Trump's Gunboat Diplomacy
We got to yesterday in exactly the same way and for the same reason some folks are responding to this nightmare of "diplomacy". Blind fealty. Wasn't the responsibility to make that deal happen in the hands of the host? Zelensky, also a head of state, was their guest. He went there willingly and apparently ready to deal. Who really bears the fault that this fell apart? This (and Greenland, Panama Canal, Canada) is just the return of (the oxymoronic) gunboat diplomacy, the big guy picking on the little one. This time for the whole world to see.
Did Trump and Vance think haranguing and gaslighting him - not coincidentally in front of a phalanx of cameras - was going to work? This guy has been knee-deep in blood. Trump staged a photo-op, a show of what he supposes is strength and it worked, but only for the already converted. A "great Job" indeed! It was a Machiavellian maneuver designed to give him cover for abandoning an ally and, as most of his apologists note, the elimination of an expense. It was a move driven by budget-balancing dirty dog(e) motives with no thought about the future costs.
What they should be asking is what did they get, really get? At what expense? Remember, how he brought worldwide respect the last time out? Of course you do; if you are a true believer. MAGA redux. Who is the one risking a world war? Who was the adult in the room? There is no better example of the criticisms of Trump by many of his former cabinet when they criticize Trump for being purely transactional (and dangerous, and unwell, etc). Asked about the consideration of future Russian incursions his response was "What if a bomb drops on your head?" This is a man who knows no history and has no depth to him. He is a man-baby that can't think down the road past his own needs. He needs a diaper change. Unfortunately, the stink will be with us for at least another year and a half.
