The respect has gone as betrayal replaces strength.

The once great power that was America is now just a memory, as an indicted war criminal reduces the mighty United States to a compliant puppet of a nation living on the reputation of a long-gone power

On the 25th of February 2025, after listening to the words of Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, a little after midnight on X, I wrote a post that went viral, receiving over 2 million views. My words read:

‘Today we have heard some outstanding speeches from NATO ally leaders. However, this one from the Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, was the one that spoke to me for sure.

I think it’s time to stop pretending to ourselves that the U.S. is anything but an impediment to solving this existential threat, to the welfare and safety of all our citizens.

Let me quote Sun Tzu's The Art of War. ‘All warfare is based on deception’ and for sure, Putin has waged a war of deception. He projected the historical power of the mighty Red army in a bid to quickly overrun Ukraine. He attempted to do it with untrained poorly equipped troops, on out of date rations.

Putin rolled the dice thinking NATO would not commit troops to help defend Ukraine and he was right. What he didn’t plan for, was the lion spirit of the Ukrainian people and the ingenuity of their military engineers. Their work with drones and sea drones has redefined battlefield strategy. Once allies started providing javelin anti-tank missiles and supporting artillery, the game changed. They prevented the Russians from achieving air superiority? And the Russian Black Sea Fleet had to retreat from port.

It is testament to the Ukrainian army and air force, Russia has been held back against all the odds. Let’s be clear, the military has achieved what it has, not because of us, but in-spite of us. We have only given them enough weapons to hold the bear back, not to evict it. There were constant delays, waiting on artillery shells, HIMARS and ATACMS, as well as tanks and F16s.

WE HAVE LET THEM DOWN. Yet these brave men and women have innovated and made do, to defend not only their country, but our borders too. WE OWE THEM BIG TIME. Not with words and sympathy, but with the proper tools to get the job done.

America has disgracefully walked away and aligned with our enemy. The U.S. president’s pet, Elon Musk along with JD Vance, have meanwhile actively supported far right political parties in Europe. Then Vance had the audacity to turn up and lecture us on our own doorstep. What was our answer? ‘Please don’t hurt us’.

This week, we see a slow procession of European leaders making the pilgrimage to the court of Mad King Don for a humiliation session. Pardon my French but ‘f*ck that’, it’s time to stand tall and tell Trump to ‘f*ck right off’ and if it were me. I’d tell him to take his airbases with him too and cancel all military arms contracts.

If he wants access to Ukrainian minerals that’s fine. Ukraine HAS NO DEBT with the U.S. They simply have the thanks of a grateful nation. There was no loan agreement. If he wants mineral rights, then provide an arms package as a down payment for future revenues. Leave the deal on the table for a week and if it’s not signed, pull the deal. Then they get nothing and in addition, no bids will be accepted from US companies for the reconstruction of Ukraine after the war. Now that’s the art of the deal.

As for NATO allies, Trump is walking away regardless, so Europe needs to get its act together NOW. Seize Russian assets and use the funds to fire up the European military industrial base. This will create jobs and growth, while capacity is expanded in all countries with an arms manufacturing capability.

In the meantime, we already have the ability, especially if Poland steps up, to defend against any increased Russian aggression. The British military has already said, if it were needed, we would meet that threat head on today. If this collective approach is taken, the Russian army in Ukraine could be crushed just as we crushed the Iraqi army in Desert Storm.

It’s time to show the Americans their services are no longer required. Then when the war is over, we can look to promote the Euro as the new global reserve currency. No harm in ambition I say.

We need to believe in ourselves. It’s time to get the job done and show the world FAFO. There’s only one village idiot in this town and it’s not Zelenskyy.

These words are as relevant today as the day on which I wrote them. As a result of failures not just from the US, but the European coalition, we remain in a holding pattern that is resulting in more and more civilian deaths and the destruction of Ukrainian infrastructure. Let’s be very clear, WE HAVE ALL FAILED THE UKRAINIAN PEOPLE. Because we failed to act, thousands of innocent civilians have lost their lives, and that breaks my heart.

