By now, the whole world knows that Donald Trump’s fatal phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is the reason the long-awaited impeachment proceedings finally went forward. During that call, Trump allegedly held a White House visit and critical defense aid over the vulnerable country’s proverbial head so that he could force an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden, and Biden’s son Hunter. Vice President Biden is, of course the presumed Democratic frontrunner, and therefore a current 2020 political rival of Trump’s. This is corruption of the highest order, and Trump should be investigated for it.
In order to take attention away from his ties to Vladimir Putin’s Russia, Trump has taken to calling the victim of Russia’s military aggression, Ukraine, “corrupt,” and even has engaged in rhetoric that suggests that it is Ukraine who meddled in the United States’ 2016 election, not Russia. The new GOP and pro-Trump talking point is that it is our ally, Ukraine, that is corrupt, not Russia. However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has had enough. He blasted Trump’s statements, all while defending his nation’s honor and position as a staunch ally of the United States, saying:
“It’s very important for the United States, with all they can do for us, for them really to understand that we are a different country, that we are different people. It’s not that those things don’t exist. They do. All branches of government were corrupted over many years, and we are working to clean that up. During my meeting with [Trump], I said that I don’t want our country to have this image. For that, all he has to do is come and have a look at what’s happening, how we live, what kinds of people we are.”
Zelensky said that Trump’s public statements were “the hardest of signals” when it comes to how Ukrainian interests and relations are impacted. Of course, Trump’s own corruption is what is at the heart of the impeachment inquiry, and he is projecting his own wrongdoing onto the President of Ukraine. Trump tried to bully Ukraine into doing his political bidding, and it is now coming back to bite him in a big way. Had he not behaved in the way he did in that now-infamous phone call, it is quite likely that Trump would not be facing formal impeachment inquiries and investigations as we speak.
Perhaps the most tragic part of the Trump Administration is the fact that Trump is systematically destroying United States foreign relations with any number of countries, including those who have trusted the United States to be a friend through thick and thin for nigh on a century. All we can do is hope that these nations realize that one man’s corrupt, false vision is not what America is all about.
Featured image via Wikimedia Commons
