The Logic of Self-Obliteration
Donald Trump continues to insist that the stumbling block to a peace deal in Ukraine is President Zelensky. (Why do I refer to Trump as “Donald” while at the same time referring to the leader of Ukraine as “President Zelensky”? Because I am a Platonist who believes that truth consists primarily in proper definitions. Zelensky is the president of Ukraine. Trump has ceased to be a president of anything in any sense that I regard as valid or meaningful.) Specifically, he has just reiterated his refrain of several weeks, but with the greatest possible clarification of intent, to wit:
“I think Russia is ready and a lot of people said Russia wanted to go for the whole thing. And I think we have a deal with Russia. We have to get a deal with Zelenskyy,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
“I thought it might be easier to deal with Zelenskyy. So far, it’s been harder…But, I think we have a deal with both. I hope they do it, because I’m looking to save and, you know, we spent a lot of money, but this is about a lot of humanity,” Trump said.
In other words, Vladimir Putin has agreed in principle to negotiate for peace by “accepting” Trump’s offer to permanently hand over to him most of the Ukrainian territory that the Russian army has successfully invaded and occupied so far, whereas Volodymyr Zelensky is rejecting peace by stubbornly insisting that ceding territory currently occupied by illegal invasion does not constitute a reasonable or justifiable end to a war in which the Ukrainian people have suffered so much for the sake of saving their country from a butcher. To state it as bluntly as possible, Trump is now explicitly acting as Putin’s agent, blatantly trying to snatch Russian victory from the jaws of defeat on Putin’s behalf, while aggressively shifting the blame for all subsequent fighting and loss of life onto the victimized country trying to defend its sovereignty.
Ockham’s razor is not required to understand what is happening here. The barest minimum of common sense is more than enough. Donald Trump, directly and by means of his “administration” (bootlickers and flatterers), is serving as advocate, apologist, and now active ally and agent, of Putin’s military dictatorship and his expansionist aims. Nothing is more self-evident and undeniable. And this means, by the laws of both cult devotion and profiteering sycophancy, that Trump’s rank and file supporters in the general public and the “conservative media” no longer have any choice but to shed all remaining pretenses of merely wanting peace or merely disliking foreign entanglements, and to begin speaking more directly of their admiration for and sympathy with Putin’s dictatorship, and of their distrust and hatred for the warmongering Ukrainians and their illegitimate leader. This shift will happen, or is already happening as we speak, because the logic of idol worship and profiteering demand it. For the only alternative would be for those Trump supporters to admit that their dear leader has knowingly turned America’s foreign policy over to a tyrant who has spent incalculable resources, over a twenty-five-year period, seeking to ensure that America, shall we say, is never made great again.
There is too much shame for these millions in admitting the truth at this point, so they will not admit it. They will join the Trump administration as willing Putin assets in the destruction of American power, principles, influence, and national self-determination. They will do this to save face, after having invested their whole souls and their personal identities and reputations in Donald Trump for nine years. They have amply shown that they lack the backbone and the independence to do the right thing. They will therefore do the wrong thing.
