Next They’ll be Cheering ‘For He’s a Jolly Good Fella” on Hitler’s Birthday

President Trump’s team Inside the Beltway is confused about which side United States of America is supposed to support. Or perhaps the officials never considered favoring Ukraine and President Zelenskyy on any occasion over Evil Empire called Russia and its dictator Vladimir Putin.

It defies America’s 250-year commitment to democracy and human rights. It defies the principles set down by Thomas Jefferson, Bejamin Franklin, John Adams, George Washington and the other Founding Fathers.

Recognizing a country like Russia that is led by Putin, a perpetrator of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, is a mockery of American values! The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for  Putin, and his comrade-in-crimes Maria Lvova-Belova, Russian commissioner for children’s rights, for the war crime of unlawful deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children during the Russo-Ukraine War. The warrant against Putin is the first against the leader of a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.

The United States oddly began recognizing Russia Day on June 12, 1992. This date commemorates the adoption of the Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) on June 12, 1990, a misnomer if there ever was one. The RSFSR later became the Russian Federation, which substantiates the explanation of some that a country called “Russia” doesn’t exist in any directory. You can’t point to borders of Russia like you can to Ukraine and the United States.

According to one flawed explanation, Russia Day commemorates the adoption of the Declaration of State Sovereignty of the RSFSR in 1990 – sovereignty from what, itself? – and the subsequent first free and fair elections in 1991 – yes, at the point of a bayonet. Official sources falsely claim that these events marked significant steps towards the establishment of the modern Russian Federation and the principles of independence, freedom, and the rule of law—as the handful of dissidents. The U.S. uses the bogus holiday to reaffirm its desire for peace and mutually beneficial relations with Russia. 

Regardless of the hypocrisy imbued in these words, today, Secretary of State Marco Rubio displayed macabre fawning over the Russian people on this occasion.

“On behalf of the American people, I want to congratulate the Russian people on Russia Day.

“The United States remains committed to supporting the Russian people as they continue to build on their aspirations for a brighter future. We also take this opportunity to reaffirm the United States’ desire for constructive engagement with the Russian Federation to bring about a durable peace between Russia and Ukraine. It is our hope that peace will foster more mutually beneficial relations between our countries,” Rubio said.

First of all, there is no evidence that the so-called Russian people, which are not a singular people but rather a mishmash of Euro-Asian tribes, seek a democratic Russia, which has also never existed, or oppose Russia’s war against Ukraine and the murder of innocent, unarmed Ukrainian men, women and children. They even don’t care that one million of their citizens in uniforms have been killed in their war. If they’re to convince the free world that they are different, they must renounce and denounce Putin/Russia.

Furthermore, a rabid anti-Ukrainian mentality lives in the souls and hearts of all Russians which keeps them from pushing to end the war that they again resumed.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha‎ castigated countries that extended good wishes to Moscow, as Rubio congratulated the Russian people on Russia Day.

No senior U.S. official before Rubio had congratulated Russia on its national day since the Kremlin began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. No other allied Western leaders have done so this year either.

Sybiha said at a meeting in Rome that it was “particularly unpleasant” for him to read “the public congratulations from certain countries to the Russian aggressor,” though he did not specifically name the countries in question.

By the way, for the diplocrats in Foggy Bottom, get your voices in tune for a hearty rendition of “For he’s a jolly good fella” on Hitler’s birthday April 20, and the establishment of the Nazi Party on February 20.

 

Trump’s Alignment with Russia is Killing Ukrainians, Prolonging War

With Ukraine valiantly defending itself against Russia’s barbaric onslaught, America’s chief executive dangerously refuses to give Ukrainian leaders, soldiers and people any credit and encouragement for surviving more than three years in the latest phase of Moscow’s war.

His flippant comments, anti-Ukrainian rhetoric, blatant vulgarity, offensive behavior and Russian preference are enough to wound the hearts and souls of every Ukrainian and Ukrainian advocate.

The acrimonious donnybrook in the Oval Office on February 28, with President Trump, chastising President Zelenskyy for defending his country, was not a one-off ambush of the Ukrainian chief executive. Since then, President Trump has on numerous occasions belittled Ukrainian battlefield achievements while solidarizing with the Russian aggressor. 

As is he has repeatedly done, when Ukraine successfully strikes back at Russia, Trump finds a way to denounce Zelenskyy for undermining peace efforts by provoking the Russians. In other words, Trump doesn’t want Ukrainian soldiers to return fire but rather to roll over and die.

