A sort of ‘global version of Beppe Grillo’s streaming‘ was, in fact, aired. This is exactly how we can define the incredible scene staged in the Oval Office of the White House on 28 February 2025 (let’s mark the date), where US President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance chose – rationally – to engage in a verbal confrontation with Ukrainian PresidentVolodymyr Zelensky in front of the American and international press.

Not clowns, but mafia methods

Because of what happened, it would be wrong to call Trump and Vance ‘buffoons’ or ‘clowns’: definitions that lend themselves well to their Italian foot soldiers like Matteo Salvini, but not to the two of them.

Calling the most powerful man in the world and his deputy buffoons or clowns, besides being trivial, risks downplaying the seriousness of the tones used. If they resort to Mafia-like methods and language – pressure, intimidation, public delegitimisation – one must call a spade a spade. During the meeting, in fact, Trump accused Zelensky of ‘ingratitude‘ and of ‘playing with the lives of millions of people‘. Vance scolded him for not showing enough gratitude to the US, reducing what is actually a humanitarian and geopolitical tragedy to a mere matter of good manners. All this while a possible agreement on rare minerals and continued military support against Russian aggression was on the table.

Trump humiliates the West, not Zelensky

On closer inspection, the real victim of the ambush was not Zelensky, but the entire West that Trump claims to represent. The most serious humiliation falls on all of us citizens on both sides of the Atlantic, when a meeting with a leader who defends his country from an illegal and bloody aggression becomes an exercise in arrogance and a pointless display of power.

On the contrary, Zelensky showed dignity and a moral resilience that perhaps only those fighting for the survival of their country can find within themselves. He tried to raise the crucial issue of security guarantees for Ukraine, recalling Putin’s aggression and the reality of a conflict that shows no signs of abating. He tried to use intellectual honesty, pointing out to Trump that in this world no one – not even the United States – has any difficulty in a war. And if instead of being reformed, as a rabbit, Donald Trump had served during the Vietnam War, perhaps today he would have recognised the goodness and sincerity of Zelensky’s words.

Zelensky was arguing, albeit in the language of others and not his own, and he was interrupted and accused of disrespect by those two infamous people at home.

The meeting obviously ended without the planned agreement on rare earths and without a joint press conference, with Trump accusing Zelensky, via social media, of not ‘being ready for peace‘ and of disrespecting America. Words that mark a deep furrow, risking compromising that very alliance from which Ukraine draws – or drew – support at a dramatic moment in its history. If Trump wanted to underline Washington’s position of strength, he has only ended up demonstrating a diplomatic obtuseness that risks further favouring Putin’s expansionist strategy. A toast is being raised in Moscow tonight.

There is only Europe for Ukraine

Faced with this theatrical performance, which does not hesitate to play with the lives of millions of people, Europe today has a duty to react firmly and unitedly. The war in Ukraine concerns all those who believe in freedom and the defence of fundamental rights.
We are facing an emergency: Ukraine needs guarantees and concrete aid, and we Europeans are the only ones who can continue to provide it with loyalty and respect for the sacrifice that Ukrainians are making for all of us.