“We used to fight the Axis of Evil. Now we’ve joined them.”
Those were the words written on social media Monday by Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell. What prompted that comment was the news that the United States was only one of 16 other countries that opposed a United Nation’s resolution condemning Russia for attacking Ukraine on the 3rd anniversary of the war. Swalwell is 100% correct—Trump has now formed an alliance with Putin as parts of a new Axis of Evil.
The European-backed U.N. General Assembly resolution—supported by 93 nations—that Trump opposed simply noted that “the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation has persisted for three years and continues to have devastating and long-lasting consequences not only for Ukraine, but also for other regions and global stability.” The resolution also called for an end to the war and demanded that Russia “immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw all of its military forces from the territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders.”
But Trump refused to agree to that. Instead the convicted felon had the U.S. protect Putin by joining with North Korea, Israel, Russia, Hungary, Belarus, Syria and a few other nations to oppose it. Thanks to Trump we are now part of a group of nations led by people who reject international law—unless it serves their purposes.
The Wall Street Journal editorial board slammed the move with the headline, “A Sad Day for the U.S. at the U.N.” As the conservative WSJ wrote while tearing into Trump, “Ronald Reagan, who also sought peace and achieved it, never shrank from telling the truth about the Soviet Union.” They added, “The truth was an essential weapon in defeating what Reagan called an “evil empire.”
Under Trump, however, “the truth” is whatever he says it is. As authoritarian experts note, Trump’s base viewing him as the decider of what is the truth is one of the classic traits of fascist movements. That’s why it matters that last week Trump labeled Ukraine’s leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “dictator” but on Monday he refused to use the same word about Putin, instead commenting, "I don't use those words lightly."
But it gets worse. Later on Monday, the Trump regime drafted a UN Security Council resolution that did not criticize Russia nor demand the return of land seized by Putin. Instead, the resolution just urged peace. This resolution—which was adopted after the UK and France abstained—was 100% what Putin wanted. In fact, the BBC’s headline summed up both U.N. resolutions perfectly with its headline, “US sides with Russia in UN resolutions on Ukraine.”
Under Trump, the United States is part of the “bad guys” on the world stage. Of course, we were far from perfect before. Obviously under George W. Bush, our nation’s reputation was greatly tarnished with the attack of Iraq based on lies. And under the Biden administration, the continuing support and arming of Benjamin Netanyahu despite his war crimes was indefensible. Yet still under Biden, our nation 100% stood with the democracy of Ukraine against the modern day “evil empire” of Putin.
That has now changed. Trump is doing all he can to isolate the United States from our Western democratic allies—be it Canada or Europe--as he seeks to move our nation into an alliance with Putin and other authoritarian type leaders.
Think about this for a moment: If Trump can reach a deal with Putin on dividing up the world, then Trump can—as he has openly spoken about-take Greenland, the Panama Canal and even parts of Canada. With Putin as an ally, who would stand up to Trump if he did? Would our NATO allies actually invoke Article 5 of the NATO charter that provides an attack one on one member “shall be considered an attack against them all” requiring them to militarily defend Canada and Denmark from the United States? Or would they seek to avoid direct confrontation and negotiate a deal like Putin is seeking now that allows the annexation of lands he desires?
And with the United State no longer the leader of the free world but part of the new Axis of Evil, why wouldn’t China take their long sought prize of Taiwan? We could see a scenario where Trump, Putin and China’s leader Xi divide up the spoils of the world as they see fit—all personally profiting.
After all, on Monday, China’s leader marked the 3rd anniversary of Russia’s attack on Ukraine by speaking with Putin and telling the press the two nations are “true friends who have been through thick and thin together.” As the NY Times noted, during the Russia-Ukraine war, “China extended a lifeline to Russia by helping Mr. Putin weather economic isolation from the West and struggles on the battlefield.”
As if this wasn’t despicable enough, Trump is currently bullying Ukraine into giving him a chunk of the nation’s natural resources/revenue as re-payment for US aid extended under the Biden Administration. As the NY Times reported on Saturday, Trump is demanding that Ukraine give him half of the nation’s “revenues from natural resources, including minerals, gas and oil, as well as earnings from ports and other infrastructure.” And despite the fact the United States only provided assistance to Ukraine in the area of $100 billion, Trump wants Ukraine to keep giving him revenue until Ukraine pays $500 billion.
This is a corrupt shakedown. Trump is pressuring a war-ravaged nation to pay more than four times what we provided or no further military assistance would be forthcoming. And keep in mind, if the US is granted access to Ukraine’s natural resources, it won’t be you or I seeing any benefit. If will be Trump’s oligarchs like Elon Musk and others who will see a huge profit when they are authorized by Ukraine to mine these resources.
If you read about the leader of another nation doing that, you would of course view them as a Putin type thug preying on a vulnerable nation to personally profit. And you would be correct.
Thankfully, we did see French President Macron fact check Trump’s lies in real time during their White House meeting Monday about aid provided to Ukraine. Trump lied while trying to justify his planned rape of Ukraine’s resources by claiming that Europe had only offered Ukraine loans--rather than grants of money. As you can watch below, Macron immediately stopped Trump in front of the press to correct the record, stating, “No, in fact, to be frank, we paid. We paid 60 per cent of the total effort. It was like the US: loans, guarantees, grants.” (That is 100% accurate as this EU-Ukraine financial support document explains.)
Macron was later asked about Trump’s plan for compensation for the U.S., to which he responded, “I support the idea of Ukraine first being compensated” for the horrors they endured. He added, it should be Russia being the ones who should pay given they were the “aggressor” in the war by invading Ukraine.
That is what a leader who supports democracy sounds like. That is in stark contrast to Trump who has not only become the Putin of the Americas—but a traitor to American values.
It is only a matter of time until something really bad happens. In 5 short weeks Emperor Dumbass has destroyed America's soft power apparatus, installed a Russian agent as DNI, installed two lunatics at the FBI and insulted and pissed off all of our long term allies. Now convicted felon Peter Navarro is telling tRump that Canada should be kicked out of the Five Eyes Intelligence Sharing group, totally oblivious to the likely reality that none of the four - Canada, UK, New Zealand, Australia - are sharing much with us for far Gabbard will send it directly to Putin. Because of all of this we are now blind to those who would do us harm both foreign and domestic. Something bad will happen. And what is the likely result - Emperor Dumbass uses it to declare martial law. Will that be enough to wake supine Republicans and feckless Democrats from their slumber? Will it be too late?
I just posted that on Twitter before o saw this Substack. Yes. We are with the Axis of Evil. Only took two months to achieve it. Hitler did the same in the same amount of time. I’m ashamed of America and ashamed of being American.