Trump Negotiates Like a Gorilla

In the wake of the U.S. suddenly halting military aid for Ukraine, I finally went back and watched the disastrous press conference/meeting from last week between Zelensky, Trump, and Vance. What an extraordinary piece of television, and not in a good way. Trump even remarks at one point that it will be great television and I'm forced to wonder if, on some level, that's still a priority for him, even when the stakes are millions of human lives.

One thing is clear; Trump and Vance have absolutely no respect for Zelensky. When Zelensky points out, quite reasonably, that Putin has repeatedly broken peace agreements, and asks what Ukraine is supposed to do in that situation, Vance responds by accusing Zelensky of a lack of gratitude. After Vance's little dog barking, Trump, who'd been bragging about his negotiation skills, also apparently becomes offended at Zelensky's failure to recognise his godhood. How dare Zelensky speak as though Ukraine has a respectable position in the conversation? It was like watching a gangster slap his wife for daring to make a comment during a meeting.

It really seems like some powerful interests decided Russia would have Ukraine some time ago.

Even so, it's hard to say exactly how much Trump's violent petulance is a remarkably undisciplined reaction of the moment and how much of it might be theatre. Giving an impression of his erratic temper may even have been a tactic. It felt eerily like watching Paul Sorvino in Goodfellas or Jack Nicholson in The Departed. It really feels like we have a gangster president.