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Trump’s America is falling into autocracy and advocates for Russian victory in Ukraine - it’s time the West saw this and dealt with it, Sam Kiley world affairs editor explains how
Saturday 22 November 2025 12:35 GMTComments
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It may feel like a rip in the time space continuum. On one side of the tear, there’s a universe in which America is run by a wannabe king who uses the invasion of an ally as an opportunity for profit, who lies, cheats and backstabs his friends. On the other, are America’s closest comrades insisting that Washington’s a force for good.
There is only one reality, and it is time to confront it.
America is no longer the leader of the west, let alone the rest of the world. It’s got the biggest armed forces. It has the biggest economy and the widest cultural reach the world has ever seen. But its democracy is collapsing and it has been captured by a cult of ignorant grifters.
They are in bed with tech-bro fantasists who believe they can control the media and bend minds, while genetically engineering their way to a master class ruling the world as high-technocrats.
Europe’s leaders are gathering in Johannesburg for the G20. They’re going into huddles at the meeting to decide how to react to Donald Trump’s latest pro-Russian plan for Ukraine to surrender, and American business (the Trump organisation?) to profit.
The question they need to ask themselves is whether now is the time to stop bothering with the grovelling and flattery, in return for keeping the Toddler-in-Chief from throwing a king-sized tantrum?
open image in galleryDonald Trump greets Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska last August. The new ‘peace’ plan has been roundly criticised for favouring Russia (AFP/Getty)The answer, according to a senior western source intimately involved the real-world security of Europe and the UK, is to “just tell him to fuck off”.
Sorely tempting, of course.
And the source is right to explain that the time is now overdue for Europe, Canada, the UK and many other allies to establish military and intelligence independence from the US.
Why? Because the US is so busy eviscerating its own democracy that within a year it will more closely resemble the Russia of Vladimir Putin than anything that would be recognised as a western democracy.
Trump has been defoliating every branch of America’s complex constitutional structures. The judiciary itself, the lawyers that serve it, the security and military forces, his Republican Party, the federal reserve bank and the media are all being turned to an authoritarian agenda that will endure among his heirs, political or personal.
Trump’s 28-point plan for “peace” in Ukraine was cooked up between Steve Witkoff, his envoy to the Middle East and Moscow. Witkoff is witless. He uses his personal cell phone on trips to Moscow and Tel Aviv where its contents are doubtless plundered in real time.
His pro-Russian plan for Ukraine was agreed with Kirill Alexandrovich Dmitriev, a Russian businessman and CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, which has at least $10 billion Russian government funds to “co-invest” in the Russian economy. Dmitriev has been sanctioned by the US treasury – doing business with him is illegal for an American but Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law was also there.
open image in galleryHead of the Russian Direct Investment Fund and Russian special presidential envoy for economic cooperation with foreign countries, Kirill Dmitriev, talks to Steve Witkoff in April this year (Reuters)The US side of this group was also behind the Gaza Ceasefire deal. There has been no ceasefire in Gaza, but the deal, worked out with Israel but no Palestinian participation, will (if it works) effectively outsource the Israeli occupation, or control over, Gaza to foreign armies with no long-term prospect of peace for either Israeli or Palestinians.
No one is telling Trump that. For a sense of why not, here’s part of what Witkoff said during a sycophantic show session of the US cabinet in August this year:
“Your team is nothing short of incredible and there's only one thing I wish for, that that Nobel committee finally gets its act together and realises that you are the single finest candidate since the Nobel Peace - this Noble Award - was ever talked about, to receive that reward.
“Your success is game changing out in the world today and I hope everybody one day wakes up and realises that. Thank you, sir.”
Witkoff knows how to handle Trump, he thinks.
By saying the 47th President is a finer candidate than Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama, Elie Wiesel and Mother Theresa, he hopes to ensure his role at the centre of things, no matter how little he comprehends of them. He also knows that along with the flattery, Trump wants to see a profit.
The Ukraine offer is for Putin to be given the pre-prepared defensive lines that Ukraine has built in its fortress belt in Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson provinces without a shot fired.
In return Ukraine will give up its long-range weapons, halve its armed forces, forever forsake joining Nato, and sign up to Belarus-style vassal status under the Kremlin.
And the new bit of this old Russian set of demands is that American companies get 50 per cent of the profits from a $100 billion reconstruction fund for Ukraine, using frozen Kremlin assets.
That’s on top of the extortionate minerals deal that Zelensky signed with the Trump administration which promises American control of 50 per cent of the profits from Ukraine’s as yet untapped mineral resources.
open image in galleryUkraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky attends a joint press conference with Turkey's President following their meeting at the Presidential Complex in Ankara on November 19, 2025 (AFP/Getty)Both are great deals for Russia. And for Trump’s industry buddies. Moscow smashes it, America rebuilds it, and Ukraine pays protection money to Washington – forever.
Trump has imposed next Thursday for Ukraine to sign up. It’s unclear what the “or-else” can be because the US no longer supplies Ukraine with weapons.
Intelligence support does come from Washington – but the European Union, the UK and others have been working hard to prepare Ukraine for when this flow of critical data is cut, because America cannot be trusted as an ally.
Kaja Kallas, the former prime minister of Estonia, set out a route to a smarter way to deal with Trump’s plan to profit from Ukraine’s surrender – without ever mentioning America’s president herself.
“Our position has not changed. For any peace plan to succeed, it has to be supported by Ukraine, and it has to be supported by Europe. If Russia really wanted peace, they would have accepted the unconditional ceasefire offer already in March.
“Russia's hybrid actions in Europe are increasingly brazen. Russia is committing state sponsored terrorism,” she said, adding that the EU, which has no forces, has “many ways we can respond”.
One of these should be not to tell Trump to eff off. As every parent knows when a toddler is heading to tantrum, the best way to bring it back to reality… is to ignore it.
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