Dear Commons Community,
Yesterday’s White House meeting with Donald Trump, JD Vance and Volodymyr Zelenskyy was a disaster for all involved (see video below). Trump and Vance tried to bully Zelenskyy into surrendering to Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Zelenskyy would have none of it and walked away from any agreement that failed to guarantee American support against Putin’s transgressions and duplicity. Trump and Vance retaliated by talking down to Zelenskyy and saying he was not thankful enough for what the United States had done for his country . (As an aside, CNN reported that Zelenskyy has publicly thanked the US thirty-one times in the past four years.)
Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) weighed in on the “shameful” behavior by Trump and Vance yesterday after the two blew up on Zelenskyy.
“We should be thanking the Ukrainians for standing in the gap and fighting the Russian horde that’s coming into their country and that would come into NATO next,” Kinzinger told CNN’s Dana Bash.
He continued, “Today was very shameful and there’s a reason that every cabinet member under Donald Trump has had to tweet how strong he was today, because they got the memo from the White House that they better come out and support Trump because this is a really bad day for them and they know it.”
Kinzinger, in a post to X, declared that Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Adviser Michael Waltz “lose any of the little credibility they maybe had” if they don’t resign following the Trump-Vance meltdown.
“This was a purposeful ambush. There is no doubt about it. JD Vance is a vice president and shouldn’t even have spoken to Zelensky, a President,” he added in a separate post.
Kinzinger pressed that foreign leaders shouldn’t come to the U.S. and “bow” to the president, noting that Zelenskyy has to “stand strong” for Ukraine.
“If he comes here and grovels to a toddler that needs to be groveled to, like, what is that sending ― what message is that sending to his troops in the trench?” Kinzinger said.
“It’s sending a message that, ’Boy, our future really depends not on your ability to stay and fight but on whether or not I can grovel to a toddler that wants to be, that wants to be held and coddled.”
The former congressman went on to react to the European Union’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, who declared that it’s now up to Europeans to take on the “challenge” of finding a “new leader” for the free world.
“They’re correct. I mean, I’m sorry, I hate to say this but the United States right now is not the good guys in this,” Kinzinger said.
While most Republican leaders kowtowed to Trump after the meeting, GOP Congressman Don Baker from Nebraska said it was:
“A bad day for America’s foreign policy. Ukraine wants independence, free markets and rule of law. It wants to be part of the West. Russia hates us and our Western values. We should be clear that we stand for freedom.”
Trump stands for himself and his vanity not the country!
Tony
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