It’s been nearly eight years since Donald Trump’s summit with Russia’s Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, which was one of the ugliest low points of the president’s first term. After a private meeting with the autocratic leader, in which the American president took an interpreter’s notes for reasons that were never explained, the Republican held a disastrous press conference in which Trump defended an American adversary, took cheap shots at his own country, and sided with Putin over the judgment of American intelligence professionals.
Soon after, The New York Times reported that U.S. intelligence officials “were unanimous in saying that they and their colleagues were aghast at how Mr. Trump had handled himself with Mr. Putin.” One official summarized a consensus view, concluding that it was clear whose side Trump was on and “it isn’t ours.”
As regular readers might recall, in the aftermath of the event, Axios spoke with one of Trump’s own former National Security Council officials who described the situation as “a total [effing] disgrace,” adding: “The president has lost his mind.” Sen. John McCain, a month before his death, called it “one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory.” The Arizona Republican added, “The damage inflicted by President Trump’s naiveté, egotism, false equivalence, and sympathy for autocrats is difficult to calculate.”
In the days that followed, the Trump White House tried to quickly move on, hoping the world would stop talking about the fiasco. Nearly eight years later, the same Republican president was responsible for a related debacle — Friday’s Oval Office shouting match with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — but this time, the White House is leaning into it.
In fact, by all appearances, Team Trump is proud of the disgraceful event, even bragging about it and hoping to build on its foundation.
With this in mind, Fox News reported that the White House expects the Ukrainian leader to go “in front of cameras” in order to make “an explicit public apology for the way he behaved.”
It’s not altogether clear exactly what Zelenskyy did that was so offensive — it apparently has something to do with his “body language” and fashion choices — but the bottom line remains the same: The White House doesn’t just expect the Ukrainian president to go along with administration’s agenda, it expects Zelenskyy to grovel.
While the Fox News report hasn’t been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, we need not rely on not-for-attribution comments from the West Wing. On the contrary, White House national security adviser Mike Waltz made multiple on-air appearances, insisting that Team Trump expects Zelenskyy to express “regret,” adding that this is what “we need to hear.”
As for the vice president who helped instigate Friday’s fracas, NBC News reported on JD Vance’s expectations for the road ahead.
Vice President JD Vance said tonight that Zelenskyy can return to the White House when he has a “serious proposal” for peace between his country and Russia. “There are details that really matter, that we’re already working on with the Russians. We’ve already talked to some of our allies. He needs to engage seriously on the details. I think once that happens then, absolutely, we want to talk,” Vance said in a taped interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity.
The closer one looks at the comments, the worse they appear. To hear the Ohio Republican tell it, the White House has worked with Russia on details surrounding Ukraine’s future. He now wants Zelenskyy to come up with some kind of proposal, too.
In effect, Vance’s line is “Tell us what you’re prepared to give Russia, in response to Russia invading your country, and we’ll tell you whether or not we deem it ‘serious.’” This need not be complicated: Russia could end the war at literally any time. Putin started the conflict when he sent his military into a neighboring country without provocation, and Putin could reverse course at will, restoring peace. If Vance is looking for a “serious proposal,” there it is. Russia can withdraw from Ukraine, at which point the violence would end. That outcome, evidently, is not in line with the White House’s expectations. Rather, Trump, Vance and their team have a different vision in which Ukraine’s president begs for forgiveness on camera, abandons its NATO ambitions, turns over access to his country’s rare-earth resources to the United States, and rewards Russia with territory. No wonder Trump, Vance and Zelenskyy struggled to get along.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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