this post was submitted on 28 Feb 2025
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[–] [email protected] 113 points 13 hours ago (16 children)

I don't usually get upset by world news. I was genuinely upset about what happened today.

I cannot imagine being in Zelensky's position, having the future of his country depend on how skilled he can be at placating a bunch of mean children who are needling him with ridiculous lies in front of the entire planet and then yelling at him when he pushes back. And probably beating himself up (as the press will surely do) about how, in hindsight, he should have done a better job. Not that Trump should have done something different: That he should have.

Fuck 'em. Sure, in a theoretical sense, it's true. But it's not even the point. The bullying nature of the whole setup, to make it "his fault" when everything blows up because of Trump and Vance's cruel posturing, is the point.

I just sent Ukraine's defense ministry some money: https://u24.gov.ua/ and click on "donate now" in the top right corner.

Fuck 'em up, guys. These assholes do not represent us.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 13 hours ago (4 children)

One small plus is at least this behaviour is being displayed to the world, so people can see exactly what Trumps like to deal with.

[–] WHARRGARBL 22 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

You know that entire spectacle was staged.

They put President Zelensky in a position to be unable to refuse this ambush. They planned to gang up on, bully, and humiliate him on camera, and then go viral with “kicking him out of the White House”. His maggots love this shit show.

[–] grue 16 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (1 children)

They were hoping to provoke him into losing his temper in way they could point to as being him refusing peace. Trump wants to create a narrative to spin his allying with Russia as something other than a blatant unilateral betrayal, and Zelenskyy denied him that.

(Don't get me wrong: Trump will claim it anyway, but with even less credibility than he would have had if his bullying had been successful.)

[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Trump has been doing it to everyone else, just lie to the press about basic facts. Both Macron and Starmer managed to politely correct him without triggering Trump. Zelensky was trying to do the same, but Vance couldn't shut his mouth and decided to try and show to Trump he was a good boy. And once it got to that stage, Zelensky couldn't really back down.

At least he's awakened something in Europe now where everyone's basically said they've got his back. He could probably get a better deal from Europe, because from what I've read the current deal has been described as worse than the Versailles treaty, which is probably not something you want to impose on a country that already has a bunch of armed Nazis running around in it.

[–] grue 10 points 8 hours ago

Both Macron and Starmer managed to politely correct him without triggering Trump. Zelensky was trying to do the same, but Vance couldn’t shut his mouth and decided to try and show to Trump he was a good boy.

Well, yeah: why else did you think they added Vance? Trump is getting too old and tired for his bullying to be effective enough on its own, so they sent in his minion to make sure the job got done.

You say "Vance couldn't shut his mouth" as if you think this was some kind of mistake or gaffe on his part, but no. Vance did exactly what he meant to do, on purpose. Or at least tried his damnedest, even if he wasn't completely successful in getting Zelenskyy to take the bait.

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