The shameful performance of President Donald Trump, aided and abetted by Vice President J.D. Vance, in his White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy renewed speculation about the American leader’s motivation.
Is Trump an actual Russian agent, acting on the instructions of Russian murderer-in-chief Vladimir Putin? At least two former Russian intelligence officers have said he is.
Or is Trump so deeply in debt to the Russians that he’s afraid to do anything to offend them for fear that they’ll either pull his funding or reveal the hold they have on him?
Or is the American president simply a useful idiot Putin and the Russian oligarchs know they can manipulate through flattery and other blandishments that play to Trump’s toxic combination of narcissism and insecurity?
It’s possible none of these things are true.
It’s also possible all of them are.
We don’t know.
We’re likely not to know for some time, if we ever do.
What we do know is this.
Every time Trump speaks or acts on the world stage, it ends up benefiting Putin and Russia.
And making the world a more dangerous place not just for democracy and principles of self-government, but for America and Americans.
In this latest episode of Trump behaving badly, Putin got everything he could want—and much, much more.
Most of the criticism generated by the indefensible conduct of Trump and Vance has focused so far on the consequences for Ukraine.
The fact that Trump switched sides and now has the United States—what Abraham Lincoln once called “the last best hope of earth”—lining up with the world’s authoritarians, invaders and murderers will make it much more difficult for Ukraine to defend itself against Russia’s unprovoked assault.
Zelenskyy’s task before he sat down with Trump and Vance already was daunting. After the Ukrainian president left the presence of those two feckless dilettantes, his leadership challenge had mounted to overwhelming.
Few doubt, though, that Zelenskyy will continue to meet the threat to his country and his people with the dignity, determination and courage that define him.
If Trump made Zelenskyy’s job harder, he made Putin’s much easier.
Not only will the Russians—who have drained their economy fighting Putin’s war of oppression—find the fighting less dangerous thanks to the American president, but they also will have to bear fewer costs for their bad behavior.
Trump all but declared that Eastern Europe now is a happy hunting ground for future acts of aggression by Putin. An American president has made it far more likely that the homicidal thug who is Russia’s leader will achieve his lifelong dream of restoring the Soviet Empire and caging much of the free world.
But that’s not all that Trump did for Putin.
He also separated the United States from the pack and made America and Americans easier prey for the Putins of this world.
Ever since the end of World War II, the United States has derived great strength and increased security from the fact that we had an extensive network of friends around the globe, allies who would stand with us during times of trouble and danger.
After Trump declared to Zelenskyy that the United States no longer would help defend its friends in the face of aggression and threat, those friends returned the favor.
One by one, leaders of self-governing nations around the world stated they stood with Zelenskyy and Ukraine.
And, one by one, they said that they no longer could trust the United States and no longer felt compelled to stand with us if our interests or security were to be threatened.
Trump’s deluded defenders like to depict American support of Ukraine as charity.
In fact, there was considerable self-interest involved. Not only were we using the Ukraine-Russia war as an opportunity to update and strengthen our arsenal at a reduced cost, but we also were supporting Ukrainian soldiers to resist Putin so we didn’t have to send our own sons and daughters to do it.
When the moment comes when Putin’s interests and territorial ambitions conflict with ours—and that moment will come—we will find this world and our fight much lonelier than they otherwise would have been.
Donald Trump said he’d put America First.
He didn’t.
He made America vulnerable.
He made America isolated.
He made America alone.
