After five weeks in which President Trump clearly determined his determination to suppress traditional America’s power sources – his alliances among democracies sharing the same ideas – and to return the country to a time of great power negotiations, he left a suspended question: how far would he go to sacrifice Ukraine to his vision?
The remarkable Oval Office Cry Match yesterday provided the answer.
While Trump urged President Volodymyr Zelensky and warned it that “you do not have the cards” to deal with Vladimir Putin, and that vice-president JD Vance called the Ukrainian leader “disrespectful” and ungrateful, it was clear that the three-year partnership in time between Washington and kyiv was broken.
Maybe it can be repaired, but it is difficult to imagine how. However, poisonous exchanges have shown that Trump considers Ukraine as an obstacle to a much more vital project.
What Trump really wants, a European official told me that the administration had his first ugly meetings with the American allies this month is to normalize the relationship with Russia. If this means rewriting the history of the illegal invasion of Moscow, if it means abandoning surveys on Russian war crimes or refusing to offer security guarantees that would prevent Putin from finishing work in Ukraine later, then Trump, in this evaluation of his intentions, is willing to conclude this agreement.
Trump and Ukraine
Trump believes that the post-second world war system created by Washington ate in American Power. This system claims relations with allies engaged in democratic capitalism, even when these alliances have reached a cost for American consumers. He sought to avoid the seizures of power by making respect for international law and respect for established international borders, an objective in itself.
To Trump, this system gave the leverage of smaller and less powerful countries in the United States, letting the Americans take the tab to defend the allies and promote their prosperity.
While his predecessors – democrats and republicans – insisted that alliances maintained peace and allowed the trade to flourish, Trump considered them a rare injury. During the 2016 presidential campaign, he asked several times why America should defend countries that lead trade surpluses with the United States
But it was only in the past five weeks that Trump has started to exercise a plan to destroy this system. This explains its request that Denmark Cede from Greenland in the United States and that Panama returns an American channel built. When he was asked how he could seize Gaza for redevelopment as “Riviera du Middle East”, when it was a sovereign territory, he resumed: “under American authority”.
Ukraine has always been a more complicated case. Only 26 months ago, Zelensky was celebrated in Washington as a warrior for democracy, invited to approach a joint session of the Congress and applauded by the Democrats and the Republicans.
A vision of American power
Trump and Vance reported for months that, in their minds, the American commitment to Ukraine’s independence was over. Three weeks ago, Trump told an interviewer that Ukraine “could be Russian day Russian.”
Zelensky knew it but did not read the room. While the leaders of France and Great Britain preceded him at the Oval Office with plans to appease Trump and explain how Europe intensified its defense expenses, Zelensky became combative.
He reminded Trump that the oceans between America and Russia will not protect it forever. Trump raised his voice and told the Ukrainian that he would have the chance to simply get a cease-fire, suggesting that all the terms would be better than defeat. “I want to see guarantees,” said Zelensky. A few minutes later, he came out of the White House, leaving lunch from the roasted chicken to rosemary and the unintegrated crème brûlée, non -signed minerals and his country’s future ability to defend himself in doubt.
The Russians celebrated their good luck. Former President Dmitri Medvedev thanked Trump for “telling the truth” in the face of Zelensky. He urged her to suspend the remaining American aid.
Of course, it is easier to explode an existing world order than to create a new one. Despite all its faults, the post-second world war system avoided the Grande-Power war and encouraged economic interdependence. Trump, instead, would use American power to conclude agreements – essentially an argument that peace is as simple as weaving mineral agreements and commercial pacts together.
There is little precedent to suggest that the approach works alone, especially with authoritarian leaders like Putin and President Xi Jinping de China. But to judge by the display of yesterday in the oval office, Trump seems convinced that as long as he is at the helm, the world will be commanded as he commands it.
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