Commentary
For the American strongman, Ukraine and Europe are bit players
Only the law of the strongest, resorting to violence, carries any strength, exactly as it does between the Israelis and the Palestinians. This is something Europeans should reflect on: if you abandon international law and principles in one case, sooner or later you will be forced to do so in another.
A scene of hounding and war at the White House: face-to-face with Trump, Zelensky tried desperately to defend his cause and that of Ukraine. But he realized too late that the much-touted rare earths agreement was a trap to lure him to Washington and deliver his head on a platter at the negotiating table between the United States and Putin's Russia.
Trump has turned the narrative completely upside down – Russia is no longer the aggressor – and swept away the principles of international law and any ethics whatsoever that Europe has wanted to defend in Ukraine.
Only the law of the strongest, resorting to violence, carries any strength, exactly as it does between the Israelis and the Palestinians. This is something Europeans should reflect on: if you abandon international law and principles in one case, sooner or later you will be forced to do so in another.
Trump rounded on Zelensky with false arguments – knowing full well that they are so – and in the end, firing broadsides as in a boar hunt, forced him to flee.
It’s clear that he doesn’t want him to have a seat at the negotiating table. This is a conclusion one can venture after a meeting in which a bare-knuckle brawl, strongly desired by Trump and his VP Vance, replaced diplomacy: I don't believe we have ever seen such a thing at the White House.
Now, the Europeans have to take that into account as they meet in London to discuss defense. According to Trump's logic, it will be up to them to pay for a possible ceasefire in Ukraine, and also to fund NATO if they still want to count on the American umbrella. And if they are ever actually invited to the U.S.-Russia negotiations, they will have to pay a lucrative entry fee to have a seat at the table.
Another point also became clear: for Trump, there is no such thing as a “just peace,” the formula to which Ukrainians and Europeans keep clinging. At best, there is a “possible peace,” which is not achieved by the agreement of the parties but in the only way the American president can conceive of: by his own diktat and his agreements with Putin.
In his worldview, Ukrainians and Europeans are just background extras and – his thought goes – if they want peace, they have to pay a high price for it. He said it himself when asked if he was on the side of Ukraine or a mediator, answering that he was only on the side of the interests of the United States. It recalled something Churchill had said long ago: that the UK had “no lasting friends, no lasting enemies, only lasting interests.”
The White House clash goes beyond the war in Ukraine and European borders. In the future, any leader or government, if invited to the White House to sign an agreement, will wonder whether they are going there to make a deal or heading into a trap. The Chinese will be the first to ask themselves this question, followed by us and everyone else.
Trump feels like he is above every law: he does not intend to answer to anyone for his words and deeds. He is also fully led by the passions of the moment, as at one point on Friday his face became painfully twisted as he scolded and insulted Zelensky.
However, one should not think that all this is due to chance, or the result of one leader's eccentricities. Much has been planned in the past four years, not only in foreign policy but also at home, as evidenced by the flurry of presidential executive orders signed by Trump in a month. He is fighting the U.S. “deep state,” which he considers to be his real enemy. In his eyes, we are just vassals to be used as porters on a hunting trip. It is the end of the West we knew and beginning of the new Middle Ages.
Originally published at https://ilmanifesto.it/per-il-ras-americano-ucraina-ed-europa-sono-solo-comparse on 2025-03-01