~a column by Colleen O’Brien
The off-the-rails President and his menacing capo, a vice-president, believe it or not, in the unusual venue of the Oval Office, acted out what appeared to be a badly rehearsed play for the benefit of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week.
It was awkwardly done, mean-spirited, fourth-grade level bullying in front of an invited audience of media. And it was perpetrated because our president, who has the patience and goodwill of a stepped-on snake, became angry at his Ukrainian guest because on the way into the Oval Office Zelensky said he would exchange his rare earth metals for help from the U.S. only if he had protection from Russia. He would not agree to peace talks without the security guarantees he has been seeking. Zelensky, from countless Russian lies his country has barely lived through, does not trust Putin.
Why our president does makes one wonder.
As a tongue-lashing by two bad actors, the ensuing action in the Oval Office was shocking but believable. However, it did not work. The victim did not cower, did not run away, did not say “Whatever you want, I’ll give you.” Zelensky talked back. To the Donald.
Not that the target in the tongue lashing was heard, of course, because the lead actor, In his trademark way, talked over him, raising his voice at each utterance. It was insidious, cruel, ugly. It now leads the list of cringeworthy behaviors of this president over his 10 years as a butt-inski in our political scene.
But we have years ahead of us for him to top that.
The second lead, the poorly rehearsed, overbearing under-president shouted at the victim for the inexcusable faux pas of not yet having said “Thank you” in this particular room on this day.
A suited fellow in the audience, not a media representative, yelled his two cents worth at Zelensky: “You aren’t even wearing a suit in the Oval Office!”
Oh, my. I must have missed this shill when he yelled at Elon Musk for such a breach of manners as wearing tee shirt and ballcap in the sacred Oval Office while his 4-year-old son picked his nose and wiped his finger on the Resolute Desk.
The low drama of February 28, 2025, will go down in political history for its inexcusably ill-mannered playacting by third-rate humans pretending to be leaders of the free world. It will be the clip shown when anyone in the future mentions the 47th president of the United States.
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To move on . . . there are things we can do to help Ukrainians, especially now that our rapacious president has chosen the belligerents’ side in a war of world-wide importance: if Russia succeeds in taking over Ukraine, Europe and the U.S. will be much closer to fulfilling Putin’s compulsion to expand Russia.
NATO has kept this from happening for 80 years, but our extortionist Number 47 has somehow stumped that organization into ineffectuality.
If our president won’t help a fellow democracy in crisis, we’ll just have to step in and prove that America has good people as well as a very bad one. There are many to whom we can safely give our money, our time, our best help to Ukraine:
Restore Ukraine. Org – there is no overhead here, as the two brothers who started this program refuse to charge for their administration or organizational expenses. One hundred percent of the goods and money donated to Restore Ukraine go to Ukrainians to rebuild their houses and apartments. Putin bombs every day, mostly homes, apartments, hospitals, schools. One of the brothers said, “Russia’s goal is to put the horror in the people.”
Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation
Do not offer money or goods to any Russian organization.
I figure I’m in good company when I read that Jasmine Crockett (D Rep., Texas) said she believed Trump is “an enemy to the United States.” And that political consultant James Carville figures Trump might hate America seeing as how he voted against the United Nations resolution against Russia’s aggression toward Ukraine; not to mention our good friends Canada and Mexico receiving the president’s personal spring bouquet: tariffs.
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