OPINION: Our Scary New World

Far too much has happened since Jan. 20, when Donald Trump was inaugurated as US president. Many of us regretted that President Joe Biden did not do more to support Ukraine, but we always knew that he was on the right side.

Trump, on the contrary, is usually on the wrong side. He stands for the billionaires in America, against liberal democracies, such as Ukraine, and against poor Americans. People skeptical of the US used to talk about the “ugly Americans,” but now as Anne Applebaum so pointedly stated, Trump and Vance represent the “brutal Americans.”

Trump does not represent any good Western values, such as freedom, democracy, rule of law, and equality. On the contrary, he reflects what the Catholic Church so appropriately named the seven deadly sins – pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony, and sloth.

Trump stands for everything that is bad, both domestically and internationally. In modern terms we would say narcissism, imperialism and bullying. Unfortunately, he was elected US president.

This is who Trump is, and the US president has far too much power. We should not expect anything better than Trump from the US. There are no longer any “grown-ups” who can stop his misdeeds.

Trump’s main business idea was to sell condos at high prices to people who were anonymous or dubious, without asking any questions about the source of their wealth or their morality. Many of them were Russians or former Soviet citizens.

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A large share of Trump’s wealth comes from Russia, as the excellent investigative journalist Craig Unger has detailed in two books. It is unclear whether Trump was recruited in 1987, or whether he was bought by Russian oligarch money, or whether he simply likes Putin’s kleptocracy. What is obvious is that he prefers autocratic Russia over democratic Ukraine. Trump has never said anything bad about Russia or Putin. What could be more lovely than an autocratic kleptocracy?

In his second term, Trump has shown with amazing speed how evil he really is. He cut off military, financial, and intelligence support to awfully democratic Ukraine to make it possible for his favorite autocrat and kleptocrat Vladimir Putin to gain ground against Ukraine on the battlefield.

He trapped poor President Volodymyr Zelensky in an ambush in the White House. When Zelensky could no longer stand not correcting Trump’s persistent pro-Russian lies, Trump’s even more evil Vice President JD Vance, who has never been to Ukraine and knows nothing about it, attacked Zelensky on no grounds whatsoever.

Trump and Vance are neither friends nor allies of democratic Ukraine. They are open enemies We should stop discussing how to persuade them and focus on how to fight them.

Trump is amazingly blatant about his support of Russia and Putin. Most stunningly, the US voted with Russia, Belarus and North Korea, against almost all democratic or semi-democratic countries in the world at the UN General Assembly when they stipulated that Russia was the aggressor in Ukraine.

Trump has pursued the same line in the G7 and his people are preparing the end of energy sanctions against Russia. The US under Trump is simply an enemy of democracy, freedom, NATO, the West, and Ukraine. We must have no illusions.

Moreover, Trump has consolidated his power very fast, and he is proceeding. The US Democrats think that they can wait him out, which is probably the most stupid policy on offer. What Ukrainians must realize is that the US is out.

Instead, Ukraine needs to turn to Europe, as is now happening. For a long period, Europe has suffered from a lack of purpose and weak leaders, such as Angela Merkel or even worse, but Europe is finally waking up, with the singular exception of Viktor Orban’s Hungary, which has become the most corrupt country in the EU under his dismal leadership.

Europe is already giving far more financial support to Ukraine than the US. Canada, Japan, South Korea and others also contribute. Europe can easily provide Ukraine with the financing needed and it is about to do so.

But Europe also needs to provide Ukraine with the relevant arms. On the whole, that is possible, but there are important shortfalls. The US is no longer reliable – all of a sudden it might stop the functioning of its arms, but Türkiye and South Korea are eminent arms producers that must be brought in.

Finally, Ukraine itself is an outstanding arms producer and Europe needs to finance its arms production. Here, Denmark has taken the lead, and it is being followed closely by Norway and Sweden. They are all recognizing that Ukraine is highly innovative and produces arms more cheaply than any Western country.

The views expressed in this opinion article are the author’s and not necessarily those of Kyiv Post.