Trump betrays Ukraine while the coup continues

February 13, 2025

Major stories overtook coverage of the ongoing coup: Trump's public betrayal of Ukraine by attempting to force it into surrender, an uptick in inflation, and the confirmation of Tulsi Gabbard.

Each is a consequential story deserving our full attention, especially Trump's betrayal of Ukraine. But we cannot allow those stories to convert an ongoing coup into “background noise.” The media and politicians are “normalizing” Trump's rolling coup through “false equivalency”—treating the coup and inflation as stories of equal magnitude. They are not. We lose sight of that fact at our peril.

Trump's second term is only three and a half weeks old. The press, politicians, and many Americans seem to have forgotten what happened two weeks ago. Here is a quick refresher of what Trump or his minions have done in 25 days:

• Pardoned 1,500 insurrectionists who assisted Trump in his first attempted coup.

• Converted the DOJ into his political hit squad by opening investigations into members of the DOJ, FBI, Congress, and state prosecutors’ offices who attempted to hold Trump to account for his crimes.

• Fired a dozen inspectors general, whose job it is to identify fraud and corruption and to serve as a check on abuses of power by the president.

• Fired dozens of prosecutors and FBI agents who worked on criminal cases relating to Trump

• Fired dozens of prosecutors who worked on criminal cases against January 6 insurrectionists

• Opened investigations into thousands of FBI agents who worked on cases against January 6 insurrectionists

• Disbanded the FBI the group of agents designed to prevent foreign election interference in the US

• Disbanded the DOJ group of prosecutors targeting Russian oligarchs’ criminal activity affecting the US

• Fired the chairs and members of the National Labor Relations Board, the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission, and the Federal Election Commission and refused to replace them, effectively shutting down those independent boards in violation of statute

• Shut down and defunded the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

• Shut down and defunded USAID by placing virtually the entire staff of the agency on leave

• Impounded billions of dollars of grants appropriated by Congress to USAID, National Institutes of Health, Department of Education, and the EPA, all in violation of Article I of the Constitution, which grants Congress the power to make appropriations

• Allowed a group of hackers to seize control of large swaths of the federal government’s computer network by attaching unauthorized servers, changing and creating new computer code outside of federal security protocols, creating “backdoors” in secure systems, installing unsanctioned “AI” software to scrape federal data (including personal identification information), and installing “spyware” to monitor email of federal employees

• Disobeyed multiple court orders to release frozen federal funds (an ongoing violation; see the NYTimes on Wednesday)

• Granted a corrupt pardon to the Mayor of New York in exchange for his promise to cooperate in Trump's immigration crackdown

The above is a partial list, each item of which is illegal (at least) and unconstitutional (at worst). Taken together, they compel the conclusion that Trump has not only violated his oath in every conceivable way but that he is actively working to overthrow the Constitution. That is the very definition of a coup.

Here’s a thought experiment: Assume you printed out the above list and attached it to a dartboard. Throw one dart to randomly select one item. Now imagine that Biden or Obama had committed the act hit by your dart. Republicans would have begun impeachment proceedings within 24 hours. The NYTimes editorial board would have called for the resignation of Biden or Obama. Newspapers would bleed ink over the story for months on end to the exclusion of all else.

Trump has packed so much illegal, unconstitutional, lawless activity into three-and-half weeks that the press, politicians, and many Americans have already forgotten or normalized activity that can only be described as a coup. Remember that time—three weeks ago—when he pardoned 1,500 insurrectionists?

The fact that the courts tried (but failed) to stop some of the activity does not lessen its status as a coup. And when we add the fact that the administration is still refusing to release funds in accordance with court orders, all doubt about the nature of what is happening is removed.

Nor does the above account for the wholesale delegation of Article II powers to Elon Musk, who effectively bought Trump's election victory, and is now exercising the powers of the presidency in a massive conflict of interest that violates US law.

Trump is actively trying to end 230 years of constitutional democracy and has made some headway. If you don’t want to call it a coup, fine. But we must nonetheless recognize the sobering fact that the future of democracy is at stake—because it is.

