky, Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Peter Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in the Oval Office blew up in televised acrimony because Zelensky defended his nation’s interests when Trump demanded to have his ego stroked.
It is true that Zelensky could have been more grateful for U.S. help, but it is also true that we could be more grateful for the blood Ukraine has spilled in an effort that advances our interests.
It doesn’t matter whether you back Trump or stand with his opponents, America is always better off when the despots of the world are weaker.
And boy, has little Ukraine weakened Russia. The war has cost Vladimir Putin hundreds of thousands of troops, thousands of modern tanks and hundreds of aircraft that could have been arrayed some day against the American-led NATO.
Global sanctions have crippled the Russian economy, and 10% inflation has undermined Putin’s support at home as body bags arrive in droves and an ever greater share of the anemic Russian economy is focused on war.
But now we’re giving Russia hope for a favorable end for their bloody three-year-old fiasco.
Trump invited Zelensky to the White House to sign a minerals deal that would give the United States an incentive to bolster the young European nation against its aggressive neighbor. Presumably since his team negotiated the deal, Trump thought an agreement was in America’s interests.
Now – due to Trump and Vance’s decision to berate Ukraine’s president in front of the American media – we have no deal. It is unclear how we can move forward with the peace negotiations Trump claims to want without Ukrainian support.
After this display of disunity and a snit on Truth Social, Russia has even less incentive to give up anything in the talks.
We don’t know how much help the United States will give Ukraine in the coming months as the nation struggles against the forces of a larger neighbor backed by fellow authoritarians in China, North Korea and Iran.
What we do know is that when the United States is next in need of help, we’ll be more alone than we ever have been.
The loyal European allies who backed the United States after 9/11 must deal with a president who has already announced plans to add tariffs to European goods exported to the United States, hampering their economies when he should be looking to bolster them.
Trump wants those allies to pay for its own defense by building up their own militaries. It is unclear how they’ll do that with new tariffs that are equivalent to the sanctions you’d put on an enemy.
Brave Ukrainians can still buy time for Europe to get its act together on defense, but in a week of amateurish personal diplomacy Trump has left us in the worst position against Russia, China and Iran than we have been in decades.
That’s not making America Great. It is making America weak. When we’re weak, the possibility of the World War III that Trump worries about gets closer by the day.
OPINION By DAVID MASTIO/Miami Herald
