In February of 1945, the leaders of Great Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union — Sir Winston Churchill, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Josef Stalin — met at Yalta on the Black Sea coast of the Crimean Peninsula to discuss the final stages of World War II and the postwar reorganization of Europe. By May 8th, the war in Europe was over.

Today, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has arrived in Palm Beach, Florida, for yet another meeting with Donald Trump. And once again, Trump chose to precede the meeting with a one-on-one, hour-long phone call to Vladimir Putin — presumably to gauge whether there has been any modification of Putin’s position regarding settlement of his so-called “special military operation” in Ukraine, but more likely to solidify their own agreement on how to convince Zelensky to accede to Putin’s principal territorial and security demands.

And — in sharp contrast to the gathering of equals at Yalta — this is what Zelensky has walked into:

Instead of the tripartite meeting he has been requesting — which Putin has steadfastly refused — Zelensky has once more been led into a viper’s nest of eight venomous reptiles hell-bent to claim credit for ending an unjust war, regardless of the ultimate cost to the victims or the future security of Europe.

Aligned against Zelensky, in addition to Trump (fourth from left, with his chin characteristically stuck up in the air), were Secretary of State Marco Rubio; Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth; special envoy (and real estate mogul) Steve Witkoff; Trump son-in-law (and fellow real-estate guru) Jared Kushner; Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine; General Services Administration’s federal acquisitions service commissioner Josh Gruenbaum (for whatever reason); and — most poisonous of all — White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller (second from right, glaring menacingly at the photographer).

That is what passes for diplomacy at Mar-a-Lago.

The day is far from over, and anything could happen. I will, of course, be following events closely; but at the moment, I don’t have a good feeling about this.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
12/28/25