Glory to Ukraine!
Glory to the defenders of Ukraine and all modern civilization!
- Meeting between Trump and Zelensky
- Trump’s speech at the UN
- Trump’s fight with the media
▶ To all who expect the meetings between Trump and Zelensky to end or halt the war: do not expect what is not related to such meetings.
Ukraine is not at war with the USA. The American president cannot stop a war in which he is not participating.
The American president (any American president) has two serious potential levers to impact Russia without participating in the war. The first lever is total sanctions against the Russian economy, primarily against its oil, gas, maritime, and financial sectors. The second lever is military (primarily) and financial assistance to Ukraine. The U.S. has no other levers of real impact on Russia to quickly deplete its resources and bring it to the point where it cannot continue the war. Trump does not want to use these levers.
His “wonderful” (in his words) conversations with Putin and his repeated statements that Putin wants peace will neither end nor stop the war.
So why meet with him then? Any such meetings have two important aspects: 1) efforts must be made to ensure Trump does not do, or cannot do, anything that would help Putin; 2) efforts should be made to obtain whatever can be obtained from him. For example, assistance in acquiring PAC-3 missiles to combat Russian ballistic missiles. Negotiating with him to obtain a license to produce such missiles, perhaps jointly with European NATO countries that also have PATRIOT systems in their arsenal. Negotiating the supply of other necessary weapons and ammunition with European funds.
If Trump really wanted to pressure Putin, the simplest way to do it would be to pick up the phone right now, call Senate Republican leader John Thune, and tell him to put the Ukraine Support Act up for a vote in the Senate. This act has been pending since May, when the House passed it against Trump’s wishes. The bill provides for comprehensive sanctions against the Russian oil, gas, and financial sectors, the Russian shadow fleet. It includes the resumption of American military aid to Ukraine and a loan of $8 billion to Ukraine for the purchase of American weapons and ammunition.
But Trump does not call Thune.
And if he calls Putin again or sends Vitkoff and Kushner, who dream of the $12 trillion promised by Putin, to Moscow again, nothing will change. And the trillions will not be there. Of course, they won’t be there in any case.
▶ The 47th president spoke at the opening session of the United Nations General Assembly. He spoke without inspiration. He read from the teleprompter a text written for him, which was more suited for his speech at an election rally in front of his admirers than for anything else.
From the speeches of U.S. presidents at the UN, global issues are always expected. At the very least, a clearly articulated U.S. position on global world problems is expected. There was nothing of the sort in Trump’s speech.
His speech was a mix of boasting about his personal imaginary achievements, misleading and false statements (as usual), and slogan-like declarations, such as the promise that the Russian-Ukrainian war will end so soon that no one can even imagine it.
He again told the “tale” of the “eight wars” he supposedly ended. They even wrote which ones (otherwise he always risks repeating that he ended the war between Armenia and Cambodia and Azerbaijan and Albania), about the tens of millions of lives he supposedly saved.
He invented that thanks to him, crime in Washington fell by 87% (in fact, it dropped by 15% compared to last year, and its level in one of the safest cities in the country has been declining for at least six years).
He once again claimed that he secured $21 trillion in investments for the country, whereas in reality, there are agreements and protocols of intent for investments amounting to nearly half that amount – $11.2 trillion.
He stated that there is a tourist boom in the USA, with a record number of tourists visiting the country. In reality, the number of incoming foreign tourists has fallen, and not even the World Cup helped. Most notably, the number of Canadians visiting the USA has significantly decreased, and Canadians have been the largest group visiting the neighboring country for decades.
He promised that the “deal with Iran” would be concluded immediately after the elections (the connection between the Congressional elections and the “deal with Iran” is unclear) or he would “annihilate” Iran, as he said, sending all Iranians to hell for generations to come.
And so on, and so on.
What his speech lacked was inspiration, emotion. Either he was tired, or his emotions were affected by the tension before the elections, as he faces a potential defeat. Although he stated from the UN podium that he is not participating in the elections and seemingly doesn’t care about them.
Trump appeared weak and utterly unconvincing. He looked like a politician who has nothing to present to the world but demagoguery, which highlighted his weakness even more.
▶ On Wednesday at 3:30 PM, a hearing will take place in the District Federal Court of the District of Columbia in Washington over the joint lawsuit by CNN, MS NOW, and Politico against Trump, his Chief of Staff, the Director of the Secret Service, and the White House Communications Director for violating the First Amendment to the US Constitution, as evidenced by the ban on these media journalists entering the White House and revoking their accreditation.
The case will be heard by Judge Timothy Kelly, who was appointed as District Federal Judge by Trump in his first term and already reviewed a similar case. In 2018, Trump ordered the accreditation of then CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta to be revoked. The channel sued, and the judge quickly ruled that the president had violated the Constitution and the journalist’s accreditation should be restored.
The First Amendment to the US Constitution guarantees complete and unrestricted freedom of speech. It defines freedom of speech specifically as freedom from government infringement.
Even Trump himself does not doubt that the upcoming decision will favor the media, and he has already threatened to appeal against the not-yet-issued ruling. However, there is little doubt that the 47th president will lose the appeal as well.
The question remains as to why he is doing all this. Does he hope to appear macho in the eyes of his admirers? Perhaps, but he already appears macho, an idol, an omnipotent ruler in their eyes regardless. The 32% who support him will continue to support him completely independently of anything.
Does he truly believe he is omnipotent and can do whatever he pleases? That is also possible, but this belief is shattered every time it collides with domestic laws or the blockade of the Hormuz and Bab-El-Mandeb straits outside the home.
This story has another aspect: solidarity. Specifically, the solidarity of journalists with each other and the solidarity of competing media outlets with each other. The national TV channels, which share a pool for broadcasting events from the White House (ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox News, CNN), will not cover all the shows that the president loves to organize, either in the Oval Office, on Air Force One, or at the White House, out of solidarity with colleagues from CNN. They will either show video only without sound. National Public Radio NPR announced it would not broadcast audio from those events. Photographers at the White House announced that they would publish a very limited number of their photos and with a significant delay — only at the end of the day.
Solidarity is a wonderful thing. And ideological differences between media outlets and different editorial policies cannot hinder this solidarity. Because both media leaders and journalists themselves understand that the power of the 47th president is not eternal. Other presidents will appear in the White House. And freedom of speech must remain freedom of speech. Completely regardless of who occupies the Oval Office. Journalists must be able to freely cover what they see, in the way they and their editors deem necessary. Only their readers and viewers can dictate this — by subscribing or not subscribing, by watching or not watching certain TV channels. But the president, even if he considers himself all-powerful, has absolutely no right to limit them in any way.
Trump will lose in court. This is a story in which he wanted to appear as an all-powerful macho, but waving fists, writing abusive tweets, and making public insults is not a demonstration of strength. It’s a demonstration of weakness.
But he will definitely get involved in similar stories again. Again and again.
There are 851 days left until the end of the story titled “Fear: Trump in the White House” © (title of the book by Bob Woodward, published in 2018).
Thank you to everyone who read this. Take care of yourself and your loved ones. Take care of each other, help each other. Health to all.
Ultimately, what happens in the world depends on us. Whether we fight against evil, do Good, remain mere observers, wait passively and believe that someone somewhere will decide for us, or fight against evil and do everything possible for Good to prevail.
We must not allow evil to prevail. The triumph of evil would mean the end of the world we live in. We cannot allow this. Especially now.
Ukrainian Friends, I embrace and love you all. Take care of each other, I ask of you dearly.
Ukraine exists and will always exist.
And evil will be defeated and punished. And this will inevitably happen.
