LOS ANGELES.–Donald Trump, 78, said the Ukraine’s 47-year-old President Volodymer Zelensky has reneged on a rare earth mineral deal something he was supposed to sign in the Oval Office Feb. 28. Instead, Zelensky blew up at Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance when they pressed him for not taking peace talks more seriously. But the purpose of the Feb. 28 meeting was to sign a rare earth mineral deal which would have created economic collaboration between the U.S. and Ukraine for years to come, creating a security buffer for Ukraine. But all that crashed and burned after Zelensky’s ballistic episode in the Oval Office. When Zelensky offered his half-hearted apology, claiming he was only defending Ukraine’s honor, he said he was ready to sign the deal. No deal has been signed because Zelensky has second thoughts about partnering with the United States.
Without admitting it publicly, the thing that sent Zelensky over the top in the Oval Office was the fact Trump was working on restoring normal diplomatic relations with the Russian Federation. Before 82-year-old former President Joe Biden made Ukraine a “close ally” of the U.S. Ukraine was never part of Europe, only a former Russian Empire and Soviet satellite. Only when former President Barack Obama made Biden, as Vice President in 2012, head of Ukraine’s anti-corruption task force did Ukraine become as U.S. ally. When the CIA-backed Maiden Revolution took place Feb. 22, 2014, driving duly elected Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych from power, did Obama and Biden begin arming Ukraine. Putin annexed the Crimean Peninsula March 1, 2014, much to the shock to Obama and Biden. Biden landed his son Hunter in 2014 a lucrative job on a corrupt Ukrainian energy company board.
Before that history, Ukraine was not an ally of the U.S. at all, with Russia taking precedent with generations of U.S. president after WW II working on improving U.S.-Russian relations. When Trump handed the presidency to Biden in 2020, Russia was a cooperative global partner with the U.S. not a mortal enemy. Biden quickly morphed 80 years of diplomacy, détente and arms control into mortal enemies by funding the Ukraine War with the Kremlin. So, when Ukraine became Biden’s pet project, it was without any real history of working as a close ally. Biden decided that the Feb. 24, 2022 Russian invasion was “unprovoked and unjustified.” Yet Chinese President Xi Jinping said at the time that Biden provoked the invasion by encroaching on the Russian Federation. Biden was willing to sacrifice U.S.-Russia relations to fund proxy war in Ukraine.
Everything changed when Trump came back to office, promising to end the Ukraine War. Trump recognized that with all the cash-and-arms given to Ukraine, Zelensky would never prevail over the Russian Federation. So, to get U.S. foreign policy back on the right track, Trump initiated a return with Putin to normalize U.S.-Russian relations. Knowing that Zelensky reneged on the rare earth mineral deal, Putin authorized his team to work on a similar deal with the White House. All this cooperation between Putin and Trump has resulted in Zelensky selling out Trump to the European Union, telling delegates at the Munich Security conference that Trump no longer cared about European security. Zelensky used the EU to run interference on Trump’s peace plans, essentially accusing Trump selling out Ukraine. So, now Trump has a problem with the EU.
Trump said that Zelensky has reneged on the rare earth mineral deal he promised to sign Feb. 28 in the Oval Office. “I think Zelensky, by the way, he’s trying to back out of the rare earth dea, and if he does that, he’s got some problems—big, big problems,” Trump told reporters March 20 on Air Force One. “We made a deal on rare earths, and now he’s saying, ‘well, you know, I want to renegotiate the deal.’ He wants to be a member of NATO. Well, he was never going to be a member of NATO. He understands that, so if he’s looking to renegotiate the deal, he’s got big problems,” Trump said. Trump has found out that Zelensky plays his cards to get Ukraine as much cash-and-arms as he can get. When that changed with Trump, Zelensky no longer considers the U.S. a friend of Ukraine. Beyond anything, Zelensky tries to pretend he’s still winning the Ukraine War.
Trump trusts Putin to make a deal on Ukraine War ceasefire more than he trusts Zelensky to meet his obligations. What’s become clear with Zelensky, he no longer sees the U.S. under Trump as an ally of Ukraine. Zelensky watched Trump make overtures to his enemy, souring his relationship to the United States. While Zelensky still has some Biden holdovers in Congress, he no longer has the White House backing him the same way. Trump sees bigger fish to fry in the future by reestablishing normal U.S.-Russian relations. To Zelensky, Trump has betrayed him in every way possible, making friends with Putin but, more importantly, closing the spigot of U.S. cash-and-arms. Trump is no longer willing to fund proxy war in Ukraine with the Kremlin. Trump sees normalizing U.S.-Russian relations as imperative to U.S. foreign policy and national security.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
