Roundup: An ambush in the White House

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It was an ambush. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to the White House, ostensibly to sign some kind of agreement around access to critical minerals in exchange for some kind of military support or security guarantees was a set-up for Trump and JD Vance to try and humiliate Zelenskyy in front of the cameras, with one of the reporters from Russian state outlet TASS in the room (who was removed at one point by the Secret Service, but it was obvious that someone in the White House arranged for him to be there). The whole video is sickening to watch.

While Trump and Vance started broadcasting this for their followers as a supposed sign of strength, and their lackeys and apologists broadcast Russian propaganda to justify it, word also started leaking out that Trump is planning on cutting off military aid to Ukraine for Zelenskyy’s supposed intransigence and lack of desire for peace, which is of course mendacious and part of the set-up.

In the wake of this, world leaders started tweeting their support for Zelenskyy and Ukraine, and this was probably the death knell of NATO as we know it. The one leader who has been silent is Keir Starmer, but he is also hosting a summit in London today about Ukraine and European security, which Justin Trudeau will also be attending.

Here are some hot takes from Tom Nichols and David Frum, while Philippe Lagassé has some additional thoughts on the situation.

Closer to home, in an interview with the Spectator, Trump took credit for Chrystia Freeland’s supposed “firing” (she was not fired), and said that Poilievre’s problem is that “he’s not a MAGA guy.” Which is true—Poilievre doesn’t have much of a coherent ideology, but he’s not MAGA. What he is, however, is someone who will say anything that he feels he needs to in order to attract the MAGA crowd to his banner, no matter how ridiculous it is, and he has no morals, ethics, or scruples about it. Poilievre jumped on this to declare that he’s “Canada First,” and later did tweet support for Zelenskyy and Ukraine, and immediately got roasted in the comments by his MAGA supporters for it. Funny what happens when you play with fire.

https://twitter.com/acoyne/status/1895631503469449464

Ukraine Dispatch

Russian drones struck a medical facility, among other targets, in Kharkiv. The framework for a mineral agreement that Ukraine was supposed to sign with the Americans, before the ambush, contained a number of gaps around security or dispute resolution, before it turned out to be a sham.

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau announced a new senate appointment for BC.
  • The Fiscal Monitor shows a $21.7 billion deficit for the April to December portion of the current fiscal year.
  • In the wake of the White House ambush, Mélanie Joly reiterated the need for actual security guarantees in Ukraine as part of any kind of peace deal.
  • Joly is also downplaying the notion of any rift between Canada and the UK.
  • Anita Anand met with provincial counterparts to continue the task of taking down internal trade barriers, particularly for labour certifications and regulations.
  • Patty Hajdu says that First Nations chiefs need to get their positions sorted out with the AFN in order to advance child welfare negotiations.
  • Some of the largest government departments show a low level of compliance with the three-days-in-the-office mandate.
  • The union representing immigration department workers says that cuts will exacerbate the exiting backlog situation.
  • The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the Métis Nation of Saskatchewan was not abusing process in their court challenge of uranium exploration permits.
  • It looks like Mark Carney may not have formally resigned from all of his board positions as of yet.
  • A number of past and present prominent Liberals are criticizing the identity verification systems in place for the leadership vote, which are glitchy in places.
  • Here’s a look at Liberals who had planned to retire from politics before Carney in particular got them to change their minds.
  • Former minister Soraya Martinez Ferrada is officially in the race for Montreal Mayor under the municipal party Ensemble Montréal.
  • Danielle Smith continues to justify the provinces deficit in order to finance her tax cut (while also demanding increases in property taxes that they can take a cut of).
  • Emmett Macfarlane adds his voice to those explaining why the King cannot involve himself in the ongoing predations against Canada’s sovereignty.
  • Justin Ling looks at the truth behind Ukraine and mineral deals it is looking to sign with the US, before Trump blew it all up with his ambush.
  • Andrew Coyne argues that Canada needs to rapidly prepare for Trump’s future crazy, not just his past and present crazy.
  • My weekend column offers some early reaction to the Ontario election, and why we are politically screwed in this province.

Odds and ends:

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