Politico shouldn’t be surprised that many question its credibility when its senior foreign affairs correspondent, Nahal Toosi, suffers from extreme loathing of Trump. She made no effort to hide it on Tuesday as you can see in her story about Trump negotiating an end to the bloody Ukraine War in “The Existential Meets the Absurd in Latest Ukraine Talks.”
Absurd? You don’t even have to start reading the story itself to get a strong whiff of hate from the subtitle sneering at Trump: “Ukraine knows exactly how empty a pledge from Trump can be, and that it will have to adapt.”
Toosi wastes no time expressing her utter disdain for President Trump in the body of her story which comes right away in the first two paragraphs:
It’s hard enough to negotiate with an enemy you do not trust. But imagine not being able to trust your most critical ally, either.
When President Donald Trump said Monday that he’d offer Ukraine “very good security” as he pushed Kyiv to come to some sort of truce with Russia, many Ukrainians watched knowing that he may not keep his word. Trump is known, after all, for constantly changing his mind, including about how much he admires Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
The rest of her article consists primarily of Toosi bad-mouthing Trump. Here are but a few sad examples plucked from her cascade of contempt:
Ukrainians obviously cannot trust Putin, a man with a long history of broken promises. But they also cannot trust Trump, another man with a long history of broken promises.
…But, despite some harsh words for Putin earlier this year, Trump seems once again intent on impressing the Kremlin chief. He rolled out the red carpet when they met in Alaska last week.
…But Trump’s adoption of Putin’s talking points on Ukraine, including saying Moscow won’t give up the Crimean region, and his on-again, off-again support of the Ukrainian cause, means that, for Kyiv, the diplomatic field is arguably more unpredictable than the battlefield.
…Many U.S. presidents have broken promises before, of course. But Trump is unusual in how often and sometimes how quickly he reverses course. Foreign officials say it makes it hard for their countries to prepare strategies for dealing with Washington.
This attitude from Toosi towards Trump should come as no surprise to those familiar with her past rantings. Last December she oozed condescension towards the then President-Elect by suggesting he could be fooled into getting involved in a military quagmire in Syria by waving screenshots of investment portfolios in front of him as an incentive as if they were the Trump version of shiny trinkets.
Toosi closed with a mic-drop quote:
Hanna Hopko, a former Ukrainian lawmaker who travels the world arguing her country’s case, warned that Trump’s inconsistency in backing Ukraine has wide fallout.
“I’m laughing, honestly laughing,” she said when I asked about how Ukrainians could trust Trump’s promises. “It’s about American credibility. It’s not about Trump. You guys are losing credibility worldwide.”
