Author: Biljana Jovićević
The meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Vice President JD Vance with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House, which we were able to witness live via global media, will be—already is—one of the most shameful chapters in U.S. history. It’s hard to find comfort in this, but this feeling I expressed on social media in real time on the last day of February 2025, was shared by many as they watched how the "leader of the free world," along with his entourage of sycophants, led by Vice President Vance in a typical mafia-style set up, in the Oval Office, in front of journalists, attacked, bullied, and tried to intimidate the rare true hero of today’s world, Ukrainian President Zelensky. Rory Stewart, the former British Conservative MP and minister, now a podcaster in the popular The Rest is Politics, together with the famous Tony Blair’s spin doctor, Alastair Campbell, who were equally shocked as me, the White House theater has put into a historical context—comparing it to the assassination of Austrian Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo, which was the initial cause of the World War I. I know, I know, the right-wingers and opponents of the so-called "woke" culture will say it's absurd to compare Trump with fascists, and now this - although the evidence for such claims keeps piling up, including the fact that in the MAGA world, across the Europe still banned Nazi salute sieg heil, is becoming mainstream (first Musk, then Bannon). In the age of post-truth - facts are useless.
The moment after President Zelensky, the man who has been leading the heroic resistance of his people against the Russian invasion for three years, had dare to respond to the barrage of shameless lies with facts, Vance wanted to continue the attack away from the media cameras, assessing that they had gone too far publicly, while the main bully and media mag, Trump, concluded that it would "look good in the media," so decided to continues with publicly humiliation and tearing into pieces everything that US’s policy declaratively had claimed to stand for. Trump’s loyalists in the Oval Office, in an attempt to please him, even tried to humiliate President Zelensky for wearing a military uniform instead of black tie, forgetting for a moment that the real boss of their boss, the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, who once belonged to a group known as the "PayPal mafia," humiliates them on daily basis, appearing in the White House with instructions on what to do, wearing jeans and a baseball cap. The only Trump loyalist who seemed to be "a little uncomfortable," once a fierce critic of Putin, but now literally a "little Marco," as Trump has long referred to him, Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, quickly recovered when photos appeared on social media showing him looking ill. He appeared on CNN and quickly asked apologize from President Zelensky (as the famous fiction hero Čvorović would say "go ahead, admit it and Djura will forgive you for beating you").
Appearing on FOX, immediately after the signing of the agreement failed and the official press conference was canceled, Volodymyr Zelensky agreed that the meeting was unpleasant and didn’t look good, but when directly asked about an apology, he responded that he had no reason to apologize. The journalist, God forbid, didn’t ask him whether he expected an apology for being ambushed by his hosts, who played the role of Putin's lawyers.
Bluntly, we witnessed live the thing that American comedian, Stephen Colbert, few days ago in one of his segments about reality of US today, satirically playing with the words from the song America, Land of the Free has change in “America Land of the Fee"… It is clear that President Zelensky obviously didn’t want to pay the fee in the form of access to the rare minerals in his country and Ukrainian ports for nothing, which was Trump’s offer. Usually, when these extortionists ask you to pay, they go by offering you " the protection" in return, but here there was none. A few weeks ago, Trump’s Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent was on a secret mission in Kyiv, where, as the media reported, he asked the Ukrainian president to pay them not only for the future help the U.S. could provide, but also for the assistance the previous U.S. administration had secured for Ukraine’s defense against the Russian aggression.
That Trump – Vance show down didn’t work as good as they hoped in the media is confirmed soon, by the words of Democratic congressman Seth Moulton, who called the current U.S. president a coward and Putin’s puppet, and Vance a coward and Trump’s puppet.
"And what we just witnessed was a meeting in the White House between two cowardly puppets and a hero." These words resonated deeply, as confirmed by Trump himself, who, leaving the White House soon after, told the media that Zelensky, whom he had called a dictator just last week, but stubbornly refused to call Putin the same, said that the Ukrainian president wasn’t looking for peace, but was "only talking about Putin this, Putin that." Furthermore, among those who triumphantly gloated over this disaster was Putin’s domestic puppet, former Russian president and prime minister Dmitry Medvedev, who called Zelensky a " insolent pig."
Senator Bernie Sanders asked if there is a Republican today ready to stand with Ukraine and democracy.
"After years of Republicans talking about “freedom,” is there ONE Republican in Congress prepared to stand with Ukraine and democracy? Or do they ALL agree with Trump that Vladimir Putin, a blood-thirsty dictator, is our ally in this horrific war that he started."
When it comes to Republicans in Congress, the hope is already gone. Former Trump critic turned a spineless loyalist, Senator Lindsey Graham, who the same morning on Capitol Hill met with Zelensky in a bipartisan delegation and smiled widely for the cameras, after Zelensky’s sudden departure from the White House, told the media corps he had "never been prouder of President Trump." Watching him, I couldn’t help but wonder how it’s possible that this man once was the best friend of American hero, Senator John McCain, yet another real hero whom Trump despises, even in death.
While American citizens, embarrassed, apologized on social media to the world for Trump and Vance behavior, who, contrary to Musk’s claim that "Zelensky destroyed himself in the eyes of the American people," were ashamed because, in the words of legendary Russian chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov, "Trump destroyed America in the eyes of the world," conservative columnist David Frum wrote for The Atlantic: "At least we know the truth. It’s ugly, but necessary to face."
"False friendliness in public by Trump and Vance, followed by behind-the-scenes treachery, would have been much more dangerous to the Ukrainian cause," he argued. "Both the president and vice president showed the U.S.-led alliance system something it needed urgently to know: The national-security system of the West is led by two men who cannot be trusted to defend America’s allies—and who deeply sympathize with the world’s most aggressive dictator."
And it seems that they’ve finally opened their eyes.
For a change, waking up after a long sleep, Europe reacted as it only should. One by one, European leaders realized that it was now or never, and unconditionally stood with President Zelensky and his people. Among the reactions, if they stick to it, no matter how difficult it will be – and will be without doubt, I chosen two. The first one from European Commissioner for Foreign Affairs and Security, Kaja Kallas, who point out, "Today, it became clear that the free world needs a new leader. It’s up to us, Europeans, to take this challenge. "
The likely new German Chancellor, winner of the Sunday elections, leader of CDU-CSU, Friedrich Merz, said that we must never be confused about who the aggressor is and who the victim is in this horrific war:
"Dear Volodymyr Zelensky, we stand with Ukraine in good and in testing times. We must never confuse aggressor and victim in this terrible war. (FM)" To avoid confusion, he left his initials in the signature – means the message was written by him personally.
To avoid any illusion—what lies ahead for Europe and those who still care about the values of humane civilization—to protect Ukraine in their just struggle for their freedom, and thus our freedom, will not be an easy task. Experts estimate that without U.S. support, it will take Europe at least two years of huge efforts to provide military assistance to Ukraine to the extent that they will be able to defend themselves, and it’s a big question whether, and how, without American weapons, Ukraine can defend itself in the meantime or secure lasting peace. Forming of European defense forces has been discussed for over a decade, but billions of euros are needed, experts say. Also, NATO with Trump’s influence, will be under immense pressure. Europe desperately needs a new leader, to replace the ineffective and theatrical French President Emmanuel Macron, who obviously still can’t comprehend the fact that appeasing bullies doesn’t yield results, especially not long-term ones.
Everything that the future German Chancellor Merz has said about Ukraine, Europe, and Trump since Sunday rhetorically has sounded like music to the ears—especially his clarity that Trump’s America can no longer be partner to rely, and that Europe must protect and position itself. But the implementation of the task will be what counts, and it will be a difficult but necessary struggle undertaking for the salvation of Western civilization. The leader of Europe’s biggest economy will have to deal with the crumbling German economy, which ended the year in a mild 0.2% recession, with faltering infrastructure, a car industry in crisis, and under the threat of Trump’s tariffs, mounting citizen dissatisfaction, migration problems, while the far-right AfD, with the intimidating support of Elon Musk and his powerful tool of social media, is breathing down his neck.
All of this spills over into the rest of the EU, where the far right-wing is slowly but surely growing stronger. The meeting scheduled by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who was also in a futile mission of appeasing Trump the day before Zelensky— is the first opportunity. It is of utmost importance for the UK to stand side by side with the EU in this matter. The same tendency was shown from the Prime Ministers of Canada and Australia.
They should not count on Trump America and resistance to Trump, Musk, and other tech-bros, who are dismantling everything that the country once prided itself on and claimed its title as "leader of the free world." Democrats and their affiliated civil activists, groups, and media are stumbling like a knocked-out boxer who doesn’t know which side the punches are coming from. They are paying the hefty price for decades of flirting and appeasing to the big money, which, immediately after November 9, realigned with Trump’s camp and is now a direct threat to their very existence. As evidenced by the case of Jeff Bezos and the now increasingly loyal The Washington Post, whose journalist Josh Rogan, also a CNN commentator, once a sharp critic of Trump, early this morning, tried to justify the White House’s request for an apology from Zelensky for being attacked (he should have kept quiet, he says, and focused on the goal) while sort of defending the Ukrainian side—at the same time. You can figure out yourself the next phase that will follow …
And this isn’t the only one—it’s just an illustration. Because how else can we explain the complete absence of any meaningful reaction or pushback to the destruction of U.S. federal agencies, including the essential ones for the functioning of the system, security agencies, the firing of thousands of employees, including military leaders, prosecutors, investigators, the decision on which media the Administration will allow, and which ban to report from the White House, so journalists from Russian TASS were present during the bullying of Zelensky by the "leader of the free world" and his pawns, but not AP journalists?! How is possible that only a few dares to openly call out Tramp for the announcement of ethnic cleansing of Gaza, while instead focusing on technicalities like whether or not Trump’s plan can be carried out… and so on, and so forth.
In the reactions to Rory Stewart’s and Alastair Campbell’s live podcast, one person precisely listed ten things money can’t buy: morality, respect, character, empathy, trust, common sense, manners, class, patience, and kindness.
The strong unity of European leaders expressed last night must immediately and urgently be channeled, and mobilized into swift and decisive action. Otherwise, it’s just a matter of time before we all, after Ukraine, become the next AI Gaza video, which Trump proudly posted on his account.
Those who still don’t see where this leads and justify it by saying "it’s just Trump, he said a lot but did nothing in his first term," don’t see that Trump from 2017 was only laying out groundwork for Trump, Musk, and other right-wingers from the Project 2025, who were, during the four years of hiatus, developed a master plan for the destruction of Western civilization and what’s left of its values, and now rapidly and consistently implementing it without allowing us to catch a breath— will learned quickly.
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