President Trump, President Zelensky Is Not an Actor In the Apprentice

In an interview in early February 2024, candidate Donald Trump stated that he would encourage Russia to do “whatever the hell they want to any Nato country that doesn’t meet spending guidelines of Defense.” And five days before the Russian invasion of Ukraine–an invasion whose intent was to fully infiltrate, occupy, capture Kiev and de-capitate its leadership–Senator and future Vice President J.D. Vance stated in an interview that ” I don’t care what happens to Ukraine one way or another.”

And let us not forget that during President Trump’s first term as President the phone call– to which he referred “as perfect”– clearly revealed his intention to withhold arms desperately needed for Ukraine’s defense against a Russia whose threatening rhetoric (such as describing Ukraine’s leadership as being a Nazi government and further alluding to the country as historically belonging to the Russian Empire, and signaling that it was the tip of the spear for Nato to continue its threats against Russia) suggested a pretext for attacking or invading the country. Yes, President Trump was impeached but not fully convicted by the United States congress for the content of that conversation that was a clear threat of extortion against Ukraine’s newly elected President to provide incriminating evidence against his opponent Joe Biden. President Zelensky refused to fabricate such evidence–and the attempted blackmail or extortion of congressionally approved military aid and support was revealed to be impeachable corruption.

It was against this backdrop that President Zelensky visited the Oval Office on February 28 for a visit that was ostensibly to complete and announce a deal to provide the United States access to its valuable natural resources–such as titanium, lithium, coal, oil and natural gas reserves– as a payback for the United States’ financial commitment to the country and as a down payment for its future assistance toward providing security guarantees toward a ceasefire and lasting peace that would not be subject to vagaries, whims, and Putin’s untrustworthy commitment to respect Ukraine’s territorial sovereignty.

This is what the meeting was supposed to be, and should have been–but it wasn’t that at all. Instead the President of Ukraine walked into what was clearly a pre-planned assault on him–staged for Trump’s Maga supporters to deepen the hero worship of their anointed leader whose authoritarianism continues its utter disregard for the separation of powers upon which the constitution is based. And it was arranged to appeal to the Russian billionaire oligarchy led by the vicious, ruthless war criminal, Vladimir Putin.

February 28, 2025, a date that will be forever etched in World Geopolitical History. It is the moment when the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky–the leader that did not take gold and an airplane out of Ukraine–but simply asked for weapons and aid to defy Putins invasion and protect his nation’s identity and sovereignty from being swallowed, pillaged, ravaged and conquered was ridiculed, berated, abused, mistreated and accused of starting this war with Russia and potentially causing World War 3. The accusers were President Trump and Vice President Vance in the Oval Office.

The treatment of this courageous, defiant President of Ukraine–whose country is fighting against fascism and for freedom–the protection of which and for which Nato was created–is as despicable as it is treacherous.

President Trump refers to the President of Ukraine as a dictator, but refuses to use that term to describe one of the most ruthless dictators to ever walk the earth: Putin.

The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Putin for– among the atrocities of destroying civilian populations, their homes, schools, hospitals, water facilities and energy infrastructures–the heinous war crime of abducting children from their families.

President Trump, this is not an episode of the fictional television program, the Apprentice: this is a real life battle against fascism, tyranny, the subjugation of human rights and liberty similar to the Russian invasions of Hungary and Czechoslovakia in the post World War 2 era.

In describing the event as “good television” you ‘fired” before the entire world a leader that represents the essence of American values, the man that has stood steadfast and inspired his people to stay strong against subjugation and at the same time embraced a vicious, strategic, ruthless, murderous tyrant. This is astounding to most Americans and the free world simply cannot fathom the spectacle–the surreality of the moment is almost impossible to comprehend.

In the staging of this spectacle you have essentially provided Putin with assurances that this war is his to win and to win on his terms. Any peace deal now will be made from the position of strength for Vladimir Putin, aided and abetted by the new pro-Tyranny foreign policy of the United States of America.

