Selling Out Ukraine Is A New Low

I keep getting asked: what is Trump trying to achieve? To some people, it is obvious, but for most of us, there is still a considerable amount of fog. While there is no obvious tactical or strategic set of goals, some clarity is provided by each of the daily announcements. The latest is the betrayal of Ukraine.

The bastards are going to do it

That’s a quote from the BBC’s political correspondent Nick Watt, who, in turn, was quoting an unnamed UK defence official. That’s a reference to the complete sellout of Ukraine by the Trump administration. Negotiations have ended before they have begun. Putin has been given everything he wants before the start of ‘peace’ talks. There is a river of champagne flowing through the Kremlin. Xi Jinping will be delighted, Taiwan not so much.

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The Post-War Rules-Based Order Is Over

Alex Younger, previously the longest-ever serving head of MI6, said today that the post-WW2 rules-based global order is over. It’s now about strongman politics and survival of the fittest.

The implications of all this have yet to sink in and are being underreported by most media. Make no mistake: Trump’s proposals (and let’s acknowledge that they are merely proposals) mean that Putin will immediately take the rest of the Ukrainian provinces he currently partially occupies. He will, sometime in the future, restart the war in order to take the rest of the country. The ‘security guarantees’ that Trump demands Europe give Ukraine will be meaningless. Europe doesn’t have the means and shows few signs of acquiring the necessary backbone

This is what Trump does. Why?

He enjoys being at the top of the daily news cycle. That’s the narcissistic man-child that we have all come to know.

Powerful people are not like the rest of us. Normal people imagine that anyone granted access to the levers of power would use them sparingly and with the best of intentions. ‘First, do no harm’—that kind of thing.

Powerful people are not normal. Desire for power marks them out as weird. Once they get their hands on power, they are invariably determined to use it—often for no good reason. Just because they can. After all, they often argue, what’s the point of power if you don’t use it?

Theoretical Perspectives on Power for Its Own Sake

Power Dynamics

According to sociologists like Max Weber, power is the ability to enforce one's will on others, even if they resist. Sometimes, people exercise power simply to assert dominance or maintain their authority.

Michel Foucault

This French philosopher explored the idea of power being pervasive. He argued that power is exercised everywhere and can be an end in itself.

Psychological Aspects

Control and Influence: Psychologically, individuals may use power to feel in control or to influence others without a clear objective. This can be seen in everyday interactions where individuals assert authority just to feel superior.

Power and Identity: For some, power becomes intertwined with their identity. They use power because it reinforces their self-image or because they derive satisfaction from the act itself.

Historical Examples

Totalitarian Regimes: Leaders in totalitarian states have often exercised power not just to achieve specific goals, but to demonstrate their absolute control and instill fear among the populace.

Corporate Environments: In some corporate settings, higher-ups may make decisions that display their power, even if those decisions aren't the most beneficial for the organization.

Literary References

George Orwell's 1984: The novel illustrates the use of power for its own sake through the Party's control over the population. The famous slogan “Power is not a means; it is an end” encapsulates this idea.

Lord Acton's Quote: The historian Lord Acton famously said, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." This highlights the idea that individuals might exercise power simply because they can, often leading to negative consequences.

Here is a neuroscientist suggesting that Trump’s brain resembles that of a junkie high on cocaine. Power is the drug that spurs dopamine production.

The resemblance between Trump’s daily abuse of power and an episode of The Sopranos is obvious to anyone with a passing acquaintance with the classic TV series about a psychologically troubled mafia boss. A lot of the plotting and scripting of that series seem to have borrowed heavily from Suetonius’s classic biography of Julius Caesar and the 11 Roman emperors that succeeded him. It’s all about the gaining and subsequent abuse of power—and how nobody in power ever believes, for a second, that they are doing anything wrong. (More on this a bit later.)

In Trump’s case, the old populist trick of wrapping whopping great lies around kernels of truth has been pulled off time and time again. That’s how he gained power. In different circumstances, we might admire a master of this particular art. The script: identify real problems, outrageously exaggerate them, promise to solve them. The three great lies are told about immigrants, wokeism, and civil servants.

