1 week Ago
By Mark S. Singel Robert Reich, former U.S.
Secretary of Labor, has been outspoken about the disastrous start of the second Trump administration. One of the examples he cites is the debacle of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. It turns out that Hegseth has shared classified military secrets not once, but twice on public internet systems.
Remember the MAGA chants to lock Hillary up for her personal e-mails? Reich also notes the stops and starts of the tariff policies. There has been so much confusion and retaliation from other countries that the markets remain in a tailspin. We are not winning the trade war that Trump started.
Other missteps include a blatant effort to muzzle free speech by attacking Harvard University and the mixed messages sent by Trump’s personal attacks on Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. As Reich puts it: “All this ineptitude in just the last few weeks reveals that the Trump regime is coming apart. Incompetence is everywhere.
The regime can’t keep military secrets. It can’t maintain financial stability. It can’t protect children from measles.
It cannot protect America.” Meanwhile, the real damage being done is half a world away. The New York Times reports that Trump is setting the terms for a cease fire in Ukraine.
This should be good news for Ukraine – but it is not. For the first time in our history, the president has aligned himself with the aggressor; not the victim. Despite its brutal, unlawful, and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, Trump has sided continually with Russia.
This has even included a rewriting of history that says that, somehow, Ukraine started the conflict. It has featured an embarrassing dressing down of a traditional ally in the Oval Office so Trump can tip the scales in favor of the murderous thug he now calls his friend – Vladimir Putin. Here’s the deal that Trump wants to impose on Ukraine: give up all the territory that Russia has seized, including Crimea, which was “annexed” to Russia 10 years ago.
In addition, the Ukraine would surrender its mineral wealth to the United States and swear off membership in NATO forever. In other words, Russia steals Ukraine’s territory, the United States steals her mineral wealth, and we reduce Ukraine to sitting duck status. We would withdraw military support and precludd Europe from assisting Ukraine when Russia decides to take over the entire nation on its way to other adventures in eastern Europe.
This is not a peace agreement. This is complete capitulation by Ukraine at the insistence of her once most powerful ally. In fact, the Trump administration made it clear recently that we would just “walk away” from Ukraine if they did not accept these terms.
Trump said Zelensky “can have peace, or he can fight for another three years before losing the whole country.” Whether it is for personal gain or some strange urge to side with dictators, Trump is ensuring the eventual destruction of Ukraine and a clear threat to every other nation in Europe. For those who think this is an exaggeration, consider what our response would be if Russia had casually invaded Alaska, Oregon, Washington, and California.
Maybe Trump would just hand those states over to his new best friend. Consider this bit of history: Neville Chamberlain, the Prime Minister of Great Britain, travelled to Munich to negotiate with Adolf Hitler. This was after the shocking invasion of the Sudetenland in the Czechoslovakia Republic.
In 1938, he returned to London with an assurance that there would be “peace for our time.” He had agreed to simply give away the territory and Hitler said he had no further demands. Nine months later, Hitler invaded Poland and lit the fuse for World War II.
In addition to a series of fiascos on the domestic front, President Trump has placed the United States of America on the wrong side of history in Europe. He has aligned us with the worst possible autocrat while the rest of the world watches with alarm. This is not normal.
This is not how the greatest nation on earth should behave. Ours is not a government of cascading executive orders. We, the people, deserve thoughtful compassionate leadership that has some understanding of economics, trade policy, global responsibilities, and history.
In its first 100 days, the Trump administration has shown itself to be woefully deficient in all of these. What’s worse, we are on a precipice of catastrophe in Ukraine that could have long term, world-wide implications. It could have all been avoided if our president understood the difference between our real friends and our real enemies.
Mark Singel is a former Lieutenant Governor and former Acting Governor of Pennsylvania..
