French senator Claude Malhuret gave a powerful speech about the implications for Europe of the reversal of American policy toward Ukraine. Malhuret is the former mayor of the town of Vichy as well as a doctor and an epidemiologist, and the former head of Doctors Without Borders. He is a member of the center-right Horizons party representing the district of Allier. The speech, whose dark urgency and stark rhetorical force made it a social-media sensation, follows, translated and adapted by The Atlantic.

Europe is at a crucial juncture of its history. The American shield is slipping away, Ukraine risks being abandoned, and Russia is being strengthened. Washington has become the court of Nero: an incendiary emperor, submissive courtiers, and a buffoon on ketamine tasked with purging the civil service.

This is a tragedy for the free world, but it’s first and foremost a tragedy for the United States. [President Donald] Trump’s message is that being his ally serves no purpose, because he will not defend you, he will impose more tariffs on you than on his enemies, and he will threaten to seize your territories, while supporting the dictators who invade you.

The king of the deal is showing that the art of the deal is lying prostrate. He thinks he will intimidate China by capitulating to Russian President Vladimir Putin, but China’s President Xi Jinping, faced with such wreckage, is undoubtedly accelerating his plans to invade Taiwan.

Never in history has a president of the United States surrendered to the enemy. Never has one supported an aggressor against an ally, issued so many illegal decrees, and sacked so many military leaders in one go. Never has one trampled on the American Constitution, while threatening to disregard judges who stand in his way, weaken countervailing powers, and take control of social media.

This is not a drift to illiberalism; this is the beginning of the seizure of democracy. Let us remember that it only took one month, three weeks, and two days to bring down the Weimar Republic and its constitution.

I have confidence in the solidity of American democracy, and the country is already protesting. But in one month, Trump has done more harm to America than in the four years of his last presidency. We were at war with a dictator; now we are fighting against a dictator supported by a traitor.

Eight days ago, at the very moment when Trump was patting French President Emmanuel Macron on the back at the White House, the United States voted at the United Nations with Russia and North Korea against the Europeans demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops.

Two days later, in the Oval Office, the draft-dodger was giving moral and strategic lessons to the Ukrainian president and war hero, Volodymyr Zelensky, before dismissing him like a stable boy, ordering him to submit or resign.

That night, he took another step into disgrace by halting the delivery of promised weapons. What should we do in the face of such betrayal? The answer is simple: Stand firm.

And above all: make no mistake. The defeat of Ukraine would be the defeat of Europe. The Baltic states, Georgia, and Moldova are already on the list. Putin’s goal is to return to the Yalta Agreement, where half the continent was ceded to Stalin.

The countries of the global South are waiting for the outcome of the conflict to decide whether they should continue to respect Europe, or whether they are now free to trample it.

What Putin wants is the end of the world order the United States and its allies established 80 years ago, in which the first principle was the prohibition of acquiring territory by force.

This idea is at the very foundation of the UN, where today Americans vote in favor of the aggressor and against the aggressed, because the Trumpian vision coincides with Putin’s: a return to spheres of influence, where great powers dictate the fate of small nations.

Greenland, Panama, and Canada are mine. Ukraine, the Baltics, and Eastern Europe are yours. Taiwan and the South China Sea are his.

At the Mar-a-Lago dinner parties of golf-playing oligarchs, this is called “diplomatic realism.”

We are therefore alone. But the narrative that Putin cannot be resisted is false. Contrary to Kremlin propaganda, Russia is doing poorly. In three years, the so-called second army in the world has managed to grab only crumbs from a country with about a quarter its population.

With interest rates at 21 percent, the collapse of foreign currency and gold reserves, and a demographic crisis, Russia is on the brink. The American lifeline to Putin is the biggest strategic mistake ever made during a war.

The shock is violent, but it has one virtue. The Europeans are coming out of denial. They understood in a single day in Munich that the survival of Ukraine and the future of Europe are in their hands, and that they have three imperatives.

Accelerate military aid to Ukraine to compensate for the American abandonment, so that Ukraine can hang on, and of course to secure its and Europe’s place at the negotiating table.

This will be costly. It will require ending the taboo on using Russia’s frozen assets. It will require bypassing Moscow’s accomplices within Europe itself through a coalition that includes only willing countries, and the United Kingdom of course.

Second, demand that any agreement include the return of kidnapped children and prisoners, as well as absolute security guarantees. After Budapest, Georgia, and Minsk, we know what Putin’s agreements are worth. These guarantees require sufficient military force to prevent a new invasion.