The case in point was last week’s Spiderweb surprise drone attack that struck Russia’s bomber fleet. Asked by a reporter on Air Force One if the June 1 attack, which disabled or destroyed as many as 40 Russian planes, had changed his view about how many “cards” Zelensky has to play, Trump criticized Ukraine for poking the bear. “They gave Putin a reason to bomb the hell out of them,” Trump said. “That’s what I didn’t like — I saw it and thought, ‘Here we go, now there’ll be a strike.’”

Trump also claimed that Ukraine provoked the war in 2022 by fighting back against the invader.

The comment follows Trump’s assessment comparing the war in Ukraine to a schoolyard fistfight, in which, in his view, it’s best not to intervene. “It's a pretty known analogy. You have two kids, they fight, fight, fight,” Trump said during his meeting last week with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. “You try and pull them apart; they don't want to be pulled. Sometimes you’re better off letting them fight for a while.”

Trump demonstrated again that he either doesn’t know anything about Ukraine or he doesn’t care. 

In an interview with ABC, Zelenskyy resented the analogy. “We are not playing in the park with the Russians like two boys, two kids. Putin is not a kid,” Zelenskyy told ABC’s Martha Raddatz. “So, we can’t compare, and we cannot say, OK, let them fight for a while.” Zelensky said if anyone has shown no interest in ending the war, it’s Putin, who he described as a “maniac.”

“I feel strongly Putin does not want to end the war without total defeat of Ukraine,” Zelenskyy told Raddatz. “With all due respect to President Trump,” Zelensky said, “I think it’s just his personal opinion. Trust me, we understand the Russians much better, the mentality of the Russians, than the Americans understand the Russians. I know for sure Putin doesn't want to stop the war.”

Trump claimed on May 27 that Russia would already be facing serious consequences if not for his actions, following one of the most intense Russian aerial assaults on Ukraine. “What Vladimir Putin doesn’t realize is that if it weren’t for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened to Russia, and I mean really bad. He's playing with fire,” he wrote on Truth Social.

Wait a second, braggadocio or not, you mean the American President is protecting Russia from being bombed by Ukrainian drones and warplanes? And then the President had an hour-long conversation with Putin in which Trump learned about the Russian dictator’s plans, which he chose not to reveal. That’s certainly not the American way; that’s certainly siding with the enemy of humanity.

Zelenskyy and five other European leaders during their recent meeting in Albania joined a conference call with President Trump immediately after his call with Vladimir Putin hoping to hear that Putin had agreed to a ceasefire — or the US would impose penalties on him for refusing to do so.

Instead, Trump said Putin had agreed to negotiate, stressed the US wouldn't be involved in those negotiations, and pushed back against the idea of imposing sanctions on Putin at the current time, two sources who were on the call and a third source briefed on the call told Axios.

Why it matters: Trump gave the impression he was getting closer to withdrawing from the issue altogether. Some leaders on the call seemed “surprised” or “shocked,” the sources said.

“I think something's going to happen. And if it doesn’t, I just back away and they’re going to have to keep going. Again, this was a European situation, and should have remained a European situation,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office several hours after his calls.

So, Trump wants to refrain from so-called European situations. History has shown that others have tried this but failed, only giving rise to greater European dictators.

As for sanctions, Trump floated the idea of imposing sanctions on Ukraine.

Trump’s envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, is another White House official who can’t say anything favorable about Kyiv. Kellogg even sympathizes with Moscow’s opposition to Ukraine’s accession to NATO. He said Russia’s concern over the eastward enlargement of NATO was fair and the United States did not want to see Ukraine in the U.S.-led military alliance.

Asked by U.S. network ABC News about a Reuters report that Russia wanted a written pledge over NATO not enlarging eastwards to include Ukraine and other former Soviet republics, Kellogg said: “It’s a fair concern.”

David Petraeus, retired United States Army general and CIA director, observed what no one in the White House will have the courage to declare: that Russia’s aim was to topple president Volodymyr Zelensky in order to “install a puppet leader and to control all of Ukraine.”

He added: “Once that's done, you are going to see them focus on one of the Baltic states. Lithuania has featured prominently in his speeches and we should have listened a lot more.”

President Volodymyr Zelensky, responding to the May 25 overnight bombardment, called for urgent new sanctions and warned that “America's silence, and the silence of others around the world, only encourages Putin.”

The European Union and US lawmakers have also called for tougher action. It seems as if the White House is the lone American institution out in the cold.