Vicarishame - 5

I was driving most of the day today, getting only the snippets of the big news on the radio because NPR was running away from the frequencies available to me. But even the little news that broke through the static made me facepalm myself in shame for Trump.

In his meeting with Zelenskyy, president of the country that has been pummeled by Russian rockets and bombs for three years now, Trump behaved like a playground bully and JD Vance behaved like a thug who is taking orders from Putin and uses Putin's talking points.

No war fatigue and unwillingness to support Ukraine can justify this behavior. I don't know why Zelenskyy was not speaking through an interpreter (perhaps the US side wanted to break this part of the protocol as well, to make him look more vulnerable, lost and confused), but he definitely did the best with his level of English. He stood up for himself and his country and did not let Vance's lies fly without response. I felt vicarishamed for both Trump and Vance. I also felt proud of Zelenskyy, who did not let them walk all over him when they clearly set this trap up for him in advance.

In a way, by "kicking him out of the White House," Trump and Vance saved Ukraine from a very bad, ill-intentioned and nefariously designed "minerals deal" that would put Ukrainians into a position of giving up their mineral resources for nothing in return and forever. All Zelenskyy wanted was to get the assurances of security guarantees before signing that bad deal. He has the full right to expect that, especially given that Ukraine had already once given up its nuclear weapons for security guarantees that completely failed and were stomped over when Putin started a full-scale war against Ukraine in February 2022. Full me once... Ukraine had the right to expect a better arrangement with the real security guarantees.

Trump and Vance, the now-open agents of the Kremlin, of course could not give these guarantees. In Putin's ideal world, they conclude a bad temporary peace with Ukraine, Russia retreats and regroups while putting a Russian puppet like Yanukovich back into Ukraine's presidency, the US and Europe remove sanctions against Russia and in a couple of years Putin ramps up his military capacity and comes back with full force to take over Ukraine in its entirety.

Zelenskyy saw through this. He lived through the 1990s when the Soviet Union fell apart and knows what lawless Russian thugs are all about and how the two-step hostile takeover (Putin's signature move) works in reality. He was prepared. Today, he didn't look weak or meek and he certainly was not going to give up the future of his country for empty words and vague promises without getting security guarantees in a signed form.

Trump knew this might happen. He needed to save his own face if Zelenskyy didn't budge and bend over for the bad deal. This is why a couple of days ago he said that this war would either end very quickly (he only failed to add 'on my handler Putin's terms') or last forever. Now he is blaming Zelenskyy for failing to behave appropriately, to be thankful and not demanding, and the impending WW3. Zelenskyy should feel like a winner because all the masks are off now. He knows that he is dealing with Putin's allies in Trump and Vance and that there are no illusions anymore as to who the current US administration supports in this war.

My only hope now is that Europe rallies around and not behind but in front of Ukraine and gives it everything it can to continue to fight Putin. Otherwise he will end up on the Baltic's and Polish doorstep after he is done with Ukraine.

I still can't overcome my vicarishame for Trump and everyone who voted for him. This is the first time in entire American history when the president of the country completely gave up on democracy and openly took the aggressor's side. This shame will reverberate for decades.

Author's note: Vicarishame (vi-shame) - feeling of vicarious or secondhand embarrassment a decent person experiences for a wrong action committed not by the person but someone else.

I made up the word because I don't think "secondhand embarrassment" is a good phrase for it and because I've always admired the German language ability to come up with precise compound words. So this is my attempt to model the German compound word approach, putting together "vicarious" and "shame."