This Is Not a TV Show

By Noah Rothman

Friday, February 28, 2025

 

What just happened in the Oval Office defies description. It must be watched to be believed:

In sum, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was treated to a scolding lecture about why his country should be content with the extent to which it has defended some of its citizens from foreign aggression and should capitulate. He was berated, and forced to defend himself in a non-native language, for his failure to express sufficient gratitude to the United States for its support in its existential war effort — gratitude Zelensky has expressed on countless occasions. Nevertheless, for his insistence on his country’s survival as a sovereign entity, he was accused by the president and vice president of being “disrespectful,” but only because he had the temerity to do so before the cameras the White House invited into that meeting.

 

“You’re either going to make a deal, or we’re out,” Trump said in reference to an alleged “peace” plan — a campaign of diplomacy in which all the carrots are reserved for the aggressor and the sticks are exclusive to our pro-Western partner, the target of unprovoked aggression. “I think we’ve seen enough. What do you think?” Trump told reporters in anticipation of this afternoon’s joint press conference with his Ukrainian counterpart. “This is gonna be great television, I will say that.”

 

But this is not a TV show. It’s real geopolitical diplomacy centered on a real war on the European continent with real and grave implications not just for the stability of the Atlantic Alliance but the U.S.-led world order around the globe. This is not a game for the benefit of a terminally online audience that is constitutionally allergic to earnestness and solemnity. There will be consequences that follow from this, and they will almost certainly be bad for U.S. security and that of our allies.