Capitulator-In-Chief: Trump Sells Ukraine Down the River

Jeff Robbins on Feb 18, 2025

For anyone planning a book entitled "Totalitarianism for Dummies," last Saturday was a good day. "He who saves his country does not violate any Law," proclaimed President Donald Trump, convicted of violating 34 of them. It is, of course, a fascist's credo, one that Trump believes, apparently correctly, he can embrace without consequence: I am all powerful, I can do what I want and, by definition, if I do it, it is legal.

No totalitarian has said it more plainly, and it isn't the first time Trump has said it. "I have an Article II (of the Constitution) where I have the right to do whatever I want as president," Trump stated utterly falsely in 2019. And, let's face it, a Supreme Court controlled by Trump appointees has ruled that, practically speaking, he can commit whatever crime he wants as president and be immune from prosecution even after he leaves office, regardless of how nefarious his motive or criminal his intent.

Warned that by reinstalling Trump we were crashing American democracy, many tut-tutted that this was exaggeration.

It wasn't.

Just for good measure, in a mere month in office, Trump has made it clear that he isn't only Dictator-in-Chief but Capitulator-in-Chief, a historic amalgamation of Benito Mussolini and Neville Chamberlain. Trump's bowing and scraping before Russian President Vladimir Putin has been so notable for so long as to give even cautious observers reason to wonder which team Trump is playing for. The incessant recitation of Putin's talking points, the whitewashing of Putin's conclusively demonstrated interference with American elections and Trump's withholding of congressionally mandated arms for Ukraine when Ukraine desperately needed them to defend itself against Russia are just part of a large body of evidence that Trump is in Putin's pocket.

It didn't help when Trump appointed Tulsi Gabbard as our director of National Intelligence, entrusting her with our most sensitive secrets. Gabbard is synced with both Trump and Putin on who was to blame for Putin's invasion of Ukraine -- America, of course. "This war and suffering could have easily been avoided if Biden Admin/NATO had simply acknowledged Russia's legitimate security concerns," she posted after Putin's unprovoked invasion of a fledgling democracy.

When it comes to Ukraine, the self-professed master of the deal is showcasing the art of American surrender. Trump sent Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to Brussels to kneecap Ukraine's ability to negotiate with Putin, handing Putin two massive concessions before negotiations had begun. Trump went behind Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's back to assure Putin that he would not have to return the Ukrainian territory Putin had forcibly seized since 2014 and that Ukraine would not be accepted into NATO. Republican Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, was properly disdainful. "I don't know who wrote (Hegseth's) speech," said Wicker. "It is the kind of thing Tucker Carlson could have written, and Carlson is a fool."

At the Munich Security Conference, J.D. Vance pointedly offered Ukraine zero support. This was unsurprising; the man Trump selected to be vice president has made no secret that he would abandon Ukraine without a thought. "I don't really care what happens to Ukraine one way or the other, " Vance said after Russia's 2022 invasion.

Beginning in the 1940s, the Kremlin's objective has been to dominate Eastern and Central European nations, forcing them to kowtow to Moscow while Moscow subjected Western Europe to perpetual threat. Beginning with President Harry Truman, our objective has been to keep Europe free of Russian control and threat, forming NATO to constrain the Kremlin's ambitions.

Now, under the comic banner of Making America Great, Trump is making good on his oft-repeated pledge to do Putin's bidding by selling Ukraine down the river, providing critical aid and comfort to Putin's campaign to swallow a democracy. In the process, Trump has not merely humiliated Americans and disgusted our allies but jettisoned the brave Ukrainians who, while Trump golfed at Mar-a-Lago, suffered and died over the last three years attempting to remain free.

Boasting about projecting American strength, Trump has reduced us to weakness. Professing to be about "restoring" our reputation, Trump has taken a wrecking ball to it. If this is making America great, you'd hate to imagine what tanking the country looks like.

Jeff Robbins' latest book, "Notes From the Brink: A Collection of Columns about Policy at Home and Abroad," is available now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books and Google Play. Robbins, a former assistant United States attorney and United States delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, was chief counsel for the minority of the United States Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. An attorney specializing in the First Amendment, he is a longtime columnist for the Boston Herald, writing on politics, national security, human rights and the Mideast.