Trump/Zelensky meeting? Cue the Godfather and Sollozzo

Kansas - Carry On Wayward Son.

Friday afternoon’s labored flight home from Kansas was interrupted by a flurry of texts like:

OMG! ARE YOU WATCHING THIS??! - HOLY CRAP! - DUUUUDE…this is messed up… DAD you have GOT to see this…

I just wanted a nap. Like a ten, fifteen minute end of the week power nap to restore the battery.

Wait. Stop. What?

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. What is it now?

Or as Michele likes to say, “Oh jiminy hootie…”

They were supposed to sign a deal.

Nope. The game was on and what a game it was.

<enter social steroid meth media>

Reminiscent of the U.S. vs Canada hockey game last night in which three fights broke out in the first NINE seconds, President Donald Trump and President Volodomyr Zelensky dropped gloves.

BUT. WHY.

Just sign the deal.

A DEAL?

You know like Thank God It’s Friday. TGIF! How about a beer after?

Or as Don Rickles’ character “Crapgame” in Kelley’s Heroes said, “A deal deal. Maybe the guy’s Republican…business is business, right?”

How do we make sense of it all???

Cue The Godfather.

It always lands.

Yes, of course - the meeting between Godfather Vito Corleone and Virgil “the Turk” Sollozzo.

Sollozzo wants money and protection, but his business is too dangerous for the Godfather.

<enter Vice Godfather Sonny Corleone>

Now, watch the full Oval Office meeting between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky - CLICK HERE (thanks C-SPAN)

Unlike the Godfather and Sollozzo meeting, this one was not predetermined.

They actually had agreed to the terms. It was done.

For the first forty minutes it’s what one would have expected with the two presidents engaging in seemingly aligned but tense conversation as an unscripted rambling preamble to signing the ALREADY negotiated deal.

As the meeting wears on, Zelensky is obviously tired physically. He has long, labored blinks that any opposing poker player would love to see.

But this was not Texas Hold ‘Em, this was Trump Hold ‘Em.

Trump held all the cards (an unfortunate idiom to use in intense cross language moments like this) and he played them like the base of his party and much of America wants him to - with house money.

Our money. Trump gets that. We don’t have much room in our fiscal reality and he wants the U.S. taxpayer made whole. Easy math if you’re mathing at home. And we all are.

They didn't meet at a neutral site to sign this deal.

This wasn’t in Oslo.

This was in the Oval.

The office of President of the United States of America.

He came here. Flew all that way. Get in, get out, and go home.

Zelensky had one job - sign the deal, shake the hand, and thank the President.

Smile. Big smile, everyone. Big smile.

One does not have to like or dislike Trump to know that the U.S. interests in Ukraine are only going to go but so far because, as Trump stated, World War 3 is not entirely off the table.

When Vladimir Putin even whispers tactical nukes, every pair of shorts in the West gets a vapor lock.

And rightly so.

We have never done security guarantees to Ukraine for that very reason. Well, not since the original one in 1994 that Russia ended up violating anyway…

The Oval Office is not THAT big and the West Wing is surprisingly compact.

High ceilings for sure, but with all those people and all that equipment one thing was sure to rise over time - the room’s temperature.

Given that, the stakes, and the adrenaline, this was a recipe for disaster.

Then pounced the new Vice President J.D. Vance reprising his role as Sonny Corleone in the famous Sollozzo meeting and all hell broke loose.

Hopefully, Trump steered the 2028 candidate for his job back to square:

We still need the deal to go through.

But remember, it was Barzini (Putin) all along.

Let’s hope that whoever follows Trump knows this.

P.S. Before one comes down too hard on Zelensky or the new Vice President, remember the Holomodor - real Ukrainian history per Claude A.I.

The Holodomor was a man-made famine that occurred in Soviet Ukraine from 1932 to 1933, during which millions of Ukrainians died of starvation. The term "Holodomor" comes from Ukrainian words meaning "to kill by starvation."

Key aspects of the Holodomor include:

1. It occurred during Joseph Stalin's campaign of forced collectivization of agriculture and was exacerbated by policies specifically targeting Ukraine.

2. The Soviet government confiscated grain and other food from Ukrainian peasants, imposed impossibly high grain procurement quotas, prevented people from leaving famine-stricken areas, and rejected foreign aid.

3. Death toll estimates vary, with most historians placing the number between 3.5 and 5 million, though some estimates range higher.

4. Many countries, including Ukraine, recognize the Holodomor as a genocide against the Ukrainian people, though there remains some historical debate about whether it meets the strict legal definition of genocide.

5. For decades, the Soviet Union denied the famine's existence or severity and suppressed information about it. Documentation and recognition of the Holodomor became more widespread after Ukraine gained independence in 1991.

The Holodomor remains a deeply significant and traumatic event in Ukrainian history and national memory.