America Joins the Jackals
Ukraine is only the first victim.
AS I WATCHED ELECTION RETURNS on the evening of November 5, 2024, I was struck by the sense that Americans had missed the memo. Across the nation, in blue states as well as red, county after county showed a marked rightward shift—an unmistakable signal of dissatisfaction with the Biden years. It was so familiar, so seemingly normal. What do you do when groceries are much more expensive than four years ago, the border is flooded with immigrants, and crime seems to be rising (even though it actually wasn’t)? You vote for the other guy, and if that turns out badly, well, there’s always another election in four years.
It has been only four weeks since Trump took the oath of office, and I wonder whether casual voters or even those who truly despised Biden have taken onboard what they’ve done. The American republic is undergoing a constitutional crisis as the president attempts to rule as an autocrat (“He who saves his country violates no law,” he claimed), a heedless billionaire smashes through people’s lives and complex systems he doesn’t understand with sadistic glee, the Justice Department descends into corrupt bargains antithetical to the ethical standards upheld for two centuries, a Putin/Assad apologist sits atop our intelligence agencies, a conspiracy theorist/anti-vaccine fool directs our health agencies, and the United States is attempting to reverse eighty years of world leadership.
Let’s focus on the global about-face, because however grievous the other depredations, they are, at least in theory, reversible. Abandoning world leadership is not.
It’s hard to say which is worse, Trump’s moral depravity or his stupidity, but both have been on vivid display in the past ten days vis-à-vis Ukraine. First, violating the understanding that Putin’s naked aggression made him a pariah among decent nations (he is an indicted war criminal), Trump engaged in a ninety-minute phone call with him (over Zelensky’s head), invited the dictator to visit the United States, and suggested that Russia be asked to rejoin the G7. All of these marks of favor were offered in exchange for Putin doing what? Promising to withdraw troops? Returning the kidnapped Ukrainian children? Agreeing to cease targeting hospitals and power plants? No. For chatting on the phone with the world’s most credulous narcissist.
Next, the out-of-his-depth weekend TV host–turned–secretary of defense offered two unilateral concessions to Putin by declaring that “the United States does not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement,” and that no U.S. troops would be part of any security guarantee to Ukraine.
Isolating Ukraine from Europe and keeping it out of NATO has been Russia’s aim for thirty years. While NATO membership was not offered, it was never entirely rebuffed either—until now. Though Hegseth attempted to walk back his comments in the face of criticism, the damage was done. Before a single water glass was filled at the negotiating table, the United States conceded some of Russia’s main aims. Besides, much worse damage was right around the corner, emanating from the vice president.
JD Vance delivered the most shameful address by an American leader to a European audience in living memory. Speaking to the Munich Security Conference, Vance said, “The threat I worry the most about vis-à-vis Europe is not Russia, it’s not China, it’s . . . the threat from within.”
Vance did not mention Russia’s continuing aggression against Ukraine at all. Instead, he presumed to lecture America’s allies on their supposed failure to uphold our shared values. How so? By restricting speech too harshly and—the truly soul-crushing part—being too intolerant of neo-Nazis. In sync with co-president Elon Musk, who has blessed the AfD as the only hope for Germany, Vance scolded the Germans for being unwilling to enter into coalition with a party that wants a “180 degree turnaround in the politics of remembrance” about the Holocaust, plans to deport all Muslims from Germany, and believes Germans should be proud of their soldiers from both world wars.
Vance’s presumption is breathtaking. Not only is it morally bankrupt to ignore the fascistic aggression of Russia, it is galling to watch an American leader who supported the attempted violent overthrow of our 2020 election and who has called for the president to defy the Supreme Court and rule as an autocrat to presume to speak as a small-d democrat. European diplomats exiting the meeting told the Financial Times that “America itself is now a threat to Europe.”
All of that was prelude to Trump’s total betrayal of Ukraine—and with it, America’s global role. In a screed that mixed Kremlin talking points (Zelensky is a “dictator”) with Trumpian grotesqueries (alleging that Ukraine, not Russia, started the war, and that Zelensky was a “modestly successful comedian” who hoodwinked Biden into spending $350 billion on defending Ukraine when the true figure is $183 billion, which Republicans and Democrats approved), Trump has surrendered Ukraine to its tormentors without so much as a backward glance. On the contrary, he’s bursting with self-congratulation for this “negotiation to end the war with Russia” which “all admit only TRUMP . . . can do.”
What the world knows, and will not unlearn, is that the United States cannot be trusted. Faith in America, and in basic American decency and goodwill, has kept the peace for generations, but that is over. Nations that refrained from getting nuclear weapons because they were secure under the American umbrella will rush to get bombs. Nations that resisted China’s bullying will make their accommodations. The Taiwanese can kiss their independence and their freedom goodbye. Formerly close allies will not share intelligence about impending terrorist threats. Our trading partners will make other plans and find other markets wherever possible. International lenders will think twice before underwriting more American debt.
Ukraine is the first victim of America’s decision to abandon liberal democracy in favor of an entente with the world’s jackals, but it will hardly be the last. And Americans will not escape the dire consequences.
That is what Americans did on November 5. Voters were thinking about high costs. Perhaps they are beginning to see what a price we will all pay for that election.