That Donald Trump’s vision of the presidency is less statesman and more CEO of USA Inc. is evident in the terms of the deal he tried to foist on Ukraine last week. As talks begin between the US and Russia in Saudi Arabia, a leak reveals that Trump wanted Kyiv to sign away much of its mineral resources to Washington. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has rejected this piece of blatant economic colonialism, but the Ukrainians expect further such demands to come.
This is the essence of Trump’s brave new world
The draft frames this as the establishment of a joint investment fund such that ‘hostile parties to the conflict do not benefit from the reconstruction of Ukraine’ – although after last week, one might wonder if this means Europe rather than Russia. The plan would in effect grant the Americans considerable control over not just the rare earths and other minerals Trump has already been eyeing up, but oil, gas and national infrastructure.
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