The key driver for this failure is a man who will today hold a meeting with the president of Ukraine in the very office in which he berated and humiliated him just three days after the speech by Mette Frederiksen. It was a disgraceful act of disrespect for a giant of a leader who made Trump look like a spoiled child unable to get his way. Let’s be in no doubt, the meeting was for no other reason than to extort rare earth minerals and energy resources from the victim of an unprovoked invasion by Russia of a US ally and sovereign nation. Trump had no interest in stopping the bloodshed, which would merely be a byproduct of his extortion.

From the moment in 2019 when Zelensky refused to help him create a false narrative about non-existent corruption by Joe Biden, which ultimately led to his impeachment. The only thing on Trump’s mind has been vengeance and retribution, no matter how long it took. Nothing ever gets in the way of Trump retribution, regardless of the human cost.

On 23rd February, two days before the speech by Mette Frederiksen, Joseph Gedeon reported in Politico :

[Trump said] “I went in yesterday and there was a television screen, and I said, ‘This is genius.’ Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine — of Ukraine — Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful,” Trump said in a radio interview with “The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show.” “He used the word ‘independent’ and ‘we’re gonna go out and we’re gonna go in and we’re gonna help keep peace.’ You gotta say that’s pretty savvy.”

He praised Putin’s invasion of Ukraine as “genius” and “savvy.” I’m not sure what more anyone needs as proof that the man now claiming to represent the best interests of Ukraine is the fox in the hen house. This was an action by Putin that Trump had no problem with, and he lined up Republican support AGAINST military aid for Ukraine, not just to hurt Zelensky, but to damage the Biden Administration, which was doing their job of protecting US interests in Europe.

With the permission of the murdered family featured in this image, I made a short film at the time that included their brutal murder. Their only crime was to be Ukrainian.

I would be grateful if you could watch this film out of respect for the catastrophic sacrifices of the Ukrainian people. Respect was not shown by Trump, who now wants to carve up their homeland as a real estate transaction, with the brutal thug who has murdered so many of their fellow citizens. It’s time not to look away, to watch is to feel intense anger and drown in an ocean of pain for those targeted by a man who a US president applauded down a red carpet laid by US soldiers on their hands and knees at the foot of the steps from the plane of a war criminal. A man who had placed bounties on the heads of US soldiers was welcomed like a conquering hero who made his host look like a subjugated lapdog.

You owe it to yourself to be fully informed about what has gone before, and I would reiterate the importance of supporting independent information outlets such as Truth Matters, because without your support, truth will die on the vine.

From the point of the invasion, the right began echoing Kremlin talking points and propagating conspiracy theories concerning corruption on the part of Zelensky; it was relentless as they slowly undermined support in the US for Ukraine. It has been systematic from then until now, and this has resulted in a significant loss of life.

Once Trump was back in the White House, the pressure just grew as time and time again, Trump has made up fantasy numbers of how much aid the US has provided to Ukraine, making it clear that it no longer represented aid, but was now a debt. Not only was there no legal justification for this change of position, but this was money already appropriated in bipartisan bills by Congress. For those wanting to verify the ACTUAL funding provided by the US, please visit the site of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. All the data is tracked and documented to refute Trump’s nonsensical claims.

Ukraine and, in particular, Zelensky have been subjected to a concerted campaign to exploit, extort and undermine public confidence in his leadership based on deliberate falsehoods and lies. Ukraine's current position is directly due to the obstructive behaviour of this administration. Trump has long sought a quick fix at any cost to secure the Nobel Peace Prize, which he is desperate to win; he is now calling up Norwegian ministers to express his desire. This is a man void of moral decency and integrity, who is complicit in the deaths of thousands of Ukrainians as a result of his deliberately obstructive behaviour.

I documented that too:

The thing about the military aid is that it takes time from announcement to delivery. In a report on Critical Questions by Mark F. Cancian and Chris H. Park for the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), which I highly recommend you read. The Q & A notes:

Although the Biden administration committed all the money that Congress had appropriated for military equipment, around $29 billion of that equipment had not been delivered. This occurred because of the delay between announcing an aid package and its delivery to Ukraine; that delay varies according to the delivery mechanism.

