A Day of Infamy–February 28, 2025

On August 24, 1939, Stalin’s Soviet Union and Hitler’s Germany signed a secret pact that became known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact after its existence came to light after World War II. The agreement divided eastern Europe into two spheres of influence, and both Germany and the USSR pledged not to invade the other’s domain—an agreement that held until Germany invaded two years later. The consequences were immense. The Soviets got a free hand in the Baltics, Finland, and other areas. With the assurance that Moscow would not do anything, Germany invaded Poland a week after the signing of the pact, precipitating World War II.

It now seems fair to speculate that we are seeing the results of another secret agreement, which we may legitimately call the Trump-Putin Pact. We know that there have been a number of recent phone conversations between the two, the substance of which remains unknown. But the outlines of the deal with Putin are starting to emerge. The eagerness of Trump to not only accept but advocate well-known Russian positions on the Ukraine conflict and even to deny Russian aggression in the 2022 invasion amounts to nothing less than a stunning reversal of what had been (prior to January 20) steadfast support by the US to Ukraine. Essentially, the US has switched sides and is now supporting Russia, leaving our European allies in turmoil and NATO in shambles.

Today’s disastrous “press conference” in the White House with Ukrainian President Zelinsky, was clearly the “reveal” of the repudiation of America’s alliances and its new alignment with Moscow. It was both an ambush and a public lynching, with J. D. Vance acting as Trump’s attack dog to humiliate Zelensky and set him up for Trump to eviscerate him before the press for “having no cards to play” and “showing no respect” before unceremoniously ejecting him from the White House. This occurred even after Zelensky showed readiness to accept some kind of deal for US access to Ukrainian mineral resources after initially rejecting Trump’s thuggish take-it-or-leave-it demands. What happens now is anyone’s guess, but the outcome is being openly celebrated in Moscow.

What Russia gets out of the pact is fairly obvious. It would get to keep the parts of Ukraine it already occupies, without any security guarantees for Kiev, which leaves open the very real possibility of further Russian incursions and the virtual certainty of Russian subversion and covert attacks on Ukrainian democracy. Without membership in the EU, let alone in what is left of NATO, Ukraine would be left as a geopolitical orphan, vulnerable to Russian expansionism. Putin will have achieved his premier goal—the effective neutralization of NATO and the expectation that if it tries to re-absorb the Baltic countries, the US would acquiesce. American leadership and credibility everywhere will be destroyed. The humiliation of America will be complete.

What’s still not clear is what Trump gets out of the deal. It’s clear that he has always wanted to emulate Putin, aspiring to be the capo de tutti capi who is the supreme arbiter doling out favors to America’s oligarchs while he plunders the government for his own enrichment.  He is become a destroyer of worlds, a sociopath annihilating anyone who has ever crossed him and making them all his toadies. But there has to be something more than this in it for him. Whatever it is, there can be no further doubt that America is being led by a man who is a Russian asset and continues to be slavishly supported by a Republican party that is willing to go along with it.

This is a day of everlasting shame for this country!