Economics Matters

President Trump and Vice President Vance had quite the day the other day — screaming at Volodymyr Zelensky because he wouldn’t grovel at their feat and, by extension, those of Vladimir Putin. Nor was Zelensky ready to agree to a Trumped-up peace deal without a real U.S. security guarantee. Trump’s claim that the presence of U.S. mining companies in Ukraine would keep Putin at bay was risible.

Zelensky told the duo (Why was Vance there? Did Trump need backup?) the obvious — you can’t bargain with Putin from a position of weakness and Ukraine’s sovereignty was not theirs to sell down the river. After losing so many and so much for so long, Zelensky wasn’t playing ball without understanding the end game.

As Trump became more and more apoplectic, claiming Putin had all the cards (The U.S. has no cards?), and wailing about WWIII, Zelensky got Trump to show his real hand — an end to U.S. support for Ukraine and an end to U.S. participation in NATO. In so doing, Trump killed the fantasy that his actions will differ from his words.