And so, given this capitulation by President Trump and Vice President Vance to the support of the strategic thinking of Putin’s Russia should it be any surprise that today, March 3, 2025 President Trump has directed a “pause” to US assistance to Ukraine? The black mail resulted in the impeachment the first time. But now the blackmail is taking place as US Foreign Policy, a policy that is being manipulated and subversively sabotaged by the Russian “brainwashing” of America.

And this insane tilt to the foreign policy of Russia’s Putin is occurring despite the concerns and fears of the American people. A Quinnipiac poll conducted on February 19, 2025 shows that 81 percent of American’s don’t trust Putin! America did not vote for America to adopt Russian foreign policy at the expense of abandoning Nato responsibilities and defending freedom, standing up for an alliance that for eighty years has nurtured the principles upon which America was created: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We are a nation founded in an overthrow of kings and subjugation of our rights. And now we embrace the most ruthless perpetrator of inhumanity and oppression of freedom? While we ask our allies in this fight against tyranny to fend for themselves! And worse, we impose tariffs upon them in a vicious display of vengeance and economic madness!

Let’s stop and think about this for a moment. On February 24, the United States joined Russia in a vote against a United Nations General Assembly resolution condemning Russia’s war against Ukraine. And later that same day the United States voted with Russia on a United Nations Security Council resolution that did not call Russia the aggressor in this war or acknowledge the territorial integrity of Ukraine.

What could possibly be behind President Donald Trump’s capitulation and favoritism to Putin’s Russia? To endeavor to answer that question I refer to the the deeply considered thinking of Heather Cox Richardson:
She states that when a reporter “…asked what would happen if Russia broke a ceasefire agreement, Trump became enraged. Among other things he said, ‘Putin went through a hell of a lot with me. He went through a phony witch hunt…’ Trump referred to what he calls the ‘Russia, Russia, Russia hoax’ that Russia had worked to elect him in 2016. That effort, though, was not a hoax: the Republican-dominated Senate Intelligence Committee in 2020 released an exhaustive report detailing that effort. One of the things Russian operatives believed Trump’s team had agreed to, the report, said, was Russia’s annexation of the parts of eastern Ukraine it is now trying to grab through military occupation.”

It seems clear to me that there is in America today an authoritarian-evangelical-moral assault in conjunction with an billionaire oligarchy repressing dissent through intimidation of congress and media. And this is in further conjunction with an abandonment of our commitment to the principles upon which Nato is based: containment and the preservation of freedom, liberty and territorial sovereignty. Putin is offering more to President Trump–perhaps one of the elements is cheaper gas to offset the inflationary effects of tariffs–than Europe is costing in terms of our financial commitment.

It would seem that President Trump has come into office intent on punishing virtually every friend of America that congratulated President Biden on his victory. And he is attacking economically many of the countries that have supported the trade that created American and global economic growth. And we haven’t yet begun to experience the problematic consequences of his proposed tax cuts and immigration policies, likely fueling considerable inflation and higher long term interest rates.

The Federal Reserve is on alert. The usurpation of power like a vacuum to the executive branch, economic policies that undermine growth and create chaos are the worst possible recipe for the financial markets. Policies based on economic punishments and retaliation, and in turn being the recipient of retaliatory economic policies will undermine job creation, corporate and consumer spending, and global economic stability. The geopolitical tilt to Russia coupled with punishing our friends and allies with devastating economic policies will undermine domestic and global confidence. Long term interest rates will likely remain stubbornly high until economic weakness requires the Fed to make drastic rate cuts to stave off deep stagflation or worse. I hope the coming financial situation will not be this severe, but it certainly may be the case. And it does not have to be this way !

I conclude with this post from former representative Liz Cheney (R-Wy) as quoted by Heather Cox Richardson:
Generations of American patriots, from our revolution onward, have fought for the principles Zelensky is risking his life to defend. But, today, Donald Trump and JD Vance attacked Zelensky and pressured him to surrender the freedom of his people to the KGB war criminal who invaded Ukraine. History will remember this day–when an American President and Vice President abandoned all we stand for.”

Bruce Farrell Rosen