Politics

I knew Trump just wanted to try to strong arm him into signing away their mineral rights. They kicked them out of the Whitehouse afterward, and Trump said Zelenskyy could come back when he's ready to talk about peace.

Zelenskyy literally kept asking about security measures/promises.

Why would he sign a deal to fork over mineral rights when America would just walk in, steal their minerals, and then immediately leave them SOL just like they did to the interpreters and people who helped in the war in the Middle East?

The one really great thing about this was that it was straight-up televised proof that Trump and company are authoritarian fascists. It's kind of incredible that they are so blunt about it. I think that blunt straightforwardness will be their downfall.

You would have to be a very dense person or just as terrible to agree with them at this point. They have shown the world their true colors at this point, and I feel like it's a matter of time before their time runs out.

What an international embarrassment.

Zelenskyy has pulled off an incredible diplomatic move. He’s illustrating to the public both at home and abroad, that Ukraine is an independent country and he’s calling trump’s bluff.

Trump has been bluffing this whole time. Leaning on this idea that he can just pull the plug on aid to Ukraine, on this idea of the unitary executive. The thing is, Ukraine is still a popular cause in America, both with in government institutions and the public, despite the efforts of so many. Trump’s bully pulpit is not so strong as to change that with a stroke of a pen.

Now, trump can attempt to unilaterally revoke aid, but that will run in to real legal road blocks and create bipartisan public dissent, thus undermining the fiction of the unitary executive. Or he can change his tone, real fucking fast, and claim he always had the intention to support Ukraine, his supporters will buy it, like every other random shift he’s pulled, and everyone else will shrug and say “I guess a broken clock is right twice a day”.

He’s put trump in a position where the only winning option is to support Ukraine, and the losing options earns him both another public opinion and institutional battle. The question is, what threatens trump more? That bad outcome or what ever the pro-russia people have on him?

Good on him. Fuck Trump and his bullying tactics. Trump deserves a fast hard punch straight to the neck.

Art of The Deal seems to have failed.

So, what do we learn of this? I mean, if we hadnt done so before?
Nothing Trump says is worth anything.
He will contradict himself many times and deny it was different in the past. His voters dont understand, care, remember or all three.
Its lies, bullshit, bullying, more lies.
How do you ever justify that a president behaves like this??

Shortly before the meeting ended, Trump said, “This is going to be great television.”

In case anyone was curious about why it ended so dramatically.

@remington hot take: I think Ukraine will actually allow European companies access to rare earth minerals, as long as they also offer some production facilities locally - this will be especially useful for military purposes. Europe will also take advantage of locally produced Lithium batteries, necessary for cars and various electronics, and this in turn will make Ukraine even more attractive to Europe as a whole and will also be willing to make more concessions to Ukraine.

If I'm not mistaken, the US already has access to various rare earth minerals, that's why for them, it is not so important and they can bluff. Zelenskyy just wanted to raise some interest for Trump in this whole rare earth thing in exchange for protection, but Trump saw the opportunity, and he's now trying to twist this to his own interest (i.e. give me all your minerals, or you'll no longer get support from us).

Ukraine is very lucky to have an extremely clever president who won't easily give in. I guess the memory of the whole Budapest Memorandum fiasco also helps.

I expect more of the AP than this:

Couldn't Zelenskyy just lie about it?

"Oh yeah, you can totally have all our minerals."

*2 years later

"What, no mineral shipments yet? Musta got lost in the mail. Gonna invade us for it?"