The scenes at the Whitehouse were disturbing yesterday. I was trying imagine the fall out if the UK prime minister had begun laying into an ally in the way that Trump and Vance layed into President Zelensky. I doubt that they would have survived long in post after such a miscalculation.
Yet I’m also aware that things will have been perceived differently on the other side of the Atlantic, especially amongst Trump’s base. Indeed your whole set piece appears to have been set up with their consumption in mind. There is a whole constituency that believes that that whole story is really about the US being taken for granted and advantage of by Europe in general and Ukraine in particular.
So I’d encourage American friends to have another watch. Notice that Vance begins to lay into Zelensky unprovoked as the Ukrainian leader, calmly and graciously seeks to ask legitimate questions whilst warning that you can’t negotiate with Putin and rely on him to act in good faith. Bote too that Vance has no response when Zelensky asks if he has ever visited Ukraine. Finally, Trump seems to misunderstand Zelenski and take warnings about longer term risk as threats.
It is possible as some observers have suggested that this was all deliberate and premeditated theatre for Trump and Vance. If so, then the question is about why they did it. Perhaps they had concluded that the new minerals deal wasn’t as good for them as they first hoped and so were looking for a pretext to extricate themselves.
I have kept being reminded this week about Obadiah 10-14 which I preached on last week. God considers those who stand aloof, then gloat, then take advantage of the suffering of others are complicit in the violence against them. Whilst Obadiah isn’t directly about world politics, it does give us an insight into God’s values and so has ethical implications for how we live and how nations should act.
I believe that it is time for US Evangelicals to speak up. This means that those who spoke up for, voted for or were indifferent to Trump to recognise that they got it wrong. It means that those who are in a position to speak and challenge should do so.
Here in Britain, the question is not about what we make of what happened, so much as what we do about it. So far, Keir Starmer’s approach to Trump has been very much “Keep quiet and carry on.” This is understandable as we seek to coax Potus away from isolationism or worse, a three-way carve up with Putin and Xi. However, I don’t think that we can carry on as normal.
Trump pointed out that Ukraine don’t have a good hand of cards to play. It’s not just with Putin, the message was that he isn’t in a place to deal with Trump’s America. Nor in many respects are we. We do however have some cards to play.
First, we do have a voice as a nation. The Prime Minister should publicly make it clear that we stand with Ukraine and that we consider Trump’s treatment of our friend and ally abhorrent. This message needs repeating by those who have more traction state side such as Nigel Farage
Secondly we need to use what leverage we have. It’s not much but we have some. Donald Trump is clearly keen to get a state visit and see the King. That offer should be rescinded. Trump loves the trappings and privileges of ceremonial power but it is he who demeaned and disrespected the Oval Office. If we can play our small part in saying that the privileges of power need to be earned and respected then we should.
Thirdly we need to be ready to face the cost, just as we did when we faced the cost if saying no to Putin. I suspect that if a trade deal was ever on then Trump would quickly put an end to it if he was offended by our PM. But surely we need to be willing to pay the price of standing with our friends.
Faithroots 