‘So excellent a king; that was, to this,
Hyperion to a satyr’ (Hamlet, Act I, scene 2)
We know Donald J Trump to be a nasty and vindictive man, but even so his recent outburst against Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a man that most of the world holds in high regard, comes as something of a shock; yet it should not. It is because Zelenskyy has earned the high regard of many that Trump cannot bear him.
Trump hates Zelenskyy for the same reason he hated McCain: both men rebuke him, simply by being what they are. John McCain was a decorated American war-hero, a pilot who spent five and a half years in a prison camp (during which he was tortured) after having been shot down; Trump avoided military service. For Trump, to be in proximity to McCain was to be forcefully reminded of all he was not, hence the urge to belittle him and attack his reputation:
‘He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured, okay?’
‘And very importantly, and I speak the truth, he graduated last in his class at Annapolis.’
Even when he was dead, Trump felt shamed by him, resenting that flags were flown at half-mast to honour him and calling him ‘a loser’.
‘The flag at the White House, which had been lowered to half-staff the day of McCain’s death (August 25), was raised back to full-staff at 12:01 a.m. on August 27. Trump reportedly felt that media coverage of McCain’s death was excessive given that McCain was never elected president. Following public backlash from the American Legion and AMVETS, Trump ordered the White House flag back to half-staff later on August 27. Trump issued a statement praising McCain’s service to the country, and he signed a proclamation ordering flags to be flown at half-staff until McCain’s interment.’ {Wikipedia}
Having been compelled under duress to acknowledge McCain’s service to his country and give him the honour he was due, Trump still clearly felt resentful: his pathetic whinge that the family of the man he insulted and disparaged didn’t thank him for his funeral (as if he had arranged it personally) tells you all you need to know about Trump:
‘I gave him the kind of funeral that he wanted, which as president I had to approve. I don’t care about this. I didn’t get [a] thank you. That’s OK. We sent him on the way, but I wasn’t a fan of John McCain ‘
With Zelensky, the case is similar, but with the added twist that their paths into politics are strikingly parallel: both were political outsiders, already widely known as TV personalities; both positioned themselves as anti-establishment, anti-corruption candidates.
There, of course, the similarities end: Zelensky, a genuinely popular man, was swept into power with 73% of the vote, the biggest landslide in Ukrainian electoral history; Trump, when first elected, actually lost the popular vote, and infamously refused to accept his subsequent defeat by Joe Biden. Although he has now been returned to power, he remains a deeply divisive figure, loathed and despised by at least as many as admire him. Zelenskyy, despite Trump’s false claims, still enjoys the support of the majority of the Ukrainian population.
Three years ago this month, Zelenskyy became the epitome of the observation made by Admiral Halsey:
‘There are no great men, there are only great challenges that ordinary men are forced by circumstances to meet.’
After months of massing troops in preparation for invasion while denying that he had any such intention, Vladimir Putin mounted an unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine on several fronts. With what was widely supposed at the time to be an invincible Russian war-machine bearing down on the capital, Kyiv, and likely to arrive within days, Zelenskyy refused the offer of evacuation and chose to remain in the face of what appeared likely to be imminent defeat and probable execution. Instead, he donned battle fatigues and with his ministers made a point of being seen in the streets.
Can you imagine Donald J. Trump, put to the same test, responding as Zelenskyy did?
Trump hates Zelenskyy for being everything he wishes he could be – brave, popular, widely-loved and admired – but knows himself incapable of achieving; he fawns on Putin because Putin shows him that a cowardly bully who surrounds himself with yes-men can succeed if he gains access to power and determines to hang onto it without scruple.
COMPLEAT TROWZER 