The spurning of Volodymyr Zelensky by Trump and Vance in the Oval Office last week was painful to watch. A courageous wartime leader, fighting against a dictatorial, nuclear-armed aggressor, found himself being ridiculed and shouted down by his supposed allies. Even for Donald Trump, a man with a preternatural ability to offend, this was grotesque. But was it all part of a grand plan?
There have been many explanations for the blowup, from Zelensky’s refusal to play the role of supplicant, to Trump’s outrage that Zelensky wore military-style fatigues in front of the television cameras, to the evergreen conspiracy theory that Trump is being blackmailed by Vladimir Putin. But some seasoned foreign-policy watchers believed that it was proof that the “Reverse-Nixon” was in full effect.
