Chris Hayes spins this like Trump’s throwing Ukraine under the bus for Putin, but he’s missing the point Trump literally said: “He’s got to say I want to make peace, I don’t want to fight a war any longer.” It’s not about bowing to Russia—it’s about ditching the endless war game. Hayes calls it an “appalling spectacle,” but what’s really laughable is him freaking out over a mineral deal while ignoring America’s sick of playing global ATM. Trump’s not ambushing Ukraine—he’s stepping away from an international order where puppet masters like the war-hungry establishment, from D.C. hawks to defense contractors and NATO cheerleaders, pull the strings, alongside shadowy unknowns whose names we don’t even know, all to keep the wars going.
Chris Hayes: JD Vance accused Zelensky of being disrespectful, you heard the whole exchange. Who do you think was being disrespectful. I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say we as a country have never quite seen anything like this particularly appalling spectacle before. Once the meeting concluded, President Zelensky was kicked out of the White House without even signing the rare earth mineral deal—that’s the deal that Trump wanted him to sign, he’s been trying to bully him into signing to give away resources. It’s the deal Trump kept calling a raw earth deal. Trump wanted him to strong-arm him into joining on the deal and signing the deal at the White House today. That was the cost of US support: give us your minerals, we take, and then maybe we’ll see what we can do for you. A planned joint press conference between him and President Trump was abruptly canceled. In later remarks to reporters today, Trump let slip the real reason he kicked Zelensky out today.
President Trump: He doesn’t have to stand there and say about Putin this, Putin that. All negative things. He’s got to say I want to make peace, I don’t want to fight a war any longer.
Chris Hayes: He got upset because he was saying negative things about Donald Trump’s buddy, mentor, something else, Vladimir Putin. That’s what happened, or alternately, another way today looks to me on its face is that it was a planned ambush to effectively jettison Ukraine and complete the switching of sides of the US in line with, again, Donald Trump and JD Vance’s Russia-first views—they like Russia, they want the US to be more like Russia, they like Vladimir Putin, they don’t like democratic countries. Predictably, Donald Trump’s Republican toadies practically…