I have no doubt that we will defeat Trump, Musk, and all their minions. Because I believe in you. I believe the American people will stop the overthrow of the Constitution. They are already beginning to make their voices heard. But tens of millions of Americans aren’t paying attention. Our job is to make certain that they do, soon. In that regard, see Concluding Thoughts.

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Trump betrays Ukraine, effectively telling Putin the US will work toward Ukrainian surrender

Early Wednesday, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said that it was “unrealistic” to believe that a peace settlement between Ukraine and Russia would involve a return to Ukraine’s prewar borders. Hegseth also said that Ukraine should not be admitted to NATO as a condition of a settlement and that US troops would not help enforce any settlement. See Reuters, Hegseth says Ukraine cannot expect return to old borders, NATO membership.

The import of Hegseth’s remarks was that Ukraine should surrender by rewarding Russia with its two main goals of the invasion: (a) Seizing Ukrainian territory and (b) preventing Ukraine’s admission to NATO. Such a settlement would be a complete victory for Russian and a complete capitulation by Ukraine.

Shortly after Hegseth made his comments, Trump and Putin spoke for 90 minutes—a conversation that undoubtedly involved congratulations from Trump to Putin for achieving his war aims.

The only detail remaining is that no one had consulted Ukraine about the terms of any settlement. Although President Zelensky attempted to make the best of the developments, Hegseth’s comments left him with no negotiating leverage. Hegseth said, in effect, “Surrender. And, by the way, you are on your own after your surrender; don’t look to us for security guarantees.”

Ukraine has one bargaining chip left—territory it has seized from Russia. But Russia has preemptively dismissed any deal that involves swapping captured territories between Ukraine and Russia. See Institute for the Study of War, Assessment February 12, 2025:

[Russian Security Council Deputy Chairperson] Medvedev stated that it would be "nonsense" to swap Russian and Ukrainian territory, and [Kremlin Spokesperson] Peskov stated that Russia will "never discuss" exchanging its territory.

Medvedev's and Peskov's statements further support ISW's assessment that Russian President Vladimir Putin is uninterested in making any compromises during future peace negotiations and will only comply with a peace agreement that fulfills all of Putin's maximalist demands in Ukraine.

See also Lucian K. Truscott IV’s excellent analysis on Substack, No matter what happens after today, Ukraine is lost. I recommend Lucian’s article in its entirety. Truscott writes, in part,

The Trump position that Hegseth parroted is not only a disaster for Ukraine but for all of Europe. We are witnessing a worse outcome for Ukraine of any I could have imagined. [¶¶]

Ukraine has bravely stood up for its sovereignty and honor and sacrificed greatly in its fight against the horrors that Russia has wreaked upon it. Today, to the everlasting shame of the United States of America, Donald Trump abandoned this great nation to a man who stands accused by the International Criminal Court of having committed war crimes against Ukraine.

It is difficult to express the depth of the betrayal of the Ukrainian people that has just occurred. As Lucian writes, they have fought bravely, not only for their own sovereignty but the security of Europe and the US. The lesson that Putin will take is that the US will not check its expansionist behavior.

Today, Ukraine may be lost, Europe is under threat, and the US is less secure—all because Trump is a coward and a useful idiot in the hands of Vladimir Putin.

Trump’s abandonment of Ukraine echoes the shameful collapse of Europe to the emergent Hitler before WWII. Today, the US is viewed as a less reliable ally across the world—an affront to the millions of Americans who died in defense of America over the last two-and-a-half centuries.

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Senate confirms Tulsi Gabbard

In another shameful act, the Senate confirmed Tulsi Gabbard as the Director of National Intelligence on a party-line vote (Mitch McConnell voted against confirmation). Gabbard is unqualified on every metric: She lacks the experience, knowledge, temperament, judgment, discretion, and loyalty required to be the nation’s top intelligence officer.

Gabbard’s primary role is to provide Trump with his daily intelligence briefing. In the past, Directors of National Intelligence performed the unenviable task of telling presidents hard truths that they may not want to hear. Gabbard was selected, in part, because she will not challenge Trump. Indeed, like Trump, she has an unnatural affinity for foreign dictators.

Today, America is less secure because Gabbard was confirmed by Republican Senators cowed into obeisance by Musk. The meek opposition from a handful of Republican Senators was snuffed out when Elon Musk arched an eyebrow in their general direction. They whimpered, retreated, and voted for a nominee whose confirmation is an affront to the millions of Americans who died in defense of America over the last two-and-a-half centuries.

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Inflation increases in January

According to many commentators, Trump won in 2024 because Americans were upset over inflation. Trump repeatedly claimed during the campaign that he would decrease prices on his first day in office. That boast was ridiculous when Trump made it and even more ridiculous after his disastrous economic moves during his first three weeks in office. See AP, US inflation got worse with rising groceries and gasoline prices.

The best analysis of the increase in inflation is by Simon Rosenberg in Hopium Chronicles, Inflation Spikes, Trump Is Not Winning, Hegseth Obeys In Advance.

Rosenberg writes,

A central theme we keep returning to here at Hopium is that Trump’s agenda is inflationary, that what he was about to do would increase prices - not lower them - on purpose. Deporting millions of workers will raise prices for food, health care, day care, restaurants and hotels and many other items.

His tariffs and the eventual retaliatory tariffs raised on our exports will raise prices throughout the American economy. Rising inflation is preventing the Fed from cutting interest rates, keeping mortgages, car loans, business loans and credit card debt high.

Trump promised to lower costs. He lied. He never had an agenda to lower costs. . . Whatever he said, or believed, Trump’s agenda was always going to raise prices, and now it has, significantly, immediately, in fact.

If Rosenberg is correct, inflation will get worse as Trump’s policies take effect. If that happens, we must be able to cite the statistics regarding inflation with accuracy and passion. I find it difficult to believe that people voted for Trump because they believed he would reduce inflation, but that is what they are telling pollsters. We must stand ready to disabuse them of their belief in Trump’s ludicrous boasts about his ability to control inflation

While we should hope that Americans would care more about the possible loss of our democracy than inflation, we must use every tool available to defeat Trump. If we can stop an aspiring tyrant because his policies are inflationary, so be it.

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Concluding Thoughts

I believe that mass actions like national strikes and economic boycotts are the most effective tools in our arsenal. When asked, we should participate and respond. But, to date, there has been a lack of coordination in calls for boycotts and strikes. I have been hoping to see a coordinated response by nationally recognized grass roots organizations, unions, or political leaders. But that coordination has yet to appear.

The crisis is too important and too urgent for us to wait. Readers have been posting information about spontaneous national strikes and boycotts in the Comment section for the last week. Yesterday, Jessica Craven posted the following in her Substack blog, Chop Wood, Carry Water 2/11:

There are now several big rallies or actions in the works—a nationwide protest on February 17, a one-day general strike on February 28, and a “total shutdown” on March 15. I’m sure many more things are being planned. There’s also now a website for a General Strike, and 200K people—including me—have already signed a strike card.

I will post more about these actions in future newsletters, but I welcome input from readers in the Comment section with information and directions for participating in each of the above protests and strikes. It would be particularly helpful to see grassroots organizations step up to the plate by endorsing any or all of the actions noted above.

I hope that the first efforts at mass actions are attention-grabbing successes. But the most important point is that they are occurring. Many mass protest movements grow steadily over time. So, participate and encourage friends, family, and complete strangers to participate. In the end, we are the immovable force that will stop Trump's effort to overthrow the Constitution.

We are going to win. We will outlast Trump. We will correct the injustices and right the ship of state. It is only a matter for time.

Talk to you tomorrow!

Daily Dose of Perspective

The skies over Los Angeles are still cloudy, so I am once again dipping into my archive. NGC 7822 is a young star-forming complex 2,900 light-years from Earth.

Enjoy!