Trump and Ze’s 'Oval Office Blowup' was a Good Thing, Actually — opinion
On Feb. 28, 2025, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy flew to Washington, DC to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump. Expectations for the meeting were high – rumors swirled around the signing of a so-called “mineral deal” and, though details were scarce, much of the commentariat expected progress on a “ceasefire” to go forward.
This was not to be the case. Instead, in a tense two-hour meeting, Zelenskyy was forced to listen as Trump and his minion U.S. Vice President JD Vance berated him and Ukraine for “starting” the war. When the Ukrainian leader attempted to defend his country, Vance and Trump verbally assaulted Zelenskyy accusing him of acting disrespectfully in the White House. This cut short the meeting, without the signing of the much-touted “mineral deal”. No stranger to reality TV meltdowns, former Apprentice host Trump quipped that the argument would “make for great television.”
Perhaps for the first and only time in his life, Donald Trump was right. It was great television. It was great television because it succeeded in achieving the main diplomatic goal of the Zelenskyy government: it forced Europe to make a choice.
Since the start of the full-scale invasion, Europe has been strong on rhetoric but not quite as mighty in deeds. European financial and military aid has been a crucial lifeline for Ukraine, but that aid has often been hampered by political delay, EU infighting, and a general conservative reticence to act – a consequence of the syncretic, confederal system of government the EU has had since its inception. Nations within the EU itself have tried to rebuke Ukraine’s pleas for aid – either out of pure economic selfishness or out of actual ideological agreement with Ukraine’s enemy.
That Friday, European leaders saw Donald Trump unequivocally tear down a key European partner in favor of the Kremlin. Zelenskyy showed Europe, and the world, the unmistakable nature of the creature now occupying the White House. Zelenskyy forced Trump and Vance to draw a line. On one side – liberal and democratic nations who, albeit imperfectly, believe that a government should serve and be accountable to its citizens. On the other – an authoritarian alliance of dictators and fascists whose overriding ideology seems to be self-enrichment at any cost, especially when that cost is paid by the law-abiding, hardworking taxpayers of their nations.
Russia. Iran. China. India. North Korea. Azerbaijan. Israel. And the United States. These countries, among others, are the new Axis: a collection of states led by men who care exclusively about using power to hurt the weak.
Zelenskyy made the choice stark and clear: either Europe chooses to be free…or it chooses to be a vassal state of this new Axis.
Europe chose. There is no mask anymore, no way to hide behind illusions of a “rules-based international order” and democratic debate. In the days after the Oval Office meeting, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the EU Commission, wrote to Zelenskyy on Twitter and urged him to, “be strong, be brave, be fearless.” Kaja Kallas, formerly the president of Estonia and now the EU’s top diplomat, wrote, “Today, it became clear that the free world needs a new leader. It’s up to us, Europeans, to take this challenge.”
What happens next? Europe will likely begin to seriously grapple with the question of militarization. This will require a series of reckonings: not only a necessary expansion of European federal powers, but also sanctioning or otherwise “making safe” the hostile leaders that exist within the EU – primarily Hungary’s Viktor Orban (though he is not the only openly pro-Russian political leader).
Yet, Europe will arm itself. This future has been crystallized. Further delay, or even more unneeded, useless, and time-wasting debate will only serve to strengthen an Axis dead-set on renormalizing the idea of seizing territory through war – an idea so toxic that the entire post-World War 2 international infrastructure was set up to avoid it coming to pass.
As for the United States, an entity now entirely focused on the destruction of liberal democracy? From the European perspective, the U.S. will soon be involved in many needless and evil “special military operations” itself, judging by the current posture the American military has adopted on its Mexican border. Trump will likely face massive, sustained protests in response to his administration’s illegal and unconstitutional destruction of the federal government, not to mention U.S. pension and healthcare systems. That is to say, America will have its own problems.
And let America solve them. U.S. soldiers are already preparing to withdraw from a great deal of American bases and security commitments in Europe. The United States has chosen to withdraw itself from the world stage. Their power, both hard and soft, is currently being slashed by the very government that would benefit from it most, all due to a discredited and immoral ideology that the world has already beaten back once.
That is not to say that this loss of support comes without cost. Patriot batteries have proven to be the most effective anti-ballistic missile systems in existence. Being unable to obtain or even purchase new missiles will lead to greater civilian suffering. Year Four of Russia’s full-scale invasion will likely be bloodier and deadlier than previous years. This cost will be borne by Ukrainians, because we have no other choice.
But this is not an inevitable future. For three long years, Ukraine has been begging its partner nations to close Ukraine’s skies, to use their own air forces to enforce a no-fly zone. In large part, Ukraine has achieved this itself, though Russian aviation continues to dart in and out of Ukrainian territory. Many of Ukraine’s newly received fighter jets have not been used offensively in the sort of combined air-ground maneuvers so beloved by NATO strategists, but rather defensively as additional components to Ukraine’s AA strategy. It goes without saying that having European jets take over this role will free the Ukrainian air force to take a much more assertive role in this war.
There are other steps Europe can take now to realize this new and fierce support of Ukraine. And it will. Not because of wishful thinking but because Zelenskyy chose to travel to a hostile country and force the world to confront the “new normal” – a United States uninterested in a just, peaceful world.
The only question is: how long will it take?
For Ukraine’s sake, Europe needs to shape up. Sooner rather than later.
It’s that or allow Donald Trump’s fascism to take hold as the premier ideology of the twenty-first century.
I don’t want to live in that world. Do you?
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