Ukraine isn’t just land — it’s people

As Donald Trump pressures Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to cede huge chunks of his country to Russia, I’ve noticed a disturbing tic in the media coverage: downplaying this by only speaking of “land” or “territory,” when discussing what Zelenskyy is being asked to relinquish. 

The press still is in the bad habit of reflecting language provided by the White House, even as they know full well that Trump is a liar and a fraud. But it’s important to remember it’s not just empty land Trump wants to hand over. People live there. Trump wants to force Ukrainians to live under a dictator who has spent years killing them and kidnapping their children. Both Trump and Putin are monsters. This minimizing language conceals that. 

Trump wants Putin to be his Daddy

Yesterday, I published an analysis of Trump’s fixation on being called “Daddy,” which is a weird sex thing, but is really about so much more. It’s worth reading in full, but basically, “Daddy” is a power fantasy for weak people who can only feel strong by punching down — or, in this fantasy, sexually abusing minors. (Yes, shades of Trump’s former close buddy, Jeffrey Epstein, in this.) But when faced with power, even imagined power, Trump and his acolytes love playing the sub.

That’s one reason why Trump humiliated himself in front of Vladimir Putin this weekend, letting the Russian president walk all over him while Trump giggled and begged for more. No doubt part of it is that the MAGA movement, being a fascist movement, feels more aligned with Putin than the fledgling democracy of Ukraine. But it’s also that Trump, for all his “Daddy” posturing, is a little bitch whose every instinct is to lick boots when faced with someone he believes is more powerful.

It’s especially pathetic because, objectively speaking, Russia has less power than the U.S. in these negotiations. We are one of the richest countries in the world and we have likely the best military. Russia has serious economic problems, and depleted its military by waging a pointless war against a much-smaller country that has admirably held its own. 

But Trump is such a dunderhead he cannot fathom that Putin is anything but a near-godlike figure. In Trump’s childish fantasy life, because Putin is evil, that makes him strong. And, of course, Trump has mistaken the stranglehold dictators put on their population as strength, not recognizing that it actually reflects a fundamental weakness in these societies, which is the lack of people’s consent. It’s why dictators are so paranoid, because of the ever-present threat of an uprising or assassination. But Trump’s consent is easy to get, because he loves nothing more than bowing to bullies. 

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Trump’s yawning insecurity drives this National Guard nonsense

As I note in the “Daddy” article, Trump’s takeover of Washington D.C. is also part of the faux-strongman fantasy MAGA uses to mask its deeper weaknesses. But one aspect I didn’t get into was the racism of it. As Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times noted on Instagram, Trump is “cartoonishly racist.” The cities he’s invaded or threatened — Los Angeles, Chicago, Oakland, New York City, Baltimore — all have Black mayors. The unsubtle implication is Black people can’t be trusted to govern and White Daddy has to come in and do it for them. 

I was happy to see Black mayors joining together to denounce Trump, creating a visual that helps underscore that all this is just plain racism. But, as usual with Trump, the insecurity that drives so much racism is right out in the open. 

It’s safe to say Trump is consumed with hatred for Black leaders, and especially lost his mind when Barack Obama won the presidency. He can’t stand to see Black people who are smarter and more deserving than he is. I mean, nearly all people are better than Trump, but in the tradition of racists everywhere, he needs the fiction that a certain group of people is inherently less worthy than him. Among other things, racism is a pacifier for insecure cowards who never matured out of the toddler toy-stealing stage. 

My hope is that this entire debacle ends up being educational, however. Centrists in American politics have long been attracted to racist disinfo like “IQ studies.” Seeing a moron like Trump lecture Black mayors about stuff he doesn’t understand at all is so embarrassing, maybe they’ll finally be ashamed enough to scooch away from “scientific” racism. Or maybe not, since we still live in a world where people who should know better still pretend Bari Weiss isn’t MAGA.

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What we're reading this week

• “The Entitlement to Mankeeping Pipeline,” Kate Manne, More to Hate

• “This Economist Crunched the Numbers and Stopped Dating Men,” Anna Louise Sussman, New York 

• “Trump isn't the solution to the ‘crisis of manhood,’ he's the problem,” Paul Waldman, Public Notice

• “Why Texas Republicans Are So Eager to Lock Up Democrats,” Ed Kilgore, New Yor

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