Alexander Vindman remembers the phone – and he remembers what he did next. Serving the National Security Council (NSC), he went to meet his twin brothers, who were senior ethics officers at the council, closed the door and said, “Eugene, if I’m about to make public, Donald Trump will be bounced each.”
Vindman called in July 2019 between Trump and Ukraine’s new president, Voldy Mie Zelensky. He has heard the US president attempt to use US military aid to launch an investigation into Joe Biden’s son Hunter over his position in the Ukrainian gas company, Zelensky attempts to use US military aid to begin investigation into Joe Biden’s son Hunter.
Trump was certainly bounced each for offering Quid Pro in the hopes of finding dirt in his political rivals. But six years later, the incident plagues current negotiations to end Ukrainian war with Russia, including a contract of ongoing US military aid in exchange for access to Ukraine’s valuable mineral resources.
With Zelensky, who is scheduled to visit the White House on Friday, observers warn that Trump is trying to make him stronger again.
“In the course of this one call, President Trump involved himself by saying that Ukraine had to give him favor to parliament to access the conference and $400 million and meetings,” said Vindman, author of the new book The Folly of Realism, who deceived Westerners themselves about Russia and betrayed Ukraine. “We’re rhyming another kind of shakedown in billions of dollars, what’s going on this Friday, President Zelensky is coming in and to continue receiving support.”
Vindman was the NSC’s director of European affairs at the time of the call Trump later described as “perfect.” After informing his brother, he submitted a formal report on Trump’s “corrupted plans” that led to a televised hearing, and Trump became the third president in history to be fired up by the House of Representatives, but was later acquitted by the Senate.
The news was monumental at the time, but was somewhat covered by Trump’s second invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and Trump’s return to the White House last month. Trump’s allies and right-wing media have also worked relentlessly to slander both the bluffing each and the Russian investigation — Ukraine also took the lead role — as a hoax.
The relationship of the very sincere Trump Zelensky in 2019 quickly turned sour. When the top American diplomat met his Russian counterpart in Saudi Arabia last week to discuss the end of the Ukrainian war, Ukraine was not in the room. When Trump claimed that Ukraine was blamed on Russian invasion, he reflected the points of the Kremlin story, Zelensky said Trump was “confined” in a “disinformation bubble” in Russia.
Trump reacted furiously, and Zelenkie’s branding became a “dictator” for not holding elections during the war when the Ukrainian belt was under Russian occupation, its soldiers were on the forefront and the country was under martial law.
Earlier this week amid a surprising shift in transatlantic relations, the United States split with European allies by refusing to blame Russian invasion in the three UN resolution vote to seek the end of the Three Years’ War.
Under this shadow, Zelensky will have Trump framing to allow the US to access Ukraine’s so-called rare earth mineral deposits on Friday to visit Washington.
The first Quid Pro Quo has similarities, but there are differences too. Vindman said, “He hasn’t shaken Ukraine this time to steal the election. There’s a national security element. The US needs rare earths for its economy. Ukraine needs investment. So this is actually in some odd ways, scaled up, but in a way that does business all over the world, it’s far more legal than the final progression.”
Zelenskyy also finds himself changing and in a more vulnerable position. He says that more than 46,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and more than 390,000 were injured, but other estimates are much higher. Trump’s lethargic rhetoric is damaging to morale. Russia is progressing on the battlefield.
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Max Bergman of the European, Russian and Eurasian Programme at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies, said, “Ukraine is far more hopeless than in 2019. We are attacked by Russians and we have a crazy country, so our stakes will not be high for Ukraine.”
The mineral trade was a perfect example of how difficult it is for Ukraine to navigate the situation, added Bergman, a former State Department official. “We have realized that Ukrainians have not signed this contract. This is very hypothetical and never really happens. Companies will not begin excavations until there is a real peace settlement. It was not worth fighting for. But it further shows the lack of interest and commitment that the US must support Ukraine.”
Trump’s first month in the foreign policy phase came at a head-spurt pace, taking over Gaza, redeveloping, buying Greenland from Denmark, grabbing the Panama Canal and planning to absorb Canada as the 51st province. But nothing goes against the old Republican party than Trump’s willingness to side with Russia over his Democratic allies.
Former Secretary of State Joel Rubin said: “We don’t know yet about the personal benefits to the President itself, but we know that this process uses the threat of withholding US support to Ukraine as a pressure tactic to draw concessions. It’s usually what you do with your enemy. In this case, it’s not at all clear who will get the money. How does this work? How does this move America’s global position and our economy?”
At Cabinet meeting Wednesday, Trump welcomed the mineral trade as a “very big deal,” and at a meeting with British Prime Minister Kiel Kiel’s Prime Minister, Stage, on Thursday, he suggested that the presence of critical mineral extraction American workers would act as security backstops whose allies were once again trying to stop the invasion.
However, Rubin is skeptical that the economic agreement will inevitably guarantee Ukraine’s future security. “Who would say Russia will not decide to invade Ukraine, but before that they call the US and say we are going to invade Ukraine and take over, but the mineral trade with Ukraine is, we will keep it with you and do it with you? Then they go and invade and the US says we’re fine with it as long as we’re doing the trade. There’s nothing to hinder that.”
