Cowardice disguised as strength: Trump and Vance bully Zelenskyy—and what you can do about it

Fake tough guys take on a real tough guy. Plus, resources for fighting back.

Two children speak to an adult. (AP Photo/ Mystyslav Chernov)

By now, you have probably seen the video. In it, two guys who would very much like the world to believe that they’re tough gang up on a guy who actually is tough. The two guys are our’s, Donald Trump and JD Vance. The guy they ganged up on is Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who acted like a president while his U.S. counterpart and Trump’s number two acted like children having a tantrum.

Trump and Vance ambushed Zelenskyy in the Oval Office today with the cameras rolling in a shocking display of disrespect. Their shamefully bullying behavior is the latest piece of evidence that Trump and Vance are siding with Vladimir Putin and other dictators over democratic nations like Ukraine.

I can think of few things more cowardly than a draft dodger like Trump berating and belittling Zelenskyy, whose country is fighting a war that Trump would have run away from if he were born there instead of having the dumb luck of being born in the United States.

After all, Trump ran away from a war here, back when he avoided service in Vietnam because of his supposed bone spurs. Helpfully chiming in to chastise Zelenskyy for not “thanking” America enough for its support—which Zelenskyy has repeatedly done, as many have noted—was Vance, a fake tough guy who likes to tout his service in the Marine Corps in Iraq where he spent most of his time in an office writing press releases.

If you’re as ashamed and disgusted by Trump and Vance’s actions today as I am, you’re probably looking for something to do about it. In fact, I’ve been saying for weeks that I’m going to provide some resources on ways to fight back against the madness and authoritarianism of this administration. Amid the chaos of the last week—which included stories at Rolling Stone and Public Notice, as well as two podcast episodes—it’s been hard to find time to construct a list of ways to get involved. But I’ll start here this evening with at least a few ideas.

• Yale historian Timothy Snyder has some resources to help Ukrainians at his Thinking About newsletter. He writes the following: If you are thinking today about how to help Ukrainians, here are some possibilities: Come Back Alive (Ukrainian NGO that supports soldiers on the battlefield and veterans), United 24 (the Ukrainian state platform for donations, with many excellent projects), RAZOM (an American NGO, tax-deductible for US citizens, which cooperates with Ukrainian NGOS to support civilians), and Documenting Ukraine (a project that helps to give Ukrainians a voice, also tax-deductible for Americans).

• You can support the work of Tim Mak at the Counteroffensive newsletter, where he and journalists born and raised in Ukraine are covering the war and its impact on the Ukrainian people. Tim and I spoke on the American Doom Podcast a few weeks ago.

• Non-profit watchdogs like American Oversight, Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington and Public Citizen are holding the Trump administration and DOGE accountable through work like robust Freedom of Information Act campaigns and lawsuits, and direct lobbying to Congress. You can support their work with a tax deductible contribution.

• At Marie Newman’s newsletter, she notes that activism is having an effect. Her latest post includes a lot of resources for getting involved, including the following dates for nationwide economic boycotts:

  • 40-day boycott of Target: March 5 to April 13

  • 24-hour spending blackout: Feb. 28, March 28 and April 18

  • Amazon Blackout: March 7 to 14

  • Walmart Blackout: April 7 to 13

• Newman also notes that calling your members of Congress and expressing your opposition to policies and behavior coming from the White House is always a good thing to do. For now, I think that pressure needs to be sustained.

That’s all for now. In case you missed it, Jeff Bezos has capitulated to Trump by demanding that the Washington Post opinion team only run editorials that support the administration’s bogus claims of support for free markets and personal liberties. In response, the Post lost 72,000 subscribers. I encourage anyone reading this who is a free subscriber to American Doom to sign up for a paid subscription. It’s just myself and a partner here and your support is greatly appreciated because it helps us to do our jobs without ever having to worry about the whims of external publications or advertisers. You can also drop us a few bucks in our Doom Coffee Fund. Thank you for your support.

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