How to spoil a good lunch

And it was all going so well...

Volodymyr Zelensky's much-anticipated visit to the White House on Friday got off to a promising, if understandably tense, start but rapidly turned into a car crash following an intervention from the Vice-President, JD Vance. Whether this was a spontaneous eruption of frustration on Vance's part or a show of synthetic anger gamed in advance by him and Trump to blindside Zelensky is impossible to know. But, as the situation deteriorated into a major diplomatic fiasco, leaving the Ukrainian ambassadress head in hands in shocked disbelief, one had the distinct impression that Zelensky had walked into a trap.

It was a most unedifying spectacle but threw into sharp focus the characters of the three men. Zelensky, nervous and ashen-faced, looking shaken by the sudden ugly turn of events; Vance, Trump's attack dog, going for the jugular and Trump delivering the coup de grace. It was clearly a case of bullying by two powerful men of a beleaguered supplicant but par for the course for Trump and Vance, whom Alistair Campbell, Tony Blair's former adviser, called "thugs", singling out Vance as "vile". I don't warm to Campbell but on this it was hard to disagree with him.

Up to the point of Vance's intervention the meeting had pretty much followed the stiltedly polite course of similar meetings last week with Emmanuel Macron and Keir Starmer. Had Trump ended it at that point and adjourned for lunch the slanging match, if it was destined to happen at all, could have been conducted in private. As it was, the damage was done before the world's press and media and one can only image the glee in the Kremlin as Vladimir Putin settled down to watch the exchange on TV. Maybe that was the point.

Zelensky and his delegation left the White House hurriedly without lunch, apparently ordered out by Trump himself. As a former comedian Zelensky might have quipped that he had been thrown out of better places than this. But this was no time for jokes, his humiliating expulsion was existential for his country and it is hard to see how the damage can be repaired. US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, has called on Zelensky to apologise and there have even been suggestions that he should resign. It seems unlikely either of those unpalatable options would leave Ukraine in a better position.

His best bet now is to rely on Europe's support. His shabby treatment in Washington has at least had the effect of galvanising support for him amongst European leaders, including Starmer, his host at the hastily-convened London summit this weekend. Both Starmer and Macron, having successfully ingratiated themselves with their capricious host, now find themselves in the awkward position of having to side with the persona non grata against the White House bully. It won't be easy and certainly not cheap, not that Trump cares one way or the other - the ball is now firmly in Europe's court. And talking of courts, one almost feels sorry for King Charles having to have Trump under his roof again.

At least Trump will be assured of a good dinner from a gracious host.

Popular posts from this blog

A knight's tale - creative non-fiction

England - 1088 'What's a king without a kingdom?' 'A man, sire. And a man fights for what's his.' The king had been thinking aloud and the thirteen year-old lad's unexpected reply to his rhetorical question caught him off-guard. It was a bold response but, rather than being angered, he felt chastened by it. It was profound coming from one so young and junior in his service though prompted, he knew, by genuine love and loyalty rather than impertinence.  At a moment of grave peril so early in his new reign he valued candour, a commodity in short supply at court. He had followed his father, the Conqueror, as King William II less than a year earlier and now faced widespread rebellion. At such a time he could ill afford self-pity, much less self-doubt. He blamed himself for allowing a brief moment of self-indulgence in front of his page.  Since receiving the devastating news at Eastertide of his brother Robert's challenge the lad had been his closest companio...
Read more

Looking to Africa - long read

As I sit here on an island just off the coast of North-West Africa I can't help pondering the future of that vast and seemingly unknowable continent, so near and yet so far. I'm writing this in Tenerife, one of the eight Canary Islands forming an archipelago off the coast of Morocco and Western Sahara - tantilisingly close and yet a world away from the 'mainland' of continental Africa. As an Autonomous Community of Spain, the Canaries form an outpost of the European Union (EU). Yet, despite their proximity to Africa, their outlook, politically, culturally and economically, is resolutely European. Africa may as well be Mars, though only a narrow gulf of the Atlantic Ocean separates these offshore islands from their continent. I say resolutely European but that resolve may, little by little, be weakening. There is a growing sentiment, especially, though not exclusively, amongst young Canarians, that they have been sold a pup. True, the economy is superficially buoyant, du...
Read more

On old age

"The fact is that when I come to think it over, I find that there are four reasons for old age being thought unhappy: First, that it withdraws us from active employments; second, that it enfeebles the body; third, that it deprives us of nearly all physical pleasures; fourth, that it is the next step to death."  Writing his essay,  De Senectute (On Old Age), in 44 BCE, Marcus Tullius Cicero went on to refute these four supposed reasons in characteristically robust and forthright manner. Cicero wasn't one to sit about moping in his own old age; he remained actively engaged in the political life of the Republic whose survival, in the face of tyranny, he championed so fiercely.  Cicero was nine years younger than I am now when he met his untimely end yet he considered himself already an old man; or, rather, his society judged him to be so. His second point about age enfeebling is more germane. Physical decline had not yet impacted him but, six years on from my retirement, I ...
Read more