In a move of unbelievable callousness and boorishness, Donald Trump is looking to recoup money the USA - in an earlier, kinder incarnation under Joe Biden - has freely given to Ukraine over the last three years for its existential fight against an expansionist Russia. There was never any talk of repayment, but now Trump wants to change that, mainly because he is mean, greedy and amoral.
Desperate, and with its hands tied, Ukraine sees itself as having no alternative but to accede to Trump's demands of half of Ukraine's rare earth minerals, and the establishment of a joint investment fund for Ukraine's eventual reconstruction. This is a slight improvement over Trump's initial demand of $500 billion in mineral wealth from the already cash-strapped country. Ukraine sees this deal as the only way to keep the USA on-side, although it does not as yet include any firm security guarantees or even guarantees of future aid. The assumption is that the US will want to protect its investments.
Trump claims that the US has already donated between $300 billion and $350 billion to Ukraine since the Russian invasion. The actual figure is probably somewhere between $119 billion and $182 billion, depending on different estimates. A lot of money, to be sure, but certainly not $350 billion (or $500 billion). By some estimates, Europe has actually given Ukraine even more than the US, and these were certainly not loans, as Trump tried to claim recently, quickly corrected by Emmanuel Macron.
And neither were the US's aid donations loans. Trump can't (or shouldn't be able to) turn round now and demand the money back. If this is the "art of the deal", then the civilized West should want no part of it. The guy is a global embarrassment.
UPDATE
The video of President Zelenskyy "negotiating" with Donald Trump and JD Vance, in the Oval Office of the White House, must be seen to be believed. This is Trump and Vance's idea of diplomacy - like a couple of schoolyard bullies who throw their weight around, repeat things over and over again, and don't allow their victim to get a word in edgewise.
It was a deliberate public humiliation, the two working together like a tag team to bait, browbeat and berate Zelenskyy. The fact that the whole thing was televised, while unprecedented, was surely no accident. The unabashedly anti-Ukraine Vance was usually the instigator, but as soon as Trump felt himself being contradicted, he was off, no holds barred. So this, captured on prime-time TV, was Donald Trump's much-vaunted "art of the deal", which seems to involve being in an unassailable position in the first place, and then threatening and shouting down your opponent!
Time after time, both Americans kept insisting that Zelenskyy was not thankful enough, that he was disrespectful. Indeed, respect - obeisance, you might say - seemed to be the thing both men were most interested in. Zelenskyy, on the other hand, was concerned with the continued existence of his country, and the number of lives his countrymen will continue to lose. Reasonably enough, he does not want to sign away his country's mineral wealth to a rapacious USA and get nothing in return. The contrast between the two points of view was palpable, even if Trump and Vance were oblivious to it. Zelenskyy's anger and frustration were totally understandable.
Zelenskyy actually has no reason to be thankful to the Republican Party, which did its level best to block President Biden's generous support of Ukraine over the last three years, and is now seeking to distance itself as far as possible from American involvement. And, as Zelenskyy repeatedly tried to interject into the barrage of abuse against him, he has thanked America many times.
Zelenskyy, unlike most of Trump's recent sycophantic, pusillanimous visitors (looking at you, Keir Starmer), was willing to fight back against the bullies, albeit in what is probably his third language. Suffice to say, he left without signing away Ukraine's mineral wealth, for which Ukraine should probably be thankful.
Trump and Vance, for all their repeated insistence on respect from Zelenskyy, lost any respect anyone might have had for them. Most of the world reiterated their support for Ukraine after the debacle, although usually with very muted criticism of Trump (everyone is scared stiff to cross him). Only American Republicans supported and praised their Glorious Leader's "performance", increasingly isolated on the world stage. Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin contented himself with silently rubbing his hands with glee.
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