It is this undelivered portion that Trump has constantly been using as his leverage to extort Zelensky. It is essential to note that these funds have already been appropriated for military aid to Ukraine. Still, Trump time and time again used it as leverage against Zelensky, like dangling food in front of a starving person and leaving Zelensky to beg for help as his soldiers are dying on the battlefield with insufficient ammunition.

As shown in the graph below, deliveries initially increased, but after Trump entered the White House, they tapered off, as noted in the subsequent graph. It is also noteworthy that the last delivery of weapons to NATO was on a commercial basis, suggesting they may not fall within the remit of the appropriated funds. Once again, Trump has turned military aid into a profit centre.

So, what exactly is the US bringing to the table? From my perspective, it seems to be absolutely nothing. If you'd like to look at how the aid has been persistently used as leverage, please take a look at the timetable below.

Trump’s transactional nature is one thing, but when that transactional approach rewards the aggressor, then he is working for the enemy, not the victim, and that is precisely where we are in this moment. He is unable to negotiate in good faith because his sole aim is to rescue a murderous war criminal and reward him for his aggression. This is simply untenable.

It is breathtaking to me that the NATO coalition has become a subjugated irrelevance in this shared power grab by Trump and Putin. Trump once again has used the US support for NATO as leverage to exclude the coalition from negotiations, despite them having contributed more aid to Ukraine than the US. The fear is that Trump will leave NATO, and that is not a price the coalition is willing to endure, so they sit there like the obedient puppy Trump believes them to be.

I can say without fear of contradiction that, despite the US having been the only beneficiary of Article 5 after 9/11, Trump has no intention of honouring it in the event of Russia invading one of the small member states. I also believe that during the negotiations ahead on the Ukraine conflict, he will use the threat again of leaving NATO to get Europe to fall in line. He is also likely to threaten tariffs, too, because that’s who he is.

I am telling you now, Europe and the coalition need to put a stop to this madness because the US is far from being in a position of strength. It is carrying $37 trillion of debt, and about to suffer rampaging inflation as its trade deficit grows. It will struggle to service its debt this year, given it’s paying close to a trillion dollars just servicing annual debt interest. The coalition holds significant amounts of US debt, and a coordinated sell-off would instantly throw the US economy into recession. The US Industrial Military Complex is heavily reliant on arms sales to coalition members. Some have already cancelled F-35 orders, and now, as European Arms manufacturers ramp up production to meet Trump’s own 5% of GDP target, the US position in Europe diminishes by the day, as arms procurement is shifted to European manufacturers.

As I said in my X post, I believe that in the absence of trust that the US has any intention to step up if Russia attacks a member state, maybe it’s time to cut the ties, remove the air bases from Europe, suspend intelligence sharing and build a new security framework led by The UK, Germany and France. It would be a massive step, but I believe this is the only way Trump will grasp his military vulnerability. Without NATO, the US would undoubtedly lose any conflict with China, a scenario many military strategists believe is more likely than not.

I believe now it’s time to be bold and say to Trump, it’s either us or it’s Putin, make your choice, and we are prepared to deal with the consequences if you choose the latter. The alarming thing about all this is that his own Secretary of State knows what Trump is doing is wrong, but he has chosen his career and political self-preservation over the security interests of the American people. That makes him a traitor, plain and simple.

This is a man who wears the death of every Ukrainian on his face. His dedication and service to his country is beyond articulation. He will be remembered in history in my opinion, as a man who rose beyond Churchillian status to prove that there is no reward in submitting to thugs and charlatans, and that true reward lies in never giving up in the face of adversity. Alongside Zelensky, Trump will be remembered as an insignificant skid mark on history who sold out the moral standing of a once great power in the service of greed and self enrichment.

I'm waiting for the meeting today and will share my thoughts tomorrow on the outcome. For me, this is a historical inflexion point and an actual test of European resolve in this new era of geopolitical extortion and protection racketeering by a convicted criminal in the White House. It’s time for Europe to grow a pair and step up.