Every president deserves a “honeymoon” period — usually about 100 days — after being inaugurated, where he gets a chance to experiment with new ideas or offer his vision for his next four years. President Donald Trump’s evaporated last week.
Perhaps I was too optimistic that Trump’s second term would be more professional and, well, more presidential. I ignored Detective Nero Wolfe’s warning: “A pessimist gets nothing but pleasant surprises, an optimist nothing but unpleasant.”
Unpleasant is one way to describe what the world witnessed on Friday as the tag-team match of Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance severely chastised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for refusing to accept the two Americans’ view of the Russo-Ukraine War, which entered its fourth-year last month. It was an embarrassing sight for all concerned, especially those who support a Ukraine free from Russian invaders sent there by former KGB spymaster, Russian President Vladimir Putin.
That ugly performance by the president and his vice president followed cashiering thousands of federal employees, including 18 at James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center in North Chicago. Lovell is the only facility that serves the vital health needs of veterans and active-duty military personnel.
An estimated 35,000 veterans who live in the Chicago region, recruits at Naval Station Great Lakes, along with service members and their families, receive care at Lovell. Nationwide, about 2,500 Veterans Affairs workers were laid off last month by the Department of Governmental Efficiency, in part to slash the federal budget.
Yet, I still can hear Trump saying on the campaign trail last year in several stump speeches, “We love our veterans.” Not so much, it now seems.
Lake County Congressman Brad Schneider, D-Highland Park, objected to the Lovell firings noting in a statement: “Not only do staff cuts provide a challenge to the hardworking professionals at Lovell that care for our veterans, but they also pose a threat to our military readiness given the depth of care Lovell provides to naval recruits.”
One of those let go at Lovell was an Army retiree who served two tours in Iraq and a stint in Afghanistan. His job was being an emergency management specialist, planning for worst-case scenarios. His firing came about the same time it was learned a former Great Lakes sailor pleaded guilty to plotting a terrorist attack at the Navy base or in Chicago’s Loop.
“I think we can all agree there is more we can do to make our government more efficient and effective,” Schneider, also a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, pointed out. “None of this should fall on the backs of those who serve our nation.”
This is what President Trump is doing to veterans and other probationary federal workers who, unfortunately, might have been hired during the administration of President Joe Biden. They are suspect, similar to Russian comrades who find themselves on the outside of Putin’s circle and seem to fall out of tall buildings to their deaths. Or get poisoned.
While most of the world’s leaders, our one-time allies, recognize the brutality of Russia’s Putin, Trump and Vance blithely ignore who began the war they are so keen on ending. If President Trump thought a Nobel Peace Prize was in his future for brokering peace terms, the White House clash last week surely ended that hope.
During the depths of World War II, Winston Churchill declared, “There is only one thing worse than fighting with allies, and that is fighting without them!” If we need allies in the near future, the Trump administration has kissed them off.
Countries across the globe, including many of our former friends, have come to the defense of Ukraine. The U.S. is the outlier here. World opinion sides with the Ukrainians.
European leaders say they will continue funding weapons for the country’s defense against Russian aggression, while seeking a peaceful solution. Even if the Trump administration suspends arms shipments. After three years of war, the brave Ukrainians have so far battled Russia’s larger forces to a draw.
Like Vice President Vance, I’ve never been to Ukraine, but I know a few Ukrainian Americans in Lake County’s northwest townships whose relatives are civilian targets for Russian bombings. They went from stunned to shocked after the Oval Office brouhaha. One couldn’t talk to me about what’s been happening between the U.S. and Ukraine as she started tearing up.
“I don’t understand. I don’t understand,” she repeated, unable to comprehend what has happened since Trump’s inauguration, when the U.S. strongly backed Ukraine last year to pivoting to being Russia’s apologist. Most Americans don’t get it either, or why previous senators backing Ukraine have become toadies to Trump’s outrageous claims against the Ukrainians.
Over the decades, beginning with Lenin, Russians have lied to our leaders. That is why European satellites of the former Soviet Union quickly petitioned to join NATO.
Once under the Soviet dictatorial yoke during the Cold War, they know Putin can’t be trusted. They, along with Ukraine, are on the front lines against Russian imperialism.
Like other freedom-loving Americans, I stand with Ukraine.
Charles Selle is a former News-Sun reporter, political editor and editor.
sellenews@gmail.com
X: @sellenews
