By now you will no doubt have seen the extraordinary scenes of Zelensky’s disastrous meeting with the US presidential team in the White House. But make no mistake, this was a set up by Trump and it went down exactly the way that he planned it. Vice president Vance in no way came out with his very public criticisms of Zelensky on live television in a spontaneous manner. Trump would have carefully coached him before the main event on what he wanted Vance to achieve. Vance’s task was to goad Zelensky into losing his temper. Once that happened, then Trump stepped in and finished him off, thereby demonstrating who in the room actually has the power.
The public joke is that Zelensky is a cocaine addict. While that may be true, his real addiction is to power and to being a major player on the world stage. Before the war with Russia, Zelensky was a nobody as far as the world was concerned. But since the war began he has enjoyed the no doubt heady rush of being the media and diplomatic darling of the West, feted by leaders and hailed by the media as a hero as he strutted around in his ridiculous and contrived military outfit.
On Friday, the 28th of February 2025, all of that ended.
Trump had to end it because no deal with Russia is going to be made while Zelensky is still running around. Zelensky is addicted to this war because without the war he is nothing. He is not even technically the leader of Ukraine at all, as his presidential term expired almost a year ago. If Trump had really wanted to finish him off yesterday he might have refused to address him as president.
Zelensky was ostensibly at the White House to sign a deal on selling Ukraine’s mineral rights to the USA. That was the bait, but it was never a realistic offer. Those minerals if extractable would have been taken out of the ground long ago by the former Soviet Union.
This entire episode is a classic example of never take seriously what Trump says, but pay very close attention to what he does. (As an aside, this is why Trump’s pronouncements on Gaza can not be taken at all seriously.) The Trump team had only recently finished a first round of negotiations with the Russian team. No doubt the major point from those talks was that Zelensky has to go before any progress can be made. And the best way to take him down is for Zelensky to reveal himself on live television to the entire world; to clearly communicate that he is not, and has never been, a serious person.
A former comedian famous for playing a piano with his penis was the perfect stand-in for clown world. But clown world is on the way out, and there are now serious people in charge once again. If Zelensky even returns to the Ukraine then he is on borrowed time. He will probably have to be content with the couple of billion dollars that he has stashed away over the last few years. My guess is that he will either fly straight to France or to Israel.
As for the leaders of the European Union and the UK, they now find themselves holding a poison chalice. The US has thrown Zelensky to the wolves so that serious talks with Russia can now begin. To be fair, it doesn’t matter how the EU or the UK react to this diplomatic earthquake because they are not invited to the peace talks. The world has changed.
Originally published at Pushing Rubber Downhill. You can purchase Adam’s books here.
