Dear Reader,
Late last week Mr. Zelensky arrived in Washington.
He was to conclude a natural resources accord with the United States.
He departed Washington without an accord.
He departed instead with a tail tucked humiliatingly between his legs.
On Friday, before the watching world, the United States president seized him by the ear… and proceeded to read him a severe lesson.
Trump Reads Zelensky the Riot Act
“Don’t tell us how we’re going to feel,” thundered the president.
“Your country’s in very bad shape… You’re not winning… You’re gambling with World War 3…
“What you are doing is very disrespectful to this country… You’re not acting at all thankful and that’s not a nice thing”…
“I have empowered you to be a tough guy. You either make a deal, or we’re out. You don’t have the cards,” he continued.
Thus the president raged and raged… his index finger wagging energetically in the Ukrainian chieftain’s direction.
What a Disgrace!
“Absolutely disgraceful”… “Disgusting”… “Revolting,” shrieked the president’s critics in response.
They argue the affair was a massacre of diplomacy — and American values.
Former Rep. Liz Cheney howled that “history will remember the day when an American president and vice president abandoned all we stand for.”
Former Bush speechwriter David Frum — and “axis of evil” originator — yelped that their conduct revealed “the pro-Putin commitments of the president and vice president.”
It is a common refrain. Critics claim that the president is the secret agent of the Russian autocrat.
“Putin said the sky is blue,” Mr. President.
“You’ve also said that the sky is blue. Why are you repeating Russian talking points, Mr. President?”
Yet I believe the claim of Trump subordination finds little excuse in the facts.
What Kind of Friend Is This?
In 2018 — as president — Mr. Trump ordered shut the Russian consulate in Seattle, Washington.
He banished several dozen Russian diplomats and intelligence officials from American shores.
Then-President Trump likewise stocked Ukrainian arsenals with American arms — prompting Russian table-thumps.
Meantime, in 2018 President Trump boasted that United States armed forces slaughtered up to 300 Russian mercenaries in Syria.
The Russians were evidently partners of Syrian forces that assaulted a United States military outpost.
And President Trump raised a celebratory toast to their destruction.
My agents inform me the massacre of Russians did in fact occur.
Some Friend!
Is this the conduct of a Russian puppet?
Then a very self-destructive Russian puppeteer has worked the strings.
I do not believe Mr. Putin is a self-destructive fellow.
Thus I dismiss critical claims that President Trump is the Russian’s puppet.
The evidence wars heavily against it. It runs — in fact — precisely opposite.
The United States’ European allies have swung to Mr. Zelensky’s defense.
Fine Words
“Your dignity honors the bravery of the Ukrainian people,” gushed European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen.
France’s Macron waxes that Mr. Zelensky is “fighting for their dignity, their independence, their children, and the security of Europe.”
Herr Friedrich Merz — likely future chancellor of Germany’s next chancellor — claimed Deutschland would stand behind Ukraine “in good and in testing times.”
Meantime, Great Britain’s Starmer pledged his “ unwavering support for Ukraine and is playing his part to find a path forward to a lasting peace.”
Fine words, all.
Yet fine words butter no parsnips. No substance stands in back of them.
The European nations have already dispatched much of their military equipment to Ukraine.
Little remains.
Empty Talk
The entire British Army — for example — boasts perhaps 19,000 men.
It presently commands some 40 fully functioning tanks… a few dozen cannons… and very few armored fighting vehicles.
The additional European nations’ armamentariums are similarly depleted.
Yet the mice roar their might!
How can the roaring mice possibly backstop Ukraine’s security against the Russian onslaught in Ukraine?
They cannot.
That is precisely why they are frantic to rope in the United States.
Europe Needs the Americans
Only the formidable mass of American military might can underwrite Europe’s security guarantees in Ukraine.
That is why the French Macron and British Starmer visited the United States prior to Ukraine’s Zelensky.
Both expressed willingness to dispatch a “reassurance force” to secure a Ukrainian ceasefire agreement.
Yet the Europeans realized only the United States could provide the reassuring muscle.
Again, and to reinforce:
Both European leaders visited the United States last week for that very reason.
They plotted to chickenwing President Trump to give that muscle.
Yet the president and his national security crew were alert to the European tricks. Thus they wriggled free of the chickenwing.
They would not be maneuvered into a scheme.
A scheme, that is, that could potentially draw the United States into warfare with a mighty nuclear power.
And I am with them.
The Independent American Eagle
The eagle — the American eagle — is an independent creature.
That eagle does not flock. It stands aloof.
As argued Adams, John Quincy Adams, long ago:
- [America] goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own.
- She will commend the general cause by the countenance of her voice, and the benignant sympathy of her example. She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom.
- The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force… She might become the dictatress of the world. She would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit…
Trump Is Adams
In his way, I believe President Trump is the descendant of John Quincy Adams.
Not consciously perhaps — I do not believe the sitting president has heard of him.
Yet I believe the president is with him in spirit.
As Adams, Mr. Trump believes the United States must rule her own spirit.
That spirit must remain hers, both believe — and hers alone.
Thus they stand against the internationalist spirit.
And I am with them.
Regards,
Brian Maher
for Freedom Financial News