Immigration: A concern in many countries. That concern—justified or not—is wickedly used to justify mass deportation, flights to Rwanda, demonization, and incarceration (in Guantanamo). It’s then a short journey to convincing people that white people will be replaced by immigrants.

Wokeism: American progressives took it too far, too quickly. While we might disagree with that statement, just as we might take issue with anti-immigration views, a tiny nugget of truth is inevitably placed front and center to disguise the lie.

The Civil Service: In the US (and elsewhere), it is taken as obvious that the bloated, inefficient, and left-wing public sector needs dismantling. All of it.

Recently, Dominic Cummings in the UK railed against ‘the Blob’—his complaints aimed at the civil service but also anyone in the comfortably complacent classes. Again, there is an element of truth to this: there is waste, there is resistance to change. Too many people have been let down, left behind. But that does not mean the whole system needs dismantling.

Tech Bros and the New Oligarchs

Elon Musk and his band of tech bros currently laying waste to the US Federal Government say things like, “We invented the modern world, so why shouldn’t we run it?” Not a single word of that quote makes any sense. But it is what they believe.

Here is Edward Luce from the FT, pulling no punches

Just endured every excruciating minute of this. With Trump sitting there, the kid wandering around, Musk gives a crash course in his theory of democracy that would embarrass a semi-literate stoner. These are fools in charge.

Of course, the consequences of all this won’t be felt by the new oligarchs—they will just be paying lower taxes.

Conclusion

Bad people never think of themselves as evil. Freud was but one shrink who explored the human capacity for rationalizing any behavior. We don’t like feeling guilty or anxious because we have done something wicked. So we don’t think we are wicked. Even when we obviously are.

Trump will keep going, step up the bullying, until someone stands up to him. He really does have imperial ambitions that involve the territorial expansion of the US

There are few signs of anyone prepared to stand up to him. But the West has a new enemy to unite against—strange things are going to happen suggest Canada, rather than engaging with Trump, simply applies to join the EU. The UK should do the same.

Every country needs to realize that unless they stand up to him, Trump will, in one way or another, come for you.

The text above may not be an exact replica of the original article.

Article by Chris Johns1, Feb 13, 2025

The Other Hand1: Hosted by Jim Power and Chris Johns

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Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons in 1994 under the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances. This agreement was signed on December 5, 1994, by Ukraine, Russia, the United States, and the United Kingdom.

Background & Deal:

After the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Ukraine inherited the third-largest nuclear arsenal in the world, including around 1,900 strategic nuclear warheads and 176 ICBMs (Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles).

Ukraine was under international pressure, especially from the U.S. and Russia, to denuclearize in exchange for security assurances and economic support.

Key Provisions of the Budapest Memorandum:

1. Respect for Ukraine’s sovereignty and borders (including Crimea).

2. No use or threat of force against Ukraine.

3. No economic coercion against Ukraine.

4. Security assurances in case of threats or aggression.

Key Figures Responsible:

Leonid Kuchma (President of Ukraine)

Bill Clinton (U.S. President)

Boris Yeltsin (Russian President)

John Major (UK Prime Minister)

In exchange, Ukraine:

Transferred its nuclear warheads to Russia.

Received compensation and help dismantling its nuclear infrastructure.

Was promised protection, particularly from Russia, under the memorandum.

Aftermath:

Russia violated the Budapest Memorandum in 2014 by annexing Crimea.

The U.S. and UK did not intervene militarily, leading to debates about the effectiveness of security assurances in the agreement.

This deal remains a major historical example of nuclear disarmament and broken diplomatic promises.

The Budapest Memorandum was not a legally binding treaty but rather a political agreement. This limited its enforceability, especially in the face of Russia’s actions in 2014.

Sources:

U.S. State Department: Budapest Memorandum Summary https://lnkd.in/e8aNptjA

Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI): Ukraine’s Nuclear Disarmament https://lnkd.in/ehaTUBq8

BBC: What is the Budapest Memorandum? https://lnkd.in/eaqtgcAvNote:

Information above not fact checked, links above currently inaccessible.