06.03.2025
Theatre of cruelty
Zelensky’s humiliation in the Oval Office was a cynical setup. But for that we should be grateful, says Eddie Ford, as it lifted the curtain on what normally happens behind closed doors
Showing that he means to get his way, Donald Trump has suspended military aid to Ukraine after directing officials to draft proposals to lift US sanctions on Russia and restore ties with Moscow. This is a decision that affects intelligence information as well as deliveries of ammunition, vehicles and other equipment, including shipments agreed to when Joe Biden was president and weapons in transit.
Trump’s move came after Volodymyr Zelensky told a reporter that the end of the war could be “very, very far away”, angering the US president - who posted a link on his Truth Social platform to an Associated Press story outlining the Ukrainian president’s comments and declaring that “this is the worst statement that could have been made by Zelensky, and America will not put up with it for much longer!”1 He went on to repeat his belief that Zelensky does not want to sue for ‘peace’ with Vladimir Putin, while he has US military backing - which has a kernel of truth - and later said that Zelensky “won’t be around very long”, unless he succumbed to pressure and made a deal (strictly on US terms, of course). It was left unsaid whether this meant ousting him in elections, which are currently suspended, as is the normal fashion during wartime, or a military coup - or perhaps an Azov march on the Ukrainian capital.
White House efforts to force Zelensky to the negotiating table by one means or another obviously have everything to do with the emerging new global order as envisaged by Trump. Freezing the conflict in Ukraine and getting the Europeans to take front-line responsibility, which has the added bonus of saving the US a lot of money, is an essential part of this reordering. A plan that appears to be working: the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, almost in a panic, announced proposals at the beginning of the week to strengthen Europe’s ‘defence’ industry and increase military capabilities by mobilising close to €800 billion, with the European Union holding an emergency summit this week.
Sir Keir Starmer has taken a leading militarist role (to near universal mainstream praise) by promising to increase military spending to 2.5% of GDP from April 2027 - something that requires not only drastically cutting the foreign aid budget but welfare too, as you cannot have guns and butter.
In this way, with Europe shouldering more and more of the burden, the US can focus on its real rival, China - the only power that could potentially act as an alternative hegemon to America. Note Xi Jinping’s response to US tariffs. Upping the military budget to 7.2% and promising to “fight until the end”.
As for Trump he is still set on US continental expansionism. He told the joint session of Congress, that he will take control of Greenland “one way or another” - making out that the US supports the right of the “incredible people” of Greenland “to determine your own future” (especially if they choose wisely, in which case “we welcome you into the United States of America”). He further told his audience that the US will be “reclaiming” the Panama Canal, “and we’ve already started doing it”.
Meanwhile, Canada’s foreign minister Mélanie Joly told the BBC she takes Donald Trump’s remarks on making Canada the 51st state of his country “very seriously”. His 25% tariffs amount to a ‘rough wooing’. All he has to do now is find or sponsor a Canadian unity party and lever it into government - a big ask, but not impossible.
Scolded
Of course, the suspension of military aid to Ukraine follows the infamous televised fracas at the Oval Office, when Trump - infuriated over the collapse of a deal that would have given the US access to Ukraine’s rare mineral resources - scolded Zelensky for “gambling” with a third world war and instructed him like an errant schoolboy to do his homework properly and come back “when he is ready for peace”. Meanwhile, US vice-president JD Vance repeatedly hectored: “Have you said ‘thank you’ once this entire meeting? No.”2 In other words, make a deal or we are out and might turn off the taps from military GPS systems, Elon Musk’s Starlink communications technology or essential spare parts for things like the F-16s, which for every hour in the air require 15 hours of maintenance.
While this produced liberal howls of outrage and sent EU leaders into a tailspin, communists are grateful for the fact that the curtain was parted and we saw what normally happens behind closed doors. This is what real power relationships are like in the capitalist world - not the fairy tales of mutual respect. If you dis the US, then you can be disposed of, regardless of whether you have been a loyal puppet or not. Most politicians know that and therefore sing the American tune, whatever they might be thinking privately about the ‘special relationship’ and what a wonderful president we have got.
Hence the way Starmer proffered himself before the US president the day before with his “unprecedented” royal invitation - now that was doing things right, so maybe Volodymyr should have watched more carefully. But Zelensky knows exactly which side his bread is buttered, with Trump saying in his Congress speech that he has received a letter from the Ukrainian president expressing gratitude, since (pretty please) “we do really value how much America has done to help Ukraine maintain its sovereignty and independence”. And his country is “ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer” - not to mention his apparent willingness at last to sign a ‘critical’ minerals deal with the US, even if he has not received security guarantees in return, as originally demanded. Trump also claimed in the speech that he was in “serious discussions with Russia” and had “received strong signals that they are ready for peace”.
Watching the scene from the Oval Office, it brought to mind the Theatre of Cruelty, as developed by Antonin Artaud, a surrealist who got kicked out of the surrealist movement.3 For Artaud and his followers, cruelty is not about sadism or causing pain, but a violent determination to shatter a false reality - to wake up the audience through shock tactics or spiritual therapeutics that were meant to expose the unacceptable relations between people. Show things as they really are, as opposed to what they pretend to be - a method that any Marxist can appreciate.
Disrespect
Clearly, this bore the unmistakeable signs of an ambush or setup. Whatever Zelensky said or did, he was going to be ripped to pieces by Trump and Vance as part of the script, putting him in an impossible position. Take the entirely manufactured row about dress code, with Zelensky wearing what he always does to every meeting - a military-style black sweatshirt adorned with the Ukrainian trident, to symbolise that he is a wartime leader, as doubtlessly advised right at the beginning of the war.
This is hardly unusual: as everyone knows, Winston Churchill during the war wore a ‘siren suit’ for exactly the same reason - though his characteristic cigar signified that he was not a proletarian. As for Elon Musk, going from the sublime to the ridiculous, he turned up to the White House in a baseball cap, jeans and a T-shirt - but no-one complained about him disrespecting the dignity of office.
Yet in terms of preparation for the Oval meeting, or press conference - as not everyone was entirely sure what it was all about - the White House purportedly sent out instructions saying that it would be advisable to dress appropriately. That is, in a suit and tie. Even before the meeting, as Zelensky stepped out of his car at the White House, Trump snarkily remarked that “you’re all dressed up today”. Then when the meeting was opened up to questions from reporters, as you can see from the TV coverage, a journalist heckled the Ukrainian president by saying, “Why don’t you wear a suit?” - going on to further comment that a “lot of Americans have problems with you not respecting the dignity of this office”. An aggressive line of questioning that marked the moment when the friendly conversation with Trump ended and Zelensky started to look tired and irritated, beginning to realise that the meeting was about something other than the expected agenda.
At first appearances, this might not seem particularly important, or even mere happenstance - but that would be mistaken. The journalist in question was Brian Glenn, well known in Maga circles for his work at Right Side Broadcasting Network, which livestreams coverage of Donald Trump’s rallies. He is also the chief White House correspondent for Real America’s Voice - a network that busily promotes far-right conspiracy theories, including Covid misinformation, ‘stop the steal’ theories about the 2020 presidential election, and QAnon (the latter believing that there is a cabal of Satanic, cannibalistic, child molesters with links to the Democratic Party and the deep state). But, more significantly still, Glenn is the boyfriend of Marjorie Taylor Greene, the craziest person in Congress - particularly notorious for stating that Jewish “space lasers” may have started the wildfires in California.
Once you know that, it is almost impossible not to suspect that what happened last week at the Oval Office was nothing other than orchestrated - with Trump giving the wink to Glenn to start proceedings and Zelensky never standing a chance.