IN the White House, the Oval Office often led to divided bedrooms. President F.D. Roosevelt preferred Lucy Mercer to his wife, Eleanor. J.F. Kennedy shared Marilyn Monroe with other admirers. L.B. Johnson bragged about being more promiscuous than JFK. Bill Clinton had that famous fling with Monica Lewinsky.
Clinton, in his memoir, Citizen (2024), makes a reference to her, wishing her “nothing but the best”. His wife, Hillary R. Clinton, in her Something Lost, Something Found (also 2024), avoids mentioning her.
The Clintons, learning from Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter, wrote their books separately. The Carters had collaborated on one volume, Everything to Gain. They argued constantly. It almost destroyed their marriage, so they compromised by prefacing each paragraph in it with ‘J’ and ‘R’.
Jimmy Carter lived to be 100. During his retirement, he wrote 32 best-sellers, on topics including foreign policy, religious theory, Christianity, even children’s books.
Trump has the world massaging his ego.
Bill Clinton’s post-retirement memoirs cover 23-plus years. While his account of the humanitarian activities of his Clinton Foundation are interesting, the reader is gripped by his view on Hillary’s years as Obama’s secretary of state and then her battle with Donald Trump for the presidency in 2016.
Recalling FBI director Comey’s unconscionable suppression, during the Trump/ Clinton campaign, of information regarding the investigation into Trump’s connections with Russian President Putin, Bill Clinton admitted he was so angry he could not sleep for two years.
Clinton deplored the attack on the US Capitol on Jan 6, 2021, after Trump’s defeat by Biden, evidence that Trump is a “sore loser and wannabe dictator”; in Steven Levitsky’s words, “an authoritarian autocrat on steroids”. The Clintons, lifelong Democrats, still believe that “while democracy can be periodically delayed, it cannot be permanently denied”. They admit, though, it will be in limbo for the next four years.
Meanwhile, Trump has the world massaging his ego. Leaders flew into Washington, DC, to kiss the presidential ring. First, Israeli PM Netanyahu came to collect Gaza. Next, President Macron reminded Trump of the US-French connection over the centuries. Then came British PM Keir Starmer. He had obviously read his Benjamin Disraeli: “Everyone likes flattery; and when you come to royalty you should lay it on with a trowel.” Starmer shovelled his with an invitation from King Charles III for an unprecedented second state visit by Trump. (Queen Elizabeth II had found Trump “very rude”).
On Feb 28, it was Ukraine’s turn. President Zelensky, instead of lauding Trump’s efforts to achieve peace between him and Putin, entered into a slanging match with both Trump and his tutored VP Vance, who demanded Zelensky express gratitude for Trump’s support.
The meeting ended with an unrepentant Zelensky being escorted out of the White House, an unsigned minerals agreement, and future US commitment to Ukraine in doubt. Over the past three years, Ukraine has received over $380 billion worth of aid, including $118bn in direct military aid from “EU institutions, 45 sovereign countries, companies, and other parties”.
Perhaps at the White House’s instigation, Starmer on Sunday summoned an emergency conclave in London of 18 leaders from Canada, Germany, Spain, Italy, Denmark, Türkiye, Nato, and the EU.
Its outcome? Nato states must increase their military expenditure, up to three per cent of their GDP. Starmer, out of their weak flesh, fashioned a new ‘coalition of the willing’. The EU wants Ukraine to become an indigestible ‘steel porcupine’, to deter Russia. And Zelensky has been ‘persuaded’ to sign the minerals and precious earths deal with the US.
What is in this proposed agreement that Zelensky has deliberately misread? Its draft proposes to establish “a reconstruction investment fund with joint US and Ukraine ownership”. Ukraine will contribute 50pc of all revenues earned in the future from Ukrainian government-owned natural resources. It excludes existing revenue sources in Ukraine. Mining of such minerals takes time (about 18 years) and is capital-intensive. The US expects Ukraine to mobilise its own funding.
The agreement is the doorway to a permanent US presence — commercial rather than military — in Ukraine. That would satisfy Putin. Trump refuses to accede to Zelensky’s demand for a Putin-proof security which Nato could have provided, had it granted Ukraine membership. Now Trump regards Zelensky, not Putin, as the ‘steel porcupine’, the obstacle to peace.
Once the minerals agreement has been signed, a ceasefire arranged between Russia and the Ukraine, and Trump has arm-twisted a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize, Zelenksy and his signature fatigues will go the same way as that other mannequin — Hamid Karzai and his distinctive Afghan chogha.
The writer is an author.
Published in Dawn, March 6th, 2025
