(Dobbs) Can We Expect Deja Vu All Over Again, Again?
“Now it is really up to President Zelensky to get it done.” Huh? Wasn’t it supposed to be up to Trump?
It is deja vu all over again.
Before his summit with Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump endorses an immediate ceasefire— in accord with European allies, in accord with Ukraine— as a non-negotiable first step before he and Putin can discuss a peace agreement. Putin, knowing that an immediate ceasefire would require his advancing army to stop pummeling Ukraine, says no. Trump all but promises that if Putin doesn’t go along, he will walk.
Then Donald Trump meets face-to-face with Vladimir Putin.
After he comes out, he posts on Truth Social: “It was determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere Ceasefire Agreement, which often times do not hold up.”
How about that. “Determined by all.” Trump spoke afterwards with allies, but in Alaska, the only “all” in the room were Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.
Once again, Trump waffles. Once again, Trump becomes the submissive sycophant and bends a knee to the Russian tyrant. Once again, Trump embarrasses America. Once again, Trump takes Putin’s side.
After the short-lived summit, the president talked on Fox with Sean Hannity. His assessment? “I think the meeting was a 10.” No, Mr. President, it was nothing of the sort. You went to get a ceasefire, you left empty-handed, so you took a new position pretending you got what you went for. You betrayed our allies, you betrayed Ukraine. You told Hannity, “Now it is really up to President Zelensky to get it done.” Huh? Wasn’t it supposed to be up to Trump?
Now Zelensky’s heading for Washington for a Monday meeting in the Oval Office. At the last one in February, President Trump and Vice President Vance berated and belittled Ukraine’s president when he spoke up for his embattled nation and literally kicked him out of the White House. Can we expect deja vu all over again, again?
In the lead-up to the summit, when allies expressed their fears about how it would end up, they were fears about Vladimir Putin because as history is our guide, even if he agreed to something, he could not be trusted to keep his word.
They should have been talking about Donald Trump.
Over more than five decades Greg Dobbs has been a correspondent for two television networks including ABC News, a political columnist for The Denver Post and syndicated columnist for Scripps newspapers, a moderator on Rocky Mountain PBS, and author of two books, including one about the life of a foreign correspondent called “Life in the Wrong Lane.” He also co-authored a book about the seminal year for baby boomers, called “1969: Are You Still Listening?” He has covered presidencies, politics, and the U.S. space program at home, and wars, natural disasters, and other crises around the globe, from Afghanistan to South Africa, from Iran to Egypt, from the Soviet Union to Saudi Arabia, from Nicaragua to Namibia, from Vietnam to Venezuela, from Libya to Liberia, from Panama to Poland. Dobbs has won three Emmys, the Distinguished Service Award from the Society of Professional Journalists, and as a 39-year resident of Colorado, a place in the Denver Press Club Hall of Fame.
You can learn more at GregDobbs.net