Three cowards and a hero walk into a room ...

Each day a fresh hell.

Each day a summoning of will and spirit to withstand it.

Whether it’s gutting government institutions; firing career civil servants for no cause and replacing them with teenage tech-bros with no accountability and no qualifications; cutting programs people count on to survive; offering up yet more tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans; unlawfully withholding already allocated funds for programs like USAID, which not only provides  critical soft diplomacy with our allies and foes alike but delivers life-saving humanitarian aid; to the arrogance and the ignorance and the lies. All the many lies.

Then America beheld Trump’s greatest grotesquerie yet and that yet is a mere placeholder, for he is sure to go lower. He always does. 

Volodymyr Zelensky, a man who is so far above Donald Trump in stature, honor and humanity that they might as well be two different species, came to the White House on Friday allegedly to talk to an ally, to seek ongoing assistance to help Ukraine withstand Putin’s three-year murderous siege. What awaited him instead was not an ally but an enemy. That’s right. America’s ally today is Putin and Russia, not Ukraine.

For three years, the United States has stood strong, rallying NATO and other European countries to help stave off Putin’s wholly unprovoked attack on a sovereign nation. Our ally! If you have to ask why we resolved to do this perhaps you aren’t aware of the perils of appeasement throughout history when it comes to murderous dictators who have no accountability and nothing to lose. Perhaps you don’t know the countries that border Ukraine. 

For three years, the Ukrainian people and Zelensky, their president, have endured the worst, losing hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians to Putin’s indiscriminate bombing. And for three years, thanks to its allies doing what allies do, Ukraine survived while Putin and Russia, expecting to sweep to Kyiv in a matter of weeks when they launched their attack, have been stuck in neutral for most of the entire campaign.

Zelensky, a man who had every opportunity to flee the country and leave his people behind, instead risked his life and stood strong while the man who treated him so horrifically in the White House on Friday, skulked away when his opportunity came to serve his country because like most bullies, Donald Trump is a coward. 

So a hero and  three cowards met in the Oval Office on Friday and the cowards, as they are wont to do, browbeat the hero, knowing they held all the cards. Vice President JD Vance whined that he didn’t think Zelensky had said thank you enough. Even though it was yet another White House lie, let that sink in. A man who has endured the worst, seen unimaginable suffering among his people, felt heartache and hopelessness but never wavered, was being cited for insufficient gratitude. 

Trump whined that Zelensky disrespected the White House. The White House was certainly disrespected, okay, but by a man who has been attempting to unilaterally negotiate away Ukrainian land to the aggressor; who has lied that it was Ukraine and not Russia who started the war; who has cavalierly turned all of Ukraine’s sacrifice over the past three years into a shakedown. Give us your minerals, Trump says, and we’ll see what we can do. 

Meanwhile, the third coward, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, sat sheepishly, not daring to utter a word of protest, even though Rubio surely understands not only what is at stake if we abandon Ukraine but what an abject spectacle was unfolding in front of him. 

Zelensky might have folded, knowing he held no cards. Just like he might have folded when Putin launched his attack in 2022. 

But Zelensky never cowered. Instead he towered over those White House weaklings. 

May some of the GOP’s own leaders summon some portion of Zelensky’s valor before it’s too late – not just for Ukraine but for America.