Finally, and most urgently because it will take the longest, we must build that neglected European defense, which has relied on the American security umbrella since 1945 and which was shut down after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The task is Herculean, but history books will judge the leaders of today’s democratic Europe by its success or failure.

Friedrich Merz has just declared that Europe needs its own military alliance. This is a recognition that France has been right for decades in advocating for strategic autonomy.

Now it must be built. This will require massive investment to replenish the European Defense Fund beyond the Maastricht debt criteria, harmonize weapons and munitions systems, accelerate European Union membership for Ukraine, which now has the leading army in Europe, rethink the role and conditions of nuclear deterrence based on French and British capabilities, and relaunch missile-shield and satellite programs.

Europe can become a military power again only by becoming an industrial power again. But the real rearmament of Europe is its moral rearmament.

We must convince public opinion in the face of war weariness and fear, and above all in the face of Putin’s collaborators on the far right and far left.

They say they want peace. What neither they nor Trump says is that their peace is capitulation, the peace of defeat, the replacement of a de Gaullian Zelensky by a Ukrainian Pétain under Putin’s thumb.The peace of collaborators who, for three years, have refused to support the Ukrainians in any way.

Is this the end of the Atlantic alliance? The risk is great. But in recent days, Zelensky’s public humiliation and all the crazy decisions taken over the past month have finally stirred Americans into action. Poll numbers are plummeting. Republican elected officials are greeted by hostile crowds in their constituencies. Even Fox News is becoming critical.

The Trumpists are no longer at the height of glory. They control the executive branch, Congress, the Supreme Court, and social media. But in American history, the supporters of freedom have always won. They are starting to raise their heads.

The fate of Ukraine will be decided in the trenches, but it also depends on those who defend democracy in the United States, and here, on our ability to unite Europeans and find the means for our common defense, to make Europe the power it once was and hesitates to become again.

Our parents defeated fascism and communism at the cost of great sacrifice. The task of our generation is to defeat the totalitarianisms of the 21st century. Long live free Ukraine, long live democratic Europe.

https://www.amazon.com/Africircle-AfriPrime/dp/B0D2M3F2JT

Fox host asks Trump whether he is ‘comfortable’ that ‘Ukraine may not survive’

Fox News host Maria Bartiromo pressed President Trump on whether he is “comfortable” with the idea that Ukraine “may not survive” the war with Russia.

Trump sat down for an interview with Bartiromo to discuss his tariff plan, and how his administration is off to a busy start. Bartiromo said she spoke with Polish President Andrzej Duda, who had doubts about the ability of Ukraine to survive.

“Are you comfortable with that? The fact that you walked away, and Ukraine may not survive?” Bartiromo asked on “Sunday Morning Futures.”

“Well, it may not survive anyway,” Trump replied. “But, you know, we have some weaknesses with Russia. It takes two. Look, it was not going to happen, that war, and it happened. So, now we’re stuck with this mess.”

Trump’s recent Ukraine correspondence has concerned the international community.

A fiery meeting ended with shouting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Trump in the Oval Office, overturning the rare earth mineral deal that was set to start ceasefire talks.

Trump administration officials have met with Russian leaders as they work to find a deal, essentially sidelining Ukraine.

European leaders reacted with shock, looking to find a way forward without the U.S. even as Trump administration officials say there would likely be a way forward.

Bartiromo asked Trump if his team was treating both Russia and Ukraine similarly. He previously said it was “an interesting question.”

“I think so,” the president said.

“Are you favoring one over the other?” she pressed.

“They’re very different places, OK? Very, very different,” Trump said. “You’re talking about different levels of power. You’re talking about different parts of the world.”

https://www.amazon.com/Africircle-AfriPrime/dp/B0D2M3F2JT

Vance ramps up his clout in Trump world

Vice President Vance’s clout is on the rise, taking on the role of pot stirrer at the White House and on the world stage.

His attack dog role was on full display during an Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky when Vance confronted the foreign leader, calling him disrespectful and demanding appreciation for the billions in aid the U.S. has provided the country during its war with Russia.

Vance’s more aggressive stance – including his ruffling of feathers in Europe and a visit to the southern border – follows weeks of tech billionaire Elon Musk in the spotlight, who at times has even surpassed President Trump for attention.

“Vance had his best week since being nominated,” a source familiar with the thinking of the White House said. “Solidified himself as a go-to player with Trump and MAGA world.”

As vice president, Vance took a seat behind Trump in the House chamber during the joint address to Congress, joining in with GOP lawmakers to jeer Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) and advocate for Green’s removal from the chamber for interrupting Trump’s speech in protest.

He then traveled to the U.S.-southern border with Cabinet officials to highlight immigration, visit with patrol agents and held a press conference to talk tariffs and the border wall alongside Gov. Greg Abbott.

But Vance really stole the spotlight last Friday, when a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky went  off the rails as Vance answered a question by a reporter in which he suggested Zelensky engage in diplomacy with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

That prompted Zelensky to read off a list of aggressions taken by Putin against his country over the last decade after he asked Vance: “what kind of diplomacy, JD, are you speaking about?”

“I’m talking about the kind of diplomacy that’s going to end the destruction of your country,” Vance said as Zelensky attempted to interrupt. “Mr. President, Mr. President, with respect, I think it’s disrespectful for you to come to the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media.”

Some Republicans who spoke to The Hill about that meeting said Vance unnecessarily enflamed the talks. But MAGA world, who has increasingly been skeptical of funding for Ukraine and align with Trump’s “America first” agenda also found Vance’s behavior refreshing.

“By going all in on defending Trump’s agenda and taking the fight directly to opponents, he’s solidifying his role as the administration’s top enforcer. This isn’t just about loyalty—it’s about power. Every punch he throws for Trump boosts his own standing with the base, reinforcing his credentials as a true MAGA warrior,” said Dan Eberhart, a GOP donor.

He added, “let’s be clear: this isn’t just about today. Vance is staking his claim to the movement’s future, positioning himself as the heir apparent for when Trump steps off the stage.”

That Oval Office spat catapulted Vance into the spotlight in ways he had not been since Trump took office in January. It has instead been Musk who has taken over the limelight of the administration, in often controversial ways over how his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has partaken in radical reforms of the federal government, including dismantling entire agencies on a whim.

“There’s this sense that you got folks, Vance and Musk are examples of this, who have free license to step into the breach right, which you don’t ever see,” a source close to Trump world said. “Trump has a certain amount of tolerance for freelancing…I think Trump likes people who perform.”

But Trump’s tone has seen a slight shift this week, at least when it comes to Musk. During his second Cabinet meeting, Trump insisted that his Cabinet secretaries, not Musk, take the lead in finding cuts to their respective agencies, but added the caveat that if they didn’t do what was necessary, Musk would.

Tensions are also reportedly flaring between Musk and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has reportedly  been furious with Musk for weeks since his team closed down the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), according to reporting by The New York Times.

Meanwhile, Trump has left Vance in a tough spot when it comes to his political future. The president wouldn’t fully back Vance to be the next leader of the Republican Party during a Fox News interview leaving many to wonder just what Trump’s strategy was there. Some observers say that’s also led Vance to increase his posture.

“He’s got a pretty long leash in a different way than Musk to be the interpreter of the MAGA doctrine,” the source close to Trump world said. “I think Vance certainly will be more aggressive in his posture because of that. Because he does want to be the heir apparent.”

Vance caught the attention of GOP senators and the White House when he successfully lobbied for Trump’s more controversial Cabinet nominees – albeit behind closed doors. Vance was credited with talking them into reaching a point where they could vote yes on now-confirmed director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Health and Human Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Vance was also tapped by Trump to oversee a potential sale of the popular app TikTok ahead of the upcoming April 5 deadline.

“Vice President Vance has taken on projects, like TikTok and helping with Senate nominations, at the explicit direction of President Trump,” a source familiar with his work told The Hill. “President Trump clearly trusts the Vice President to take on challenging tasks.”

Some senators, meanwhile, are skeptical of Vance being Trump’s heir apparent and presidential hopefuls in the upper chamber will at some point start to create their own positioning for the future, the source close to Trump World described.

“I don’t think it was lost on people that when Trump was asked if Vance was his successor, he didn’t immediately embrace them,” the source said.

Meanwhile, Vance is cementing his role from multiple angles to show he can be the future of the party in 2028. He even defended Trump for declining to endorse him, arguing that its too early.

“Vance isn’t there to soften Trump, he’s there to drive the entire movement forward. To Trump, Vance is the product of what he started—young, aggressive, and fully committed to its future,” said Jordan Wood, a former Trump administration communications aide.

https://www.amazon.com/Africircle-AfriPrime/dp/B0D2M